Prove that the equivalent number of bits per pixel for the YUV 4:2:0 scheme is 12

Question

the question is Suppose a camera has 576 lines per frame, 720 pixels per line, and a 25 Hz frame rate. The color subsampling scheme is 4:2:0. This camera applying DV compression at a constant data rate of 25 Mbits/s. Calculate the compression ratio applied to each video frame. — Osama Al-far, Jan 14 '13 at 22:51
Did someone downvote because the query is in the form of a command? Please just convert in your head. This question is very relevant to stacks and overflows when developing pixel format related code. Thanks! — Bobjt, Jul 10 '15 at 21:56

Fredrik Pihl · Answer 1 · 2013-01-15T14:46:57.053

3

The number of bits to store 4 pixels in YUV 4:2:0 is:

4*8+8+8=48 bits

i.e. 4 bytes for luma and one byte for each color plane

which gives an average of

48/4=12bpp

edited Jan 15 '13 at 14:46

answered Jan 15 '13 at 13:35

Fredrik Pihl

1 Answers1