Component video is a video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video

Analog video

Analog video is a video signal transferred by an analog signal. An analog color video signal contains luminance, brightness and chrominance of an analog television image...

 (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Component video can be contrasted with composite video

Composite video

Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...

 (NTSC

NTSC

NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

, PAL

PAL

PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

 or SECAM

SECAM

SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....

) in which all the video information is combined into a single line-level signal that is used in analog television

Analog television

Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...

. Like composite, component-video cables do not carry audio and are often paired with audio cables.

When used without any other qualifications the term component video generally refers to analog YPbPr

YPbPr

' is a color space used in video electronics, in particular in reference to component video cables. is the analog version of the YCBCR color space; the two are numerically equivalent, but YPBPR is designed for use in analog systems whereas YCBCR is intended for digital video. cables are also...

 component video with sync on luma.
Reproducing a video signal on a display device (for example, a Cathode ray tube

Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...

) (CRT) is a straightforward process complicated by the multitude of signal sources.