Whats my Color Space? YUV -> YV12 or YUY2

[mshoward82]

Ok this is my first time posting on Doom9. But not my first time reading the posts.

Anyway, I have a question about how to tell what the actual color space is for the my videos that i'm converting.

I am using MeGUI to convert videos and have been playing around with different color space settings. I have been using the Avisynth's ConvertToYV12() and YUY2(), but after encoding the file and check the information for each, i get the same results.

It shows the color space as just YUV.
-(from my understanding YV12 and YUY2 fall under YUV. I think???)
And it also says that its still 4:2:0.
-(Also from what I have gathered, YV12 is 4:2:0 and YUY2 is 4:2:2)

So is my video color actually changing?
FYI... - x264 codec @ 1280x720

I don't know anything about this subject. I just discovered color spaces and just experimenting/playing around.

Thanks for any help.

AVS Script:
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\megui\tools\dgavcindex\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("C:\video.dga")
ConvertToYV12()

[Hagbard23]

I understand your confusion..

Nearly every DVD/BD has YV12 as colorspace - so from that viewpoint you can assume that you get 90% YV12 footage. But in fact you never know.

I would recommend that you get mediainfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/de) ...if you switch on "TEXT Mode" under "View", then you get a detailed information about your footage...including colorspace informations...it is a nice tool, that you will probably use a million times for a million reasons - i have it installed for years now and use it nearly one time a day...something i don't wanna miss anymore..

If you see 4:2:0, then you can assume, that you have YV12 footage
If you see 4:2:2, then you can assume, that you have YUY2 footage
You won't see 4:4:4 in "normal" life.

There are a couple of good articles outthere about YUV...the wikipedia article is very good.

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\megui\tools\dgavcindex\DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("C:\video.dga")
ConvertToYV12()

If your source is already 4:2:0, then you can leave out the last line...it is not neccessary and does nothing at all...

[mshoward82]

Yeah... I use Media Info and it shows YUV, 4:2:0

But i'm using ConvertToYUY2() when I encode my video and curious as to why its still showing 4:2:0 and not 4:2:2

Is the colorspace not being converted?

[Hagbard23]

In Fact (in your AviSynth Script) you want to convert to YV12 (which is senseless), and now you tell me you want to convert to YuY2. But you don't tell me why...

One Advice: Do NOT convert the Colorspaces, unless you are told to do so (mostly to RGB32 for some filtering issues and then back to YV12). The YuY2 Format is obsolete, to my opinion.

One Question: Why -exactly- do you want to convert to YUY2?

[mshoward82]

Oh thats my bad for confusing you with the Avisynth script. It was just one example. But yes i'm using the convertoYUY2. Not the YV12.
I was going back and forth.

But there was no reason to why i was changing it. I was just playing around and doing some of my own testing. Filling my curiousity.

But if YV12 is the better choice I'm fine with sticking with that. I know I get prompted to use the ConvertoYV12 in some cases.
I just wanted to actually see the difference for myself between the two. But my Media Info kept telling me the same info even when i used ConverttoYUY2.(YUV, 4:2:0)
More interested in why it wasn't converting. Or showing it as converted.

[manono]

Because it's being converted back to YV12 during the encoding? As Hagbard23 said, don't mess with the colorspaces unless you have to.

To find the colorspace at any given point in the script add in:

Info()