About 8bit RGB to 10bit YUV

[TsuZing]

Most users use 8-bit color depth monitors, so they take it for granted that recording videos should also use 8-bit. There is no point in using 10-bit because original video is only 8-bit.
Really? They made a mistake. Original color format of the computer is RGB, and video encoding uses YUV color format, so when recording a video, RGB will be converted to YUV, when playing this video, YUV will be converted to RGB. There is a deviation in the conversion, resulting in discontinuous color transitions. By increasing color depth of video encoding, we can reduce this deviation and get higher video quality.
The color format can be modified in Settings > Advanced, such as changing default NV12(8-bit) to P010(10-bit). But I want to know, when the monitor is 8bit and the color format is set to P010, whether OBS will directly convert 8bit RGB to 10bit YUV instead of converting to 8bit YUV first and then expanding to 10bit YUV. The former gets higher quality, while the latter has the same quality as 8bit YUV.
If I'm correct, OBS should remove the warning when not using HDR but selecting the P010 color format.

 

[AaronD]

The major purpose of YUV, and other non-RGB formats, is to separate brightness and color information, so that the color can be reduced to only a few bits. Nowhere near 8. This is on purpose, to reduce the amount of data that needs to be handled without grossly affecting our perception. The brightness keeps more bits than color does, because we're more sensitive to that.

Thus, non-RGB facilitates a form of lossy compression. If you really don't want that compression, then you probably have a specialized use somehow. Sure, the conversion and compression make it slightly different from what the original was, but very few people will notice, and that's usually enough for media work. It's not about bit-perfection; it's about the story being told.

 

[TsuZing]

The major purpose of YUV, and other non-RGB formats, is to separate brightness and color information, so that the color can be reduced to only a few bits. Nowhere near 8. This is on purpose, to reduce the amount of data that needs to be handled without grossly affecting our perception. The brightness keeps more bits than color does, because we're more sensitive to that.

Thus, non-RGB facilitates a form of lossy compression. If you really don't want that compression, then you probably have a specialized use somehow. Sure, the conversion and compression make it slightly different from what the original was, but very few people will notice, and that's usually enough for media work. It's not about bit-perfection; it's about the story being told.

I know eye is more sensitive to brightness, but what this results in is YUV 422/420 compression. here I only discuss RGB to YUV conversion, not 422/420 compression. I think if higher video quality is needed instead of saving storage, 10bit YUV can be used on 8bit monitor.