Video Production – Digital Video Video pixels are arranged in rows or lines from side to side and these lines are stacked one on top of another from the bottom of the screen to the top. These pixels are the smallest viewable piece of information in a digital video image. In the USA, standard video displays 720 pixels per line and 486 lines per picture. Video pixels are rectangular in shape (taller than wide) which is why a graphic created with square computer pixels needs to be resized for video display. Component digital video uses a YUV color space which maps color and luminance in three channels. Audio is generally 48hz 16Bit stereo. Most of the common digital component video formats use the DV 5:1 compression standard. This compression enables digital video to fit on smaller less expensive tapes than uncompressed formats. The most popular digital video formats sharing this standard are DVCam, DV and Mini DV. Digital video offers many advantages over analog video. Digital video can handle a wider range of light to dark information. Digital video uses better than CD quality audio. Digital video can be imported without further compression or digitizing to non-linear editors so that there is no generational loss from original tape to finished product. Digital video simply looks better.