Component video is one of the high-end video interfaces offered on audiovisual equipment today. It supersedes composite video and S-Video by providing greater signal clarity than either, resulting in better picture quality. The component video interface consists of three RCA or coaxial jacks, one green, one red and one blue, requiring three cables. Component video carries visual data only. Audio cables are still required.

Like composite and S-Video, component video is an analog interface, but its three cables better preserve the various elements of the videovideovideo source signal. These elements are the Y signal, which carries brightness or contrast values, and the C signal, which carries red and blue or color data. Green values are parsed by a deductive process from reading all three streams. Therefore, component video is sometimes referred to as "RGB" for red, green, blue. The component video interface is marked either Y Pr Pb or Y Cr Cb.