Hi.
Many Android TV streaming devices come with a YCBCR(With a number such as 22, 20, or 44) default color space setting. Is this better than RGB? I noticed that when watching HDR content, especially in the darker scenes, RGB is much brighter, while still maintaining the black detail (Because of the TV I have.)
If RGB is better, why do streaming devices come with that YCBCR by default? In your honest opinion, which is better? And which have you chosen as your default color space option?
All video content (DVD, Blu-ray, UHD Blu-ray, streaming) is encoded and stored using YCbCr 4:2:0 chroma (YCbCr is also sometimes referred to as YUV). SDR video is encoded and stored as 8-bit YCbCr 4:2:0 in the Rec. 709 color space and all current HDR video - and that includes HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision - is encoded and stored as 10-bit YCbCr 4:2:0 in the Rec. 2020 color space.
Ultimately all video output will be converted to RGB by the display device but in my opinion it is best to output the original signal (or as close to the original signal as possible) to the TV and allow it to do any chroma conversions to eliminate any additional erroneous conversions. Since converting from YCbCr 4:2:0 to YCbCr 4:4:4 or RGB is basically an upscaling process the TV is almost always going to be better at it than your Android TV box.
The best output option is YCbCr 4:2:0 but for most source devices the best available option is going to be YCbCr 4:2:2 for both 8-bit SDR and 10-bit HDR (and where a device will be changing color spaces to match content you should choose 12-bit YCbCr 4:2:2). Using 4:2:2 will offer you the greatest number of available resolutions and refresh rates over HDMI.
So for example on the Shield TV you'd want to enable Match content color space and then set your display mode to YUV 422 12-bit Rec. 709 at whatever resolution and refresh rate you want (ie. 3840x2160 59.940 Hz). The Shield will then switch automatically between 8-bit Rec. 709 output for SDR content and 10-bit Rec. 2020 output for HDR content giving you the best picture result for both types of content by displaying them in their native color space.