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CD / Color

6 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this explainer3 months2020–2021 score 4
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Commenters recommend it as a dense but entertaining primer on color theory and color in video systems.

Captain Disillusion's comedic, fast-paced explainer on how color works in cameras, displays and video. It covers the biology of color perception and what it means for screens.

“I went looking for an understanding of how color works in video systems, and ran across this gem from Captain Disillusion” (HN, 2021)

2 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 1 citations · Explainers

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@umvi Sep 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Impossible Colors
I highly recommend this Captain Disillusion video about color if you want to learn more about color theory: [this video] You may have to watch the video multiple times though, because the information comes out of a firehouse.
Dense, fast-paced video on color theory worth rewatching.
@myself248 Nov 2021 Strongly recommends
on HN thread A toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
For A/V stuff, I went looking for an understanding of how color works in video systems, and ran across this gem from Captain Disillusion: [this video] His whole channel is great, though there's not a ton there, it makes sense given the staggering amount of work that goes into the visualizations of each one.
Gem explaining how color works in video systems.
@Leszek Oct 2020 Recommends
on HN thread What Color Is This? Part 2
This video from Captain Disillusion does a great job of explaining both the biological mechanism and the consequences it has on displays: [this video]
Explains the biological mechanism of color and its consequences for displays.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@zinekeller Feb 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]
Short answer: No. We (the majority anyway, as some are colourblind) only perceive lightness, reddish, greenish, and bluish. The brain uses the info and effectively synthesises the image in our brains. Long answer: Colour is a very rabbithole topic but Captain Disillusion has a summary of it ( [this video] ) and Technology Connections has a discussion ( [link] ).
Summary of how color perception works.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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