Color depth, also called bit depth, refers to the number of bits used to represent the color of each pixel in a video frame. An 8-bit color depth allows 256 distinct levels per color channel, producing approximately 16.7 million possible colors. Higher bit depths such as 10-bit or 12-bit allow finer gradations between colors, resulting in smoother gradients and more accurate color reproduction, which is increasingly important in HDR video streaming for capturing scenes with wide tonal ranges.