An apparatus comprising a first circuit, a processing circuit and a conversion circuit. The first circuit may be configured to generate a first intermediate signal in a second format in response to an input signal in a first format. The processing circuit may be configured to generate a second intermediate signal and a third intermediate signal in response to the first intermediate signal. The conversion circuit may be configured to generate an output signal in the first format in response to the second intermediate signal and the third intermediate signal. The processing circuit may be configured to implement color blending on the second intermediate signal in the second format prior to conversion to the first format and pass the third intermediate signal without color blending.