Statistical Analysis of Picture Quality for Digital TV Employing MPEG-2 Video Standard

A relationship between bit-rate and picture quality is a major issue of interest for digital broadcasting services. To evaluate coding performance of MPEG-2 video standard, subjective assessment tests for both Main Profile and Simple Profile as well as NTSC were conducted. Since picture quality in digital coding depends largely on such picture characteristics as spatial detail and motion, estimation of picture quality of TV program material requires statistical analysis. We have defined “criticality”, a quantitative measure of difficulty for digital coding, to analyze picture quality of TV programs statistically. We developed equipment to measure criticality and measured a large number of TV program materials for one week. Based on statistical evaluation of picture degradation in real TV programs, we have concluded that approximately 9 Mbps is an appropriate bit-rate for digital broadcasting to maintain picture quality comparable to that of studio NTSC.

Published

1995-09

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00491

ISBN

978-1-61482-923-2