The LDK2000 Multistandard Camera, and the Evolution to DTV

How the transfer to digital television will impact on the studio has been the subject of many discussions. The large installed base of equipment suggests that a gradual transfer will be the most viable model. With studio HDTV on one end of the quality scale, and typical aerial reception of NTSC on the other end, a number of quality steps can be defined. Even with the existing studio equipment a major step can be made in the picture quality seen by the end user. The first step is the transfer to DTV itself, removing the NTSC artifacts. The next steps may include the optimization of the video signal for DTV by employing progressive scanning. This will also remove the well known interlace artifacts and increase vertical resolution. A native progressive scanning format is more suitable for converting to other scanning standard as might be done in the DTV receiver. — The 480p video format puts modest demands on the MPEG coding of DTV and permits multiple channels and a mix with data transfer allowing for new business. It is therefore expected that this format will gain a strong position in DTV. — After the transition to DTV, having the option of progressive scanning without large investments in studio infrastructure seems very logical. — The Philips LDK2000 is designed as a multistandard camera with its scanning format switchable between 480i60 and 480p30, and of course between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio. The Frame Transfer CCDs are newly developed devices capable of a non-compromised output in both cases. — In this paper the camera design will be explained, as well as the system approach to achieve a high quality 480p chain.

Published

1999-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00936

ISBN

978-1-61482-930-0