A Universal Format Conversion Architecture for Simultaneous Video and Computer Generated Imagery Scaling

In DTV post production environment, the use of video and computer generated imagery (CGI) of different formats becomes commonplace. High quality, real time video raster CGI format conversion will be an integral part of the routine operation for efficient DTV content creation and delivery. Most existing video/graphics workstations rely on the CPU and its graphic-subsystem muscle to perform image interpolation in software. In those cases, incoming materials have to be rendered in a suitable format before image editing or composition can take place. A more productive alternative is to use a dedicated hardware format converter such as the Panasonic universal format conversion (UFC) ASIC. The UFC ASIC not only provides numerical accuracy required by professional video applications, it also provides filtering versatility such as programmable response characteristics that can be tuned to specific applications. — Due to their distinct signal characteristics (e.g., the bandwidth), a format converter optimized for video scaling isn't necessarily suitable for CGI. Performance compromises such as image aliasing, ringing and blurring artifacts usually have to be made within a single interpolator design. To overcome the performance barrier constrained by one interpolator, we propose a new UFC architecture for simultaneous video and CGI scaling based on dual Panasonic UFC ASICs for DTV post production applications. The interpolators residing in the two UFC ASICs are designed to have complementary characteristics so that better performance can be attained through image fusion.

Published

1999-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00944

ISBN

978-1-61482-930-0