What does “Broadcast Quality” Mean Now?

“Broadcast quality” used to be a meaningful standard for communicating a quality level sufficient to satisfy the broadest range of requirements. “Cinema quality” meant better, “VHS quality” meant “that's bad enough, now stop,” and “master quality” meant the very best available. This author has been translating those terms into technical requirements and measurements since the 1980's through today, using and making tests, using and designing quality control systems. This paper presents a perspective on how technical and non-technical people alike can begin to develop a new common lexicon to describe moving image, sound, and timed text qualities in today's emerging era of 4K, UHD, 8K, wide color gamuts, high dynamic ranges, high frame rates, and the file-based media that carry them to a new era of displays.

Published

2015-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

4K, UHD, HDR, HFR, WCG, BTU.2020, quality, color

DOI

10.5594/M001660

ISBN

978-1-61482-956-0