Test and Measurement of Serial Digital Television Signals

New methods of test and measurement are required to determine the signs of health of the digital video transmission system. Analysis methods for the program video and audio signals are well known; however, measurements for the serial form of the digitized signal differ greatly from those used to analyze the familiar baseband video signal. Specifications such as l-nsec risetime and 0.5 nsec of jitter are important to insure conformance to the proposed standard. Test methods can use wideband oscilloscopes or recently available television waveform monitors. Identification of errors in the serial data stream is a powerful and automatic method of determining system failures. Error rates in correctly operating equipment will be very low with, perhaps, hours or days between errors. Experimental results indicate that the difference between error-free operation and disaster can be just a few meters of coax if the system is being operated at the extremes of its capabilities. Suggestions are made for use of error detection in operational equipment.

Print ISSN

0036-1682

Published

1992-09

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J02226