Improved Television Systems: NTSC and beyond

After a discussion of the limits to received image quality in NTSC and a review of various proposals for improvement, it is concluded that the current system is capable of significant increase in spatial and temporal resolution, and that most of these improvements can be made in a compatible manner. Newly designed systems, for the sake of maximum utilization of channel capacity, should use many of the techniques proposed for improving NTSC, such as high-rate cameras and displays, but should use the component, rather than composite, technique for color multiplexing. A preference is expressed for noncompatible new systems, both for increased design flexibility and on the basis of likely consumer behavior. Some sample systems are described that achieve very high quality in the present 6-MHz channels, full “HDTV” at the CCIR rate of 216 Mbits/sec, or “better-than-35mm” at about 500 Mbits/sec. Possibilities for even higher efficiency using motion compensation are described.

Print ISSN

0036-1682

Published

1987-08

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J03084