Glenn Arthur Reitmeier

The US HDTV standard

This standard for digital high-definition television has been submitted to the Federal Communications Commission for its approval. Based as it is on the MPEG-2 video compression and transport protocol, multiple transmission formats, Dolby AC-3 digital audio, and vestigial sideband digital modulation, this HDTV system will supply the home with superb images and spectacular sound while also, as part of the National Information Infrastructure (NII), relaying digital data. An HDTV system employing multiple transmission formats, digital compression, packetization, and modulation techniques is a marked advance over current world television standards such as NTSC, PAL, or SECAM. >

The ATSC Digital Television System

The ATSC digital television standard describes a system designed to transmit high-quality video and audio, and ancillary data within a single 6-MHz terrestrial television broadcast channel. This paper outlines the overall architecture of the system and serves as an introduction to the papers that follow in this special issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE.

Video Compression and Its Role in the History of Television

This paper outlines the history of video compression, emphasizing how the concepts we now apply in todays digital world also applied in earlier work on analog television. The paper describes how analog techniques such as gamma correction, interlaced scanning, vestigial sideband transmission, and the transmission of reduced-bandwidth color components using a color subcarrier can be interpreted in terms of video compresion concepts. The basic principles of digital video compression are also outlined and are traced through the generations of standards including H.261, MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, and HEVC.

HDTV: Re-inventing Television for the Digital Age

HDTV promises to change the way we experience television. This article looks at the advent and specifics of the technology, and the opportunities it presents to those in optics.

The U.S. Digital Television Standard and its Impact on VLSI

The U.S. is in the final stages of establishing a Digital Television (DTV) transmission standard for digital terrestrial broadcasting in both HDTV and SDTV formats. The Grand Alliance prototype hardware has been extensively tested in both laboratory and field conditions and has exhibited outstanding performance. As of this writing, the Grand Alliance system has been officially recommended by industry to the FCC as the U.S. standard and final approval is expected from the FCC by the middle of 1996. The U.S. DTV standard will create a new market for digital consumer electronics products based on the standard, including DTV receivers, VCRs, camcorders and Personal Computer interface cards that will employ VLSI circuits to cost-effectively implement the products.