NTSC Nice Technology, Super Color.ppt

February 22, 2005 Andy Rova CMPT 820 February 22, 2005 NTSC: Nice Technology, Super Color by Jim Blinn CMPT 820 presentation by Andy Rova NTSC: Nice Technology, Super Color Jim Blinn, Cal Tech IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 13(2):17-23, 1993 Overview Introduction Historical factors in the development of black and white television Description of broadcast television signals NTSC color encoding Introduction: NTSC coding NTSC: National Television Standards committee Standard encoding scheme for television signals in the United States and Canada (NTSC Countries) NTSC is often criticized, but according to Blinn “NTSC encoding…is one of the most amazing technical achievements of our time…Done well, it can look really good” History of NTSC coding The original constraints on television: Wireless interface Must deliver image and sound information in the form of a broadcast radio transmission CRT (raster) display Initial CRTs technologically limited to ~0.5 m Viewing distance assumed to be ~3 m Therefore the limits of human vision dictate that a “good” quality picture must have spatial resolution of at least several hundred lines per frame History of NTSC coding Constraints continued: 4:3 aspect ratio desired Local power-line frequencies can cause undesirable artifacts Vertical CRT rate set to match power-line rate (60Hz in North America, 50 Hz in Europe) History of NTSC coding Transmitting a complete frame (400-500 lines) at 60 Hz requires an unacceptably wide broadcast channel 2:1 interlacing used instead Divide a frame into fields containing even-numbered and odd-numbered lines Refresh each field at 60 Hz Human persistence of vision creates the illusion of the full vertical resolution being refreshed Simple form of lossy compression! History of NTSC coding North American/Japanese standard: 525 lines per frame 60 Hz field rate European standard: 625 lines per frame 50 Hz field rate We are still talking about black and white: “NTSC” and “PAL/SECAM” refer to