WERABE UNIVERSITY

Institute of Technology
Department of Information Technology
Chapter 5: Fundamental Concepts in Video
Video is a series of images. When this series of images are displayed on screen at fast speed e.g.
30 images per second, we see a perceived motion. It projects single images at a fast rate producing
the illusion of continuous motion. These single images are called frames. The rate at which the
frames are projected is generally between 24 and 30 frames per second (fps). The rate at which
these images are presented is referred to as the Frame Rate

 This is fundamental to the way video is modeled in computers.

 A single image is called frame and video is a series of frames.
 An image just like conventional images is modeled as a matrix of pixels.
 To model smooth motion psychophysical studies have shown that a rate of 30 frames a second is
good enough to simulate smooth motion.

 Old Charlie Chaplin movies were taken at 12 frames a second and are visibly jerky
in nature.

Each screen-full of video is made up of thousands of pixels. A pixel is the smallest unit of an
image. A pixel can display only one color at a time. Your television has 720 vertical lines of pixels
(from left to right) and 486 rows of pixels (top to bottom). A total of 349,920 pixels (720 x 486)
for a single frame.
There are two types of video:
 Analog Video
 Digital Video

Analog Video

Analog technology requires information representing images and sound to be in a real-time

continuous-scale electric signal between sources and receivers.

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It is used throughout the television industry. For television, images and sound are converted into
electric signals by transducers. Distortion of images and noise are common problems for analog
video.
In an analogue video signal, each frame is represented by a fluctuating voltage signal. This is
known as an analogue waveform. One of the earliest formats for this was composite video.

Analog formats are susceptible to loss due to transmission noise effects. Quality loss is also
possible from one generation to another. This type of loss is like photocopying, in which a copy
of a copy is never as good as the original.

Digital Video
Digital technology is based on images represented in the form of bits. A digital video signal is
actually a pattern of 1's and 0's that represent the video image. With a digital video signal, there is
no variation in the original signal once it is captured on to computer disc. Therefore, the image
does not lose any of its original sharpness and clarity. The image is an exact copy of the original.
A computer is the most common form of digital technology.
The limitations of analog video led to the birth of digital video. Digital video is just a digital
representation of the analogue video signal. Unlike analogue video that degrades in quality from
one generation to the next, digital video does not degrade. Each generation of digital video is
identical to the parent.
Even though the data is digital, virtually all digital formats are still stored on sequential tapes.
There are two significant advantages for using computers for digital video: the ability to
randomly access the storage of video and compress the video stored.

Computer-based digital video is defined as a series of individual images and associated audio.
These elements are stored in a format in which both elements (pixel and sound sample) are
represented as a series of binary digits (bits).
Almost all digital video uses component video
Analog vs. Digital Video
An analog video can be very similar to the original video copied, but it is not identical. Digital
copies will always be identical and will not lose their sharpness and clarity over time. However,
digital video has the limitation of the amount of RAM available, whereas this is not a factor with
analog video. Digital technology allows for easy editing and enhancing of videos.

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Storage of the analog video tapes is much more cumbersome than digital video CDs. Clearly, with
new technology continuously emerging, this debate will always be changing.
Displaying Video
There are two ways of displaying video on screen:

 Interlaced scan  Progressive scan

Interlaced Scanning
Interlaced scanning writes every second line of the picture during a scan, and writes the other half
during the next sweep. Doing that we only need 25/30 pictures per second. This idea of splitting
up the image into two parts become known as interlacing and the splitted up pictures as fields.
Graphically seen a field is basically a picture with every 2nd line black/white. Here is an image
that shows interlacing, so that, you can better imagine what happens.

During the first scan the upper field is written on screen. The first, 3rd, 5th, etc. line is written and
after writing each line the electron beam moves to the left again before writing the next line.
Currently the picture exhibits a "combing" effect, it looks like you’re watching it through a comb.
When people refer to interlacing artifacts or say that their picture is interlaced this is what they
commonly refer to.

Once all the odd lines have been written the electron beam travels back to the upper left of the
screen and starts writing the even lines.

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As it takes a while before the phosphor stops emitting light and as the human brain is too slow
instead of seeing two fields what we see is a combination of both fields - in other words the original
picture.

Progressive Scanning

PC CRT displays are fundamentally different from TV screens. Monitor writes a whole picture
per scan. Progressive scan updates all the lines on the screen at the same time, 60 times every
second. This is known as progressive scanning. Today all PC screens write a picture like this.

Fig progressive scanning

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 Here is a comparison of computer and television display.

Computer Television
 Scans 480 horizontal line  Scans 625, 525 horizontal lines top to bottom
 Scan each line progressively  Scan line using interlacing system
 Scan full frame at a rate of typically 66.67 HZ or higher  Scan 25-30 HZ for full time
 Use RGB color model luminance (lightness or darkness)  Uses limited color palette and restricted

Recording Video
CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices) a chip containing a series of tiny, light-sensitive photo sites.
It forms the heart of all electronic and digital cameras. CCDs can be thought of as film for
electronic cameras. CCDs consist of thousands or even millions of cells, each of which is light-
sensitive and capable of producing varying amounts of charge in response to the amount of light
they receive.
Digital camera uses lens which focuses the image onto a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), which
then converts the image into electrical pulses. These pulses are then saved into memory. In short,
just as the film in a conventional camera records an image when light hits it, the CCD records the
image electronically. The photo sites convert light into electrons. The electrons pass through an
analog-to-digital converter, which produces a file of encoded digital information in which bits
represent the color and tonal values of a subject. The performance of a CCD is often measured by
its output resolution, which in turn is a function of the number of photo sites on the CCD's surface.

Analog and digital video frame layout respectively

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Types of Color Video Signals
Component video each primary is sent as a separate video signal. The primaries can either be
RGB or a luminance-chrominance transformation of them.
Component video takes the different components of the video and breaks them into separate
signals. Improvements to component video have led to many video formats, including S-Video,
RGB etc.

Composite video color (chrominance) and luminance signals are mixed into a single carrier wave.
Some interference between the two signals is inevitable.

Composite analog video has all its components (brightness, color, synchronization information,
etc.) combined into one signal. Due to the compositing (or combining) of the video components,
the quality of composite video is marginal at best. The results are color bleeding, low clarity and
high generational loss.

S-Video (Separated video) a compromise between component analog video and the composite
video. It uses two lines, one for luminance and another for composite chrominance signal.
Video Broadcasting Standards/ TV standards
There are three different video broadcasting standards: PAL, NTSC, and SECAM
PAL (Phase Alternate Line)
PAL uses 625 horizontal lines at a field rate of 50 fields per second (or 25 frames per second).
Only 576 of these lines are used for picture information with the remaining 49 lines used for sync
or holding additional information such as closed captioning. It is used in Australia, New Zealand,
United Kingdom, and Europe.
 Scans 625 lines per frame, 25 frames per second
 Interlaced, each frame is divided into 2 fields, 312.5 lines/field
SECAM (Sequential Color with Memory)
SECAM uses the same bandwidth as PAL but transmits the color information sequentially.
It is used in France, East Europe, etc.
It specifies the same number of scan lines and frames per second. It is the broadcast standard for
France, Russia, and parts of Africa and Eastern Europe.
NTSC (National Television Standards Committee)
NTSC is a black-and-white and color compatible 525-line system that scans a nominal 30
interlaced television picture frames per second. Used in USA, Canada, and Japan.

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 525 scan lines per frame, 30 frames per second (or be exact, 29.97 fps, 33.37 sec/frame)
 Interlaced, each frame is divided into 2 fields, 262.5 lines/field
 20 lines reserved for control information at the beginning of each field.
 So a maximum of 485 lines of visible data
NTSC Video Scan Line
 Each line takes 63.5 microseconds to scan. Horizontal retrace takes 10 microseconds (with 5
microseconds horizontal synch pulse embedded), so the active line time is 53.5 microseconds.

Fig Digital video raster

Fig Television standards used in different countries

HDTV (High Definition Television)

High-Definition television (HDTV) means broadcast of television signals with a higher resolution
than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL) allow. Except for early analog formats in Europe
and Japan, HDTV is broadcasted digitally, and therefore its introduction sometimes coincides with
the introduction of digital television (DTV).
 Modern plasma television uses this
 It consists of 720-1080 lines and higher number of pixels (as many as 1920 pixels).
 Having a choice in between progressive and interlaced is one advantage of HDTV. Many
people have their preferences

HDTV vs Existing Signals (NTSC, PAL, or SECAM)

The HDTV signal is digital resulting in crystal clear, noise-free pictures and CD quality sound. It
has many viewer benefits like choosing between interlaced or progressive scanning.

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File Formats
File formats in the PC platform are indicated by the 3 letter filename extension.
.mov= QuickTime Movie Format .mpg =MPEG file format
.avi= Windows movie format
Four Factors of Digital Video
With digital video, four factors have to be kept in mind. These are:

 Frame rate  Spatial Resolution

 Color Resolution  Image Quality

Frame Rate

The standard for displaying any type of non-film video is 30 frames per second (film is 24 frames
per second). This means that the video is made up of 30 (or 24) pictures or frames for every second
of video. Additionally, these frames are split in half (odd lines and even lines), to form what are
called fields.

Color Resolution

This second factor is a bit more complex. Color resolution refers to the number of colors displayed
on the screen at one time. Computers deal with color in an RGB (red-green blue) format, while
video uses a variety of formats.

Spatial Resolution

The third factor is spatial resolution - or in other words, "How big is the picture?". Since PC and
Macintosh computers generally have resolutions in excess of 640 by 480, most people assume that
this resolution is the video standard.

A standard analogue video signal displays a full, over scanned image without the borders common
to computer screens. The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard used in
North America and Japanese Television uses a 768 by 484 display.

The Phase Alternative system (PAL) standard for European television is slightly larger at 768 by
576. Most countries endorse one or the other, but never both.

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 Since the resolution between analogue video and computers is different, conversion of analogue
video to digital video at times must take this into account.

Image Quality

The last, and most important factor is video quality. The final objective is video that looks
acceptable for your application. For some this may be 1/4 screen, 15 frames per second (fps), at 8
bits per pixel.

Digital video basics

Analog composite signals, such as PAL, NTSC and SECAM, are subject to cumulative distortions
and noise that affect the quality of the reproduced picture. Separate distortions of the luminance
and chrominance components, as well as intermodulation between them, are likely to occur.
The cumulative analog video signal impairments and their effect on the reproduced picture can be
reduced considerably by using a digital representation of the video signal and effecting the
distribution, processing and recording in the digital domain. By a proper selection of two
parameters, namely the sampling frequency and the quantizing accuracy, these impairments can
be reduced to low, visually imperceptible values. As long as the digitized signals are distributed,
processed and recorded in the digital domain, these impairments are limited.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of digital video are:

 Single-pass, analog-type impairments are non-cumulative if the signal stays digital.

 There is a reduced sensitivity to noise and interference.
 Digital equipment efficiently and economically performs tasks that are difficult or impossible to
perform using analog technology.
 It is amenable to the application of techniques for efficient retention of essential information such
as compression.
The disadvantages of digital video are:

 Analog-type of distortions, as well unique digital distortions related to sampling and quantizing,
result in a variety of visible impairments.
 Wide bandwidth requirements for recording, distribution and transmission necessitate
sophisticated bit-rate reduction and compression schemes to achieve manageable bandwidths.
 Unlike analog signals, the digital signals do not degrade gracefully and are subjected to a cliff
effect.