Digital Video Technology/UCSC

Digital Video Technology

ST Nandasara/ADMTC-UCSC Analog vs. Digital
With the onset of Spring, and Graduation just around the corner, now is a good time to start thinking about purchasing a camcorder. Before you can choose a camcorder, you need to know what format you will want. Format is broken into two main categories, analog and digital. Analog camcorders receive electronic video signals and record them onto video tape as a continuous track of magnetic patterns. Digital camcorders are similar to analog camcorders, with one key addition. The digital camcorder takes the analog information and, rather the storing the video signal as a continuous track of magnetic patterns, it gathers and translates it to bytes of data. Then it records the picture and sound as ones and zeros. Within both the analog and digital formats, there are sub-types.

Analog Camcorders
Analog formats can be broken down into five categories: 8mm, Hi8, VHS, VHSC, and SVHSC. 8mm 8mm cassettes have long been the preferred format in hand-held camcorders. Prior to the

advent of digital formats, 8mm was the smallest and sharpest format available. The tapes have a recording time of 2 hours. The picture resolution is usually around 240 lines. These camcorders are small, and fit in the palm of your hand. In fact, they can be fully operated with one hand. To view the video you recorded, you use the camcorder as the VCR. You plug your camcorder into your system (TV, VCR, Home-theater, etc.) using three wires (non-stereo models hav two wires). The camcorder is switched into the VCR mode, and the video plays on your TV. If it is running through a VCR, you can copy your 8mm tape onto a VHS tape for easy playback in the future.
Hi8 Also using an 8mm tape is the Hi8 format. This format differs from the 8mm format in price

and picture quality. This camcorder has been on ket for years, always at the high end of the 8mm lineup. Until digital camcorders hit the market, there was no sharper picture available to the general public on a consumer camcorder. The picture resolution is 400 lines, some are as high as 440 lines. To play the Hi8 back, simply attach your Hi8 camcorder to your system using the S-video wire. Everything else is identical to the 8mm format.
VHS Remember those huge, bulky camcorders that rested on your shoulder? Let's not forget the cord that wrapped around you attaching to that big VCR you had hanging from the other

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shoulder. This was the VHS format, and when VHS is mentioned, this is what most people think of. Well, the VHS format has changed. The camcorders shrunk down a little. Still, they are large. They need to be to fit such a large tape into it. What some people do like about the VHS format is that it requires no new learning for playback. If you know how to play a tape on your VCR, then you can play the video you
recorded. The tape is the same as your VCR uses. Simply put in the tape and hit play. VHSC VHSC stands for VHS compact. Only slightly larger than the 8mm format, this format has long been a favorite of many people. Excellent for editing, the VHSC makes splitting the

audio and video easier. The tape has a recording time capability of 30 minutes. To play the tapes back, simply put the VHSC tape into the supplied adapter, automatic adapters that are battery powered will help your tapes to last longer than the manual
adapters, put the adapter into the VCR, and play it like a normal VHS tape. SVHSC Super VHSC is to the VHCS what Hi8 is to the 8mm. While 8mm, VHS, and VHSC, all have horizontal resolutions of 240 lines, Hi8, and SVHSC have 400 lines. The super VHSC can also be put into an adapter for playback like the VHSC.

Digital Video Cameras

Digital camcorders can be broken down into three primary formats: mini-DV, Digital8 and DVD. Mini-DV Mini-DV is the most common, most famous, and most used of the digital formats. The tape is the smallest of all formats, making it possible to make the camcorders smaller than

any other format. However, mini-DV camcorders aren't always smaller than other video cameras. I have seen some Mini-DV camcorders that are the same size as the 8mm Camcorders. Size is dependent on price and features. Although the Mini-DV tape is about 1/12th the size of the VHS tape, its recording capability is two hours at 500 lines of resolution.
Digital8 The Digital8 format is a good choice for the person who owns an 8mm, or Hi8, camcorder, and wants to upgrade to digital.

The features offered in the Digital8 format are comparable to those offered in the Mini-DV camcorders, except for one key ability. The Digital8 camcorder can playback your old 8mm and Hi8 videos. The Digital8 format uses the 8mm tapes, but reduces the recording time. It can record up to 500 lines of resolution for one hour per tape.
Playback is the same as with the Mini-DV and 8mm formats.

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DVD Fresh onto the market this year is the DVD format. If you are not familiar with DVD, it is a movie disc with 500 lines of resolution. Until recently, DVD discs came pre-recorded, for playback only. Now they are available in camcorders. Depending on the recording mode, the DVD can record up to two hours on one disc. Just like a CD player, the DVD offers more features at higher quality, such as 'direct access' which allows the person watching to jump directly to the scene they want to see. You can't find this feature on any format that uses tape.

IEEE 4 pins

IEEE 6 pins

USB Type A ad B

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Digital Video Technology/UCSC

DIGITAL VCR FORMATS

For most people, the word format conjures up the image of a little rug near the entryway, or a message addressed to someone named Matthew. For someone choosing a digital VCR, format is perhaps the most important and far-reaching decision a buyer can make. Before progressing in inch further, let's clarify that we're not discussing DTV (Digital Television) here. DTV, the new method of transmitting TV to our homes sometime between now and year 2006, also has a number of standards and formats. They are all devised to deliver 19.2Mbps (million bits per second) of MPEG-2 compressed data via satellite/cable/broadcast venues, resulting in one channel of HDTV, or maybe five channels of SDTV (Standard Definition TV) plus maybe some Internet data. DTV and digital VCRs may someday merge into one subject, but not quite yet. For this article were talking about VCRs that start with analog or digital video and audio, and record the signal digitally (as streams of ones and zeros), and can play back the data, converting it into analog video and audio.

Compatibility
1. Let's start calling digital videocassette recorders DVCRs. Just as analog VCRs have different formats to describe their cassette size and method of recording, so do DVCRs. One difference is that when an analog VCR puts out composite video, component video, or Y/C video, any other VCR with the appropriate inputs can use the signal; the signals are standardized. DV signals are also standardized, but there are quite a number of standards, making it likely that the digital output of one type of DVCR can't be understood by the digital input of another. To make sure one's output is compatible with another's input; make sure: The inputs and outputs match, i.e., both are serial (all the data flows down one wire) or are parallel (the data flows down several wires at once). 2. The connectors match. To name a few, there are IEEE P1394 (Firewire), ATM, DS3, ESCON, FIDDI, Fiber channel, HiPPI, OC-3, SSA, SDI, SDTI (CSDI), SDDI, 4 forms of SCSI, and 5 forms of ethernet. SDI is an industry standard serial digital interface (noncompressed). D1, Digital-S, Digital Betacam, DVCAM, DVC PRO and PRO-50, and Beta SX all have SDI digital input/outputs. SDTI (Serial Data Transport Interface) is a compressed digital interface allowing high-speed lossless data transfers to servers and DVCRs. Digital-S and Beta SX also use SDDI. DVCAM and some DV use IEEE P1394 (Firewire). 3. Both are using the same country standard (i.e., NTSC or PAL). Outside of these standards complexities, DVCRs behave much the same as their analog brothers. For one DVCR's cassette to play in another DVCR, the two must have the same format. Some DVCRs are even compatible with analog VCRs. They rewind, play, record, and erase tapes just like in the analog world. DVCRs have many of the same features as analog VCRs. Most of the buttons have the same names. Their analog inputs and outputs obey all of the video laws you've learned already. The analog cables, connectors, and termination regimens are the same. Tapes still need to be labeled to keep track of them. The more things change, the more they stay the same. A few generalizations which apply to both analog and digital realms: The more tape you use per second, the heartier the signal. Also, as you'll gather from Table 3, the wider the track width (width of the magnetic path made by the spinning video heads), the more robust the

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signal. Both of these factors use up tape faster, increasing tape costs and reducing the time you get on a single cassette. But they make a better picture. The highest quality tape formats presently use wider, faster moving tape than the lower quality formats. In the digital world, the D1, D2, and D6 formats use " tape. As manufacturers endeavor to squeeze more and more into less and less space, these numbers come down. There was a time when 2" tape was the best, 1" tape second best, and " was just for amateurs. Presently " tape can do a fine to job, but " digital formats still pack more wallop and " more wallop still. The only composite formats in Table 2 are D-2 and D-3; the others are component. The fact that they are composite doesn't make D-2 and D-3 inferior; the signal is sampled so finely that no discernable harm comes to the composite signal by digitizing it. These are fine machines especially when you start with a composite signal. If, however, your signal starts out component, there's no sense kicking it between the eyes encoding it into composite before recording it; here a component recorder like D1, D5, D6, D7, D9, DV, etc. is the best bet. D1, D2, D3, and D5 are not compressed, which means their signals introduce no compression-related artifacts (picture flaws). The price for not compressing is high. High data rates of 142-270Mbps, require top-of-the-line circuitry to handle, and lots of tape to store those digits. The other digital formats in the table use some form of compression to reduce the data flow and tape consumption. As a general rule, the more compression is used, the more artifacts become visible. JVC's Digital-S DVCRs compress only a gentle 3.3:1, and Ampex's DCT and Sony's Digital Betacam are 2:1. At these low compression rates,it is hard to detect any difference between them and no compression at all. The next step down in quality (and cost, both to buy and to feed) are the DV formats. DV (Digital Video) describes the consumer DV format and its upscale (and compatible) brothers DVC PRO, and DVCAM. Both consumer and industrial DV machines share the same color sampling, ( 4:1:1) and the same compression ratio (5:1), the same compression method (Discrete Cosine Transform-DCT),the same cassette type, and many of the same standards. Digital8 is similar to DV as far as the signals and data are concerned, but this format is recorded on high quality 8mm videocassettes at double the normal 8mm speed. In other words, a 2 hour 8mm tape will last only 1 hour when used in a Digital8 camcorder. Betacam SX uses an ultrahigh compression (MPEG-2) to squeeze its data rate down to 18Mbps. But this serves a purpose; the rate is low enough to pass through many phone and satellite TV services, making it perfect for instant news gathering. Data can be stored on disk as well as tape, and there are digital disk recorders (DDRs) to do this. Advantage: If you're a news reporter, you can shoot the story, then slip the disk out of the camcorder and into the editor and begin editing the story immediately; no waiting to download the data from your tape into the editor's hard drive. Disks cost about 100 times as much as tape to store the same data, but accessing data on a disk is 100 times faster than winding a tape to find it. One special feature on DDRs is retroloop, the ability to record about 20 minutes, then without stopping, continuing to record while erasing what was recorded 20 minutes earlier. This is great when shooting the calving of glaciers, for instance. Nothing happens for the longest time, then "whoomp," a chunk of ice the size of a building breaks away and plunges into the ocean. You always get the shot, you don't waste tape on motionless snow, and you're not caught changing tapes when the action strikes.

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Digital Video Technology/UCSC 4:2:2 Sampling

Nearly all DVCRs slice the picture into 13.5 million luminance samples per second. This is enough to make a sharp picture. What about color? Taking 13.5 million samples of each of the color components would make a dazzling picture, but also would overburden the machinery, using up too much bandwidth and tape. Thus a 4:4:4 sampling ratio-4 samples of Y, 4 of (R-Y) and 4 of (B-Y)-where the colors have the same sharpness as the luminance- is seldom done. The 4:4:4 sampling ratio is used primarily for high resolution RGB graphics. Incidentally, there are super high sampling systems like 8:4:4 which has twice the luminance sharpness plus excellent color. True high definition TV (HDTV) which makes its picture with more detail than NTSC, could be said to use a sampling of 22:11:11. That's a lot of data. Back to the real world, because 4:4:4 yields excess color quality, most industrial VCRs (digital and analog) settle for 4:2:2, or 4 samples of Y, 2 of (R-Y), 2 of (B-Y). The colors still look great and are sharp enough for clean chroma keying and graphics compositing. All the professional DVCRs such as DVC PRO 50, Digital-S, and Digital Betacam use this sampling. (Exception: Professional composite recorders use 4:0:0, because they sample the composite pictureimbedded colors and all-4 times, then 4 more times, etc. Since there are no color components, to sample, the other numbers are zero). One step down from 4:2:2 is 4:1:1 used by consumer DV equipment (including Digital8) and some professional DVCRs such as DVCAM and DVC PRO. Here Y is sampled 4 times, (R-Y) once and (B-Y) once. Thus the luminance remains as sharp as the better DVCRs, just the color is degraded. Still, the loss is hard to see. In fact, 4:1:1 is technically better than the NTSC video sent to our homes, which if it were component video, would score a dismal 3:1:.5. The inferiority of 4:1:1 appears when text, graphics, and special effects call for very sharp colors. They're not there. Thus 4:1:1 may look good, but doesn't hold up as well to chroma keying and other post production manipulation as 4:2:2. Because the luminance sampling rates for most DVCR formats is the same (13.5MHz), the luminance (Y) resolution is the same, 720x480 pixels. With 4:2:2 sampling, the Y horizontal resolution stays the same and color (C) horizontal resolution is cut in half to 360x480. With 4:1:1 sampling, the color sharpness is halved again to 180x480 pixels. All of this is pretty straightforward, but here's a surprise: sometimes the signal must be converted to 4:2:0 used by DTV, DVD, digital satellite broadcasts, and devices outputting Y/C. A 4:1:1 signal does not gracefully convert to 4:2:0. A 4:2:2 signal does.
This happens because a 4:2:0 sampling puts all the (R-Y) color components on the odd scanning lines, and the (B-Y) components on the even scanning lines. This effectively cuts

the ( R-Y) vertical sharpness in half (it's no longer on all lines), and does the same for the (BY) component. If the 4:2:0 converter looks for color data and it is all there (as when you start out with 4:2:2), the data gets used. Vertical resolution is halved, but c'est la vie. If, however, the 4:2:0 converter looks for color data and it's not there, which is half the time when you start with just 4:1:1, the data doesn't get used, and you end up with half the horizontal resolution. Then, because of the even/odd machinations of 4:2:0, the vertical color resolution gets halved. Half of a half is a quarter and the result is 4:1:0 sampling. Thus 4:1:1 when converted to 4:2:0 makes twice as fuzzy color as when 4:2:2 changes to 4:2:0. This is one reason to prefer the 4:2:2 formats like Digital-S, DVC PRO 50, and Digital Betacam.

Audio and the consumer DV format

If you plan to edit audio on your DVCRs, beware that DV (the consumer 25 Mbps format) does not precisely lock its audio to its images. Audio edits may have brief silences or clicks as the

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sound catches up to the picture. The PRO formats (DVCAM, DVC PRO, and PRO 50, etc.) lock the audio precisely to the pictures. Their audio edits are perfect and accurate.

Tape consumption
Recording formats that spread their magnetism over a larger area are more robust. They stand up to the rigors of editing and are less sensitive to tape dropouts. It's simply a law physics: the more magnetic particles you involve the process, the stronger the magnetism can be. Manufacturers, in effort to pack the most data into the tiniest space, have reduced the detectable magnetism to just whisker above nonexistent. Serious pro users aim for formats with the wider track widths (See Table 3). Naturally, 1/2 inch tape provides more recording real estate on which to record a wider track than does 1/4 inch tape. This doesn't mean you should avoid the 1/4 inch formats. When trekking in the Himalayas, every ounce counts, and trade-offs are appropriate. You can always dub your camera masters (digitally, without loss, and sometimes at four times the normal speed) onto a more robust format back home.

Bits per sample

Most common DV formats use eight bits per sample which results in 256 levels of image brightness. This is quite satisfactory, but it's worth noting that a few of the higher end formats use 10 bits per sample, permitting far more gradations in brightness yielding smoother pictures with a greater signal-to-noise ratio.

The HD Future
The 4:2:2 formats, DVC PRO 50, Digital-S, and Digital Betacam are poised for high definition. No, they are not HD, but when converted to HD, because the 4:2:2 image is so detailed, they survive nicely. Further, there are extensions to the formats (DVC PRO 100 and Digital-S 100) that raise the resolution ante in preparation for the big HD-Day. The "100" in their designations reflect, as you might guess, the 100 Mbps rate that makes 1080i or 720-60p hi def possible. The process is done by doubling the tape speed, which of course halves the recording length.

Running costs
Details are sketchy, but according to Dave Walton, Marketing Communications Manager at JVC Professional Products, there are Digital-S machines in broadcast facilities that are going strong with 5000 hours on their original heads. When the heads finally hit the dust (or become dust), drum replacements cost about $1000. The tape appears to survive 100 passes and a DS-104 104 minute tape costs only $42.50.

So what format do you invest in?

For high definition (HD) reproduction, film quality, or multilayer graphics compositing, where cost is not much of an object, D1, D2, D3, D5, and D6 are formats to consider. For excellent quality pictures, amenable to chroma key and graphics layering, the choices seem to be Digital Betacam, Digital-S, and DVC-PRO 50.

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For good quality ENG and industrial production at a moderate price, DVCAM, DVCPRO, and Betacam-SX seem to be the choices. Interestingly, Digital-S seems to price itself closer to DVCAM and DVC PRO but performs more like the higher priced Digital Betacam and DVC PRO 50. For prosumers and budget minded professionals who won't be performing a lot of linear audio edits, or who expect to skydive with their camcorders, DV or Digital8 would seem most adequate.

Summarizing sidebar
The more samples you take of a picture the better the image quality will be. An industry standard is 13.5 million samples per second (described as a 13.5MHz sampling rate). The fewer samples you throw away, the better the image will remain.Color samples are sacrificed first. Thus a 4:2:2 sampling is preferable to a 4:1:1 sampling. 2. The less you compress the data, the better the quality. No compression, 2:1 compression and 3.3:1 compression look essentially identical; 5:1 is tolerably lossy. 3. The more tape you use to store the image (i.e., 20 micron track width on swiftly moving " tape vs. 10 micron tracks on slow moving " tape) the more robust and reliable the data will be. 4. The more bits per sample you use (i.e., 10 vs. 8), the more accurate the recording.

THE 10 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BUYING CAMERAS/CAMCORDERS

If you've been in the video field a while, you're used to swimming in a turbulent surf of bells and whistles, more than you could ever ring or blow. And if you're new to the profession, the foam and flotsam of fancy features can leave you treading water, wondering which way is land. As the tide of hype and jargon endeavors to wash us out to sea, let's pause a moment and go back to the buoy of basics. Choose a format. Of the portable formats, Betacam SP and Betacam SX, Sony DVCAM, Panasonic DVCPRO and JVC Digital-S record the best pictures, but the machines cost $6,000+. While all formats are excellent, capable of 4-5 generations of editing, analog

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Betacam SP is still most popular, making it more compatible with other people's editing gear. DVCAM and DVCPRO are swiftly overtaking Betacam SP and will soon be the most popular formats for professionals. The next step down is Digital8, DV, Hi8 and SVHS, with professional models costing 3 kilobucks. The Digital8 and DV formats are digital, yielding 500 lines of resolution (very sharp picture) and tapes copied digitally are virtual clones of each other, showing no degradation. For the analog formats, Hi8 and SVHS, the first generation pictures look excellent, but the color-under method of recording reduces the color sharpness right from the start. SVHS and Hi8 are good for about 3 generations of editing/duplication, but nothing stops you from shooting in these formats and editing in some better format. VHS and 8mm are out of the question for serious video work (except for documenting speeches, hurricane damage, or other "quickie" one-generation stuff). And what about 3/4U? It's a dinasaur. Wear out what you have (SP models are as good as SVHS and Hi8 professional models), then move to another format. Three chips are better than one. Like in a Mexican restaurant, the more chips you get, the better. One-chip cameras sense all the colors on one CCD; fuzzy, but small, light, cheap, and very sensitive in dim light. Two-chip cameras split the light (weakening it, incidentally), sending some to the colorsensing chip and some to the luminance-sensing chip. The colors end up purer (though still fuzzy), and the luminance (the sharpness-carrying black-and-white aspects of the picture) is quite sharp. Best, (and most expensive) are the three-chip cameras. The light splits into three primary colors (yes, reducing its brightness), and one chip is totally dedicated to each color. Here, the colors stay sharp and pure; luminance resolution is excellent. Check for low light sensitivity. Lighting in the field is hard to control. The more sensitive the camera, the better. Microlens technology (microscopic insect-eye lenses bonded to the CCD chip) improves sensitivity by concentrating light on the right parts of the CCDs, wasting little on the connecting wires inbetween. Low noise circuits allow the gain (image brightness and contrast) to be boosted maybe 3-18 dB while adding little grain to the picture. Light sensitivity is measured in lux. The lower the number of lux in the spec, the more sensitive the camera. For example, a 3 lux camera can shoot in less light than a 10 lux camera. Don't trust the specs on consumer and prosumer cameras unless they measure them by the "ANSI" method. Some manufacturers don't adhere to established standards of measurement. Also check that the specs are given with the same amount of gain boost; one camera can shoot in 2 lux with +18 dB gain boost, making a fairly grainy picture, while another does the same thing with only a +6 dB gain boost (a smoother picture). Most professional cameras adhere to more standardized specs, typically 2000 lux at f8. This is a lot of light, but there is no gain boost and the lens can offer a decent depth-of-field.

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In most cases, the more light you throw onto the subject, the better your picture will look, especially the colors. The higher the resolution the better. Higher resolution means sharper pictures. Prosumer cameras start at about 400 lines of horizontal resolution, professional models reach 700. Even if your recorder can reproduce only 400 lines of resolution (such as SVHS and Hi8), the extra resolution from the camera is not wasted. A 700 line camera will make a better SVHS picture than a 450 line camera. Check for smear. Smear is a vertical stripe you see running through bright lights (ie. headlights at night) in your picture. The better chips (Hyper HAD, for instance) counteract this abberation. Shoot for the highest S/N (signal-to-noise ) ratio. You want a pure, smooth picture with lots of signal and little noise (grain). The S/N ratio is hard to measure yourself (although your eyeball can detect gross differences). Here is where you have to trust the specs. In any case, the more light (is this starting to sound familiar?) you throw into your shot, the smoother the image will look. Look for automatic controls with overrides. The automatic controls get you shooting quickly (while you dive into the ditch as a tornado whirls by) and save you from twiddling knobs while hanging from a parachute or skulking around in the dark. They also allow you to concentrate on your shooting, unfettered with the mechanics of focusing, white balance, etc. They also allow amateurs to get good shots. On the other hand, overrides allow you to take manual control of the focus (you want the shot of the nearby leaf, not the bathing beauty in the background), iris (to brighten up the face in the shadows, to heck with the sky behind), white balance (you want a yellowish tint to the picture), etc. Consider DSP (Digital Signal Processing). DSP cameras aren't much better per se, but DSP allows you to: Set up the camera controls (black and white balance, etc.) easily. Make all your camera adjustments once for each shooting situation, then store them to be retrieved at the touch of a button. Forget about "drifting" circuits and noisy or troublesome potentiometers and switches. Digital means there are almost no moving parts to age or corrode. Digitally suppress undesirable artifacts such as dark color noise. Look for multiple-use flexibility. Can this camera be configured for the studio and EFP? What does it cost for the extra parts (viewfinders, lens cable drives, etc.) to do so? Dual-use cameras can serve two masters. Is the camera dockable so that it can be used in the studio or teamed with a VCR in the field? What does the docking adapter cost (usually a pound of flesh).

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Digital Video Technology/UCSC Is the camera upgradable to HDTV? Some cameras can work in today's 3:4 aspect ratio (the shape of a common TV screen) and make NTSC video signals, and then with the flip of a switch, change to 1080i or 720p DTV modes with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Now, for the bells and whistles: Time code generator built-in (to keep track of your shots when editing) Variable shutter speed (freezes motion, or allows you to have computer screens in the shot without seeing bars running across their CRTs) Wide variety of lens options. Good camera balance. How does it feel on your shoulder? Quick start recording (to catch that tornado). Low power consumption (to squeeze a full 40 minutes out of your aging one-hour battery) Four audio channels, rather than the usual two. EIS --- Electronic Image Stabilization on prosumer cameras reduces the shakes when working sans tripod. Color viewfinder --- skip this. Viewfinders tell you the truth about your focusing; color viewfinders are relatively fuzzy, not truthful. Secondly, color viewfinders are seldom adjusted correctly and LCD types give poor color accuracy, again, not very truthful.

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