DVC decompression with denoising for picture quality improvement

Digital video cassette (DVC) is a quickly proliferating new standard for real-time digital video recording. DVC is presently used both in consumer and professional applications. In this paper we describe the DVC principles, data organization and video decoding algorithm. Although typically DVC video has very good quality, at low-light levels noise becomes pronounced. We show that noise in the DVC can be reduced by digital postfiltering. For this purpose, a wavelet denoising algorithm is suggested due to its unique properties. Wavelet denoising is described in detail and results of noise reduction are illustrated on examples.