A method for hierarchical subband HDTV splitting

In this paper, an investigation is made on compatibility of the video formats TV (625/50/2:1/4:3), EDTV (625/50/1:1/16:9), HDTV
int
(1250/50/2:1/16:9) and HDTV
pro
(1250/50/2:1/16:9) in three-dimensional subband coding. A hierarchical method is proposed leading to a more reasonable joint solution for the issues of digital transmission evolution and interlace-to-progressive scanning conversion in the frame work of bit rate compression. Conventional HDTV
int
with the diamond shaped spectrum is proposed to be replaced by a kind of “switching” HDTV
in
signal which consists of three components and motion detection bits (MDB). The first component and the MDB represent TV. The first plus the second component and the MDB represent EDTV. HDTV
pro
is splitted into switching HDTV
int
and extra component. The switching threshold and the length of temporal filter banks are discussed. Rearranging the pixels in subbands is recommended. Based on the proposed method, the transmission system can evolve through four steps: TV, EDTV, HDTV
int
and HDTV
pro
. Results of bit rate compression are also presented. TV, EDTV, HDTV
int
and HDTV
pro
are compressed to approximately 40, 80, 128 and 256 Mbit/s respectively. Interlace scanning has drawbacks such as line flicker and line crawling as the eye follows the line structure in the picture. Progressive version switching TV and HDTV
int
can be reconstructed using one frame memory without the problems of handling temporal-vertical diamond shaped spectra of conventional TV and HDTV
int
based on a one-frame memory algorithm in the receiver.