Plateau Coding of the Chrominance Component of Color Picture Signals

Plateau coding is a method for efficiently coding the chromatic component of color television signals. The signal is divided into regions of approximately constant chromaticity which are transmitted by sending one set of chrominance values for the whole region. Since most changes in chrominance are accompanied by luminance changes, the luminance signal (which must be transmitted quite accurately) is used at the transmitter and receiver to indicate changes in the two chrominance signals; thus no addresses need be sent to define the boundaries of the region at the receiver. Simulations have shown that plateau coding can give pictures of high quality for chrominance bit-rates in the range 0.25-0.5 bits per luminance sample, assuming straightforward pulse-code modulation (PCM) coding of the chrominance amplitudes.