DIGITAL TELEVISION

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
ANALOG AND DIGITAL
TELEVISION

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
Definition
Digital TV (DTV), also known as high-definition TV
(HDTV), was designed to replace the National Television
Standards Committee (NTSC) system.
The goal of HDTV is to greatly improve the picture and
sound quality.
The HDTV system is an extremely complex collection of
digital, communication, and computer techniques.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Standards
 HDTV uses the scanning concept to present a picture on
the CRT.
 The HDTV screen is made up of thousands of tiny dots of
light called pixels.
 The greater the number of pixels on the screen, the greater
the resolution and the finer the detail that can be
represented.
 HDTV uses progressive line scanning, in which each line
is scanned one at a time from top to bottom.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION

Figure 1: Typical Scan Rate for Different Resolutions

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The 480p (the p stands for “progressive”) standard
 offers performance comparable to that of the NTSC system
 uses a 4:3 aspect ratio for the screen
 scanning is progressive.
 This format is fully compatible with modern VGA computer
monitors
 can use either progressive or interlaced scanning with either
aspect ratio at the three vertical scan rates

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts
 In HDTV both the video and the audio signals must be digitized by A/D converters
and transmitted serially to the receiver.
 Because of the very high frequency of video signals, special techniques must be used
to transmit the video signal over a standard 6-MHz bandwidth TV channel.
 Multiplexing techniques must be used because both video and audio must be
transmitted over the same channel.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION

Figure 2: TV picture standards. (a) Current

standard. (b) HDTV standard.

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 DIGITAL TELEVISION

Figure 3: HDTV transmitter.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts: HDTV Transmitter
 In an HDTV transmitter, the video from the camera consists of the R, G, and B
signals that are converted to the luminance and chrominance signals.
 The luminance sampling rate is 14.3 MHz, and the chroma sampling rate is 7.15 MHz.
 These are digitized by A/D converters.
 The resulting signals are serialized and sent to a data compressor.
 MPEG-2 is the data compression method used in HDTV.
 The signal is next sent to a data randomizer.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts: HDTV Transmitter
 The random serial signal is passed through a Reed-Solomon (RS) error detection and
correction circuit.
 The signal is next fed to a trellis encoder.
 Each audio channel is sampled at a 48-kbps rate.
 The video and audio data streams are packetized.
 The packets are multiplexed with some synchronizing signals to form the final signal
to be transmitted.
 The modulation scheme used in HDTV is 8-VSB.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts: HDTV Transmitter
 The modulated signal is up-converted by a mixer to the final transmission frequency,
which is one of the standard TV channels in the VHF or UHF range.
 A linear power amplifier is used to boost the signal level prior to transmission by the
antenna.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts: HDTV Transmitter
 Each audio channel is sampled at a 48-kbps rate, ensuring that audio signals up to
about 24 kHz are accurately captured and transmitted.
 Each audio sample is converted to an 18-bit digital word.
 The audio information is time-multiplexed and transmitted as a serial bit stream at a
frequency of 48 kbps x 6 channels x 18 bits = 5.185 Mbps.
 A data compression technique designated AC-3 is used to speed up audio
transmission.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION

Figure 4: Packet format for HDTV.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The Packet
The header identifies the number of the packet and its
sequence as well as the video format.
Next the packets are assembled into frames of data
representing one frame of video.
The complete frame consists of 626 packets transmitted
sequentially. The final signal is sent to the modulator.

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 DIGITAL TELEVISION

Figure 5: Eight-level VSB signal.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
8-VSB Modulation
The modulation scheme used in HDTV is 8-VSB, or
eight-level vestigial sideband, amplitude modulation.
The carrier is suppressed, and only the upper sideband is
transmitted.
The serial digital data is sent to a D/A converter where
each sequential 3-bit group is converted to a discrete
voltage level.
This system encodes 3 bits per symbol, thereby greatly
increasing the data rate within the channel.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
8-VSB
 Each 3-bit group is converted to a relative level of -7, -5, -3, -1, 1, 3, 5, or 7.
 This is the signal that amplitude-modulates the carrier.
 The resulting symbol rate is 10,800 symbols per second.
 This translates to a data rate of 3 x 10,800 = 32.4 Mbps.
 Eliminating the extra RS and trellis bits gives an actual video/audio rate of about
19.3 Mbps.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts: HDTV Receiver
 In an HDTV receiver, the tuner and IF systems are similar to those in a standard TV
receiver.
 The 8-VSB signal is demodulated into the original bit stream.
 The signal then passes through an NTSC filter and an equalizer circuit.
 The signals are demultiplexed into the video and audio bit streams.
 The trellis decoder and RS decoder correct any errors.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
HDTV Transmission Concepts: HDTV Receiver
 The signal is descrambled and decompressed.
 The video signal is converted back to the digital signals that will drive the D/A
converters that, in turn, drive the red, green, and blue electron guns in the CRT.
 The audio signal is demultiplexed and fed to AC-3 decoders.
 The resulting digital signals are fed to D/A converters that create the analog audio
for each of the six audio channels.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION

Figure 6: HDTV receiver.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The State of Digital TV
 Most over-the-air television is still the original analog NTSC programming, although
satellite TV is all digital, and cable TV companies are offering a growing amount of
digital TV.
 The declining prices of large-screen plasma, LCD, and projection sets with HDTV
capability have had the greatest impact in creating growth.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION

The State of Digital TV

 The U.S. government is anxious to initiate a complete switch to digital by February
2009.
 The government’s desire to reclaim a large portion of the UHF TV spectrum is
driving this initiative.
 The reclaimed spectrum will be auctioned off to cell phone companies for expanded
growth.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The State of Digital TV
 Spectrum is also needed for new communications services and equipment that
should help resolve the incompatibility of radio services among the various city
police, fire, and public services.
 The goal is to create fully interoperable radios for all government, military, and other
agencies to allow them to communicate reliably during disasters.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The State of Digital TV
 In 2009, all current NTSC analog transmission will cease and everyone will
have to switch to HDTV.
 For those who cannot afford a new TV set, the government will subsidize
special converter boxes that will receive the HDTV signals and convert them to
standard analog output for older sets.
 IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) will be transmitted over high-speed Internet
connections.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The State of Digital TV
Standard phone companies (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) will
compete with cable TV companies to distribute TV to
consumers.
The adoption of more advanced video compression
techniques such as the ITU-T’s H.264 standard, also
known as MPEG-4 compression, is expected to further
improve picture quality while minimizing bandwidth.

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DIGITAL TELEVISION
The State of Digital TV
 A special form of TV now being developed is that created
for use on cell phones and other small-screen devices.
 Known as DVB-H, it is a form of digital TV derived from
the European Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard.
 The video is not high-definition since the small screens
have such a small pixel count.
 Services to deliver small-screen TV are being developed in
the 1670- to 1675-MHz band.
 An alternate service called MediaFLO uses the 716- to
722-MHz band, formerly the channel 55 UHF spectrum.

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