Wired

Ah the joys of progress, and the joys of legacy video formats. With all the hype and hoopla surrounding HD video, the LCD vs. PLASMA wars, Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, etc., you would think that the old video standards NTSC & PAL would vanish from the TV and Video scene. But as everyone in Broadcasting knows, NTSC & PAL are alive and well around the globe.

“How can that be?” you might ask yourself. Isn’t Standard Definition (SD) DEAD? An absolute NO is the answer. SD is still broadcast every day by every TV station in America, and is still the #1 watched video format. It will continue being broadcast for years to come through the magic of cable TV, even after terrestrial transmissions cease.

So why do i bring this up? Well it’s because the new-comers in Broadcasting do not have the basic understanding of one common and fundamental aspect of NTSC & PAL……and that’s Interlaced Video. It seems that the more computer based systems invade the video space, the more ignorant the people are to basic SD video characteristics.

Broadcast people are now working with digital editing stations, highly compressed files, and web-based videos. Watching a video in a small computer window is normal, as is dealing with jerky motions and inaccurate color renditions. The term “Broadcast Quality” is unknown to many, which is a shame. They just don’t know any better. Try mentioning terms like “Field Dominance” or “Inverse Telecine” and see what kind of reaction you get. You will be amazed.

So, who’s to blame? Well I guess we all are. We let the ‘cool’ factor of the internet and computers overcome our basic video knowledge. We didn’t pass on the information to those destined to replace us, so they just “Don’t Know” what video really is. I spend so much time teaching others what Interlaced Video really is, and why it’s important to know.

Our release of the MasonIP decoder is making this a very important issue because for the first time, Broadcasters can now easily output almost any type of compressed video file into SD or HD, interlaced or progressive outputs. And when you start looking at these new highly compressed files on interlaced displays, you see all sorts of problems that were invisible on computer displays: Jittery playback, low resolution jagged diagonal edges, and incorrect color renditions. If you are going to Broadcast a video over the air, you better make sure it is correctly displayed on SD interlaced displays, since that is the #1 watched video format in the world.

Too often the video editors only verify content with a preview window on a computer display. This is wrong because computer window preview is progressive, probably scaled, and shows incorrect colors because of the different color gamut used. In order to properly verify a video file, you must watch it directly from an NTSC or PAL output, on a color correct broadcast display.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Marks Corner Table. You can skip to the end and leave a response.