Television & Video Systems

and Technologies
Course 1: Television and Video Systems Fundamentals

Objectives
Identify the basic human needs satisfied by TV and video systems
Understand why and how TV and video systems came to being

Define the basic structure of a TV and video system

Enumerate the limitations of the human vision systems
Understand the sampling algorithm used by electronic vision systems

Presentation Outline
The evolution of TV and video systems and technologies
The basic structure of a TV system
The exploitation of the human beings limited vision system

Sampling for vision frames, fields, lines, image rezolution

The evolution of TV & video systems

Why television ?

The evolution of TV & video systems

Why television ?
SATISFIED NEED -> provides access
to relevant visual and audio
information (e.g. people, animals,
places, objects, etc.) from one well
defined location in space and time
to another, different, well defined
location in space and time (at most
in the same time)

The evolution of TV & video systems

The [his]story

www.tvhistory.tv

The basic structure of a TV system

The basic structure of a TV system

Data Aquisition

Video
sensor

Encoding

Storage /
transmission

Rendering

Decoding

Display

The basic structure of a TV system

The limits of human vision (I)

Visual acuity (in eng. also acuteness or clearness of vision)

measures the capacity of the

human eye to distinguish spatial
details at a given distance
e.g. different objects and shapes of same light intensity

The limits of human vision (I)

Visual acuity (in eng. also acuteness or clearness of vision)
whole screen viewing angle
separation angle
D visualisation angle
H image/video height
FROM EXPERIMENTAL CONCLUSIONS
-> D/H = 4 5
-> ~ 1 (1/60 of a degree)

1
2
H

/2

i
i+1

more on this later this course

The limits of human vision (II)

Contrast sensitivity

measures the capacity of the human

eye to distinguish details of different
objects from their background based
on their difference in luminance
and/or colour

Y0

Y+dY

The limits of human vision (III)

Persistance of vision
measures the capacity of the
human eye to retain the
impression made by the image
even after the image is gone

-> linked to the perception of

motion and image flickering

Sampling for vision

the seen world

continuous in time (t)

continuous in space (2D/3D)

Sampling for vision

the perceived world

sampled in time (t)

based on the persistence of vision

property of the human eye

Sampling for vision

1 sample in time at (t) = 1 image (2D or 3D)

!!! 1 sample in time at (t) = 1 frame (in TV&video engineering !!!)

Sampling for vision

the perceived world

frames in time (t)

sampled in space once (2D ->1D)

based on the acuity of vision
property of the human eye

Sampling for vision

!!! 1 sample in 2D space at (y) = 1 line (in TV&video engineering !!!)

the line is still continuous in

space along 1 dimension

this is ANALOG TV

Sampling for vision

the perceived world

frames in time (t)

sampled in space twice (2D ->1D -> )

still based on the acuity of vision

property of the human eye

Sampling for vision

! 1 sample in 2D space at (y and x) = 1 pixel (in TV&video engineering !)

this is DIGITAL TV
and video

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How many Frames ? -> from perception of vision

Frame rate = number of frames per second

Frame rate a.k.a. vertical frequency (in TV)

Frame rate ~ 25 Hz (minimum)
It is a frequency -> it is measured in Hz

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How many Lines (n) ? -> from the acuity of vision

2
2

=
440 660

FROM EXPERIMENTAL CONCLUSIONS

-> D/H = 4 5
-> ~ 1 (1/60 of a degree)

1
2
H

/2

i
i+1
n

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How are the lines ordered ? -> from technical availability

scanning = methods of exploring the screen and separate it
into lines (it is a process)

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How are the lines ordered ? -> from technical availability

progressive scanning = one line after the other
Start
1
2
3
Horizontal blanking
(Cursa invers
pe orizontal)

Vertical blanking
(Cursa invers
pe vertical)

TOO MUCH
Bandwidth
(1950)

Horizontal scanning

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How are the lines ordered ? -> from technical availability

interlaced scanning = 1 frame divided into 2 fields

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How are the lines ordered ? -> from technical availability

interlaced scanning
Even numbered lines go into FIELD 1
Odd numbered lines go into FIELD 2
-> number of lines should be ODD!

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

How are the lines ordered ? -> from technical availability

interlaced scanning
Start
Linia 314
cmp 2
Linia 315
cmp 2

Linia 625
cmp 2
Prima jumtate
din Linia 313
cmp 1

-> number of lines should be ODD!

A doua jumtate
din Linia 313
cmp 2
Linia 1
cmp 1
Linia 2
cmp 1

Linia 312
cmp 1

half the
bandwidth
used by
progressive
scanning

Sampling for vision

-> Analog TV

Line issues (conclusions first half XX century)

-> number of lines should be more than ~ 440
(depending on what is considered optimal for the D/H ratio)

-> number of lines should be ODD!

(depending on how much bandwidth is available)

Conclusions
Identify the basic human needs satisfied by TV and video systems
Understand why and how TV and video systems came to being

Define the basic structure of a TV and video system

Enumerate the limitations of the human vision systems
Understand the sampling algorithm used by electronic vision systems