The Quest for Digital Broadcast Quality: Addressing Quality Hot Spots

Digital signal processing within digital televisions (DTVs) has advanced significantly, resulting in improved picture and audio quality. Further improvements in DTV technology over the next several years will continue to enhance the quality, but the largest gains in the HD video experience will be achieved by improving the A/V source received by the DTV. The video source, for example, is a highly degraded version of the original source captured in the studio. Improvements in the studio and broadcast infrastructure represent the greatest upsides for future quality improvements. This white paper examines the quality “hot spots” (degradation points) HDTV may suffer, from the time it is captured to the moment it is experienced by the consumer, and discusses ways of preserving and improving the quality within existing distribution bandwidth restrictions.