General Electric Company

Rca Inc.

Sarnoff Corporation

Rca Licensing Corporation

Roeder, Barbara J.

Isnardi, Michael A.

Fuhrer, Jack S.

Smith, Terrence R.

Terrence R Smith

Michael Anthony Isnardi

Christopher H Strolle

Jack S Fuhrer

Glenn A Reitmeier

Robert N Hurst, Jr

Barbara J Roeder

Jack Selig Fuhrer

Chandrakant Bhailalbhai Patel

Glenn Arthur Reitmeier

Robert Norman Hurst

Frank J Marlowe

Allen L Limberg

James J Gibson

Lauren A Christopher

Brian M Hadwen

Compression-related information is used to constrain the selection and control of video imagery and content used to produce one or more uncompressed video streams for subsequent compression processing. Rather than taking an uncompressed video stream &ldquo;as is&rdquo; for compression processing, characteristics of compression processing are taken into consideration during the video production stage when the uncompressed video stream is generated. Different types of constraints include &ldquo;intra-frame&rdquo; constraints that constrain video content within a frame of a video stream, &ldquo;inter-frame&rdquo; constraints that constrain video content from frame to frame within a video stream, and &ldquo;inter-stream&rdquo; constraints that constrain video content across different video streams. Two or more different constraints and two or more different types of constraints may be applied simultaneously. The compression-related information may be &ldquo;static&rdquo; (e.g., in the form of processing &ldquo;rules&rdquo; that are applied) or fed back in real time from the video compression stage as &ldquo;dynamic&rdquo; information. By taking the subsequent compression processing into account during the video production stage, the resulting uncompressed video stream(s) can be encoded (e.g., to achieve more programs per channel and/or higher quality per program) using computationally inexpensive &ldquo;objective&rdquo; video compression algorithms that operate without taking video content into consideration, while still achieving the bit rate and video quality levels achieved using computationally expensive &ldquo;subjective&rdquo; video compression algorithms that do take video content into consideration.

Constraining video production based on compression-related information

In a television signal processing system of the type which encodes an auxiliary carrier modulated with auxiliary image information in line format, which carrier is placed within the spectral band of standard television signal components, and wherein the modulated auxiliary carrier tends to interfere with the standard television signal, the interference is minimized by spatially variably attenuating the auxiliary image information. The attenuation function is selected to apply greater attenuation to the auxiliary image information at the extremities of the lines than toward the center of the lines.

Side panel signal processor for a widescreen television system

Apparatus is disclosed for reducing unwanted jagged diagonal artifacts in a video signal. At an encoder, moving image information is intraframe averaged over a given frequency range, e.g., above 1.5 MHz, while still image information is subjected to a field repeat process over a given frequency range. At a decoder, still image information is subjected to a frame repeat process over the given field repeat frequency range, while moving image information is left unchanged.

Television signal processing system for reducing diagonal image artifacts

A video signal processing system includes a signal interpolator associated with time compression/expansion apparatus. The interpolator is preceded by a high frequency peaking network which responds to a variable control signal representative of a desired amount of displayed image sharpness. In a disclosed embodiment the peaking network responds to a control signal which is a function of a distance between image pixels, and a variable signal from a viewer adjustable image sharpness control.

Sharpness control for a television image

In a widescreen signal encoding system for a television-type signal, side panel chrominance information is not subjected to time compression in an overscan region such as a horizontal overscan region containing time compressed low frequency side panel luminance information. Both low and high frequency side panel chrominance information, and high frequency side panel luminance information, modulate an auxiliary subcarrier.

Chrominance processing apparatus for a compatible widescreen television

An NTSC compatible widescreen EDTV system encodes and decodes a television signal comprising (1) a main, standard format NTSC signal with auxiliary low frequency side panel image information compressed into an overscan region thereof; (2) auxiliary high frequency side panel image information; and (3) auxiliary high frequency horizontal luminance information. At an encoder, components 2 and 3 are intraframe averaged before modulating an alternate subcarrier. Component 1 is intraframe averaged exclusive of the compressed side panel information before being combined with the modulated alternate subcarrier.

Widescreen television signal processing system with center and side

A system for expanding/compressing a video signal includes a dual-port memory having read and write address inputs and a video signal input. A pixel counter provides a pixel location signal to the write address input of the dual-port memory, and to a programmed memory device (e.g., a PROM) including a look-up table. The memory device is programmed to provide a time expanded/compressed version of the pixel location signal in accordance with a programmed time expansion/compression factor, which is applied to the read address input of the dual-port memory. A time expanded/compressed video signal is developed at the output of the dual-port memory.

Video signal time expansion/compression apparatus using programmed

A widescreen television signal containing center panel information and time compressed side panel information in an overscan region is intraframe processed above a given frequency only with respect to the center panel information. The intraframe processing apparatus includes a signal delay network with first and second 262H delay elements coupled between an input and an output of the delay network. During a first field interval, signals from the delay input and from an intermediate point between the delay elements are subtractively combined to produce a difference term which is coupled to a signal path. During a second field interval, signals from the delay output and from the intermediate point are subtractively combined to produce a difference term which is coupled to the signal path. An intraframe processed output signal is produced by combining the difference terms from the signal path with a signal from the intermediate delay point. A filter and an electronic gate in the signal path determine frequency selective intraframe processing of the center panel information alone.

Frequency selective video signal intraframe processor

A system for transmitting and receiving signals representing a high-definition television (HDTV) image is disclosed. The signals are sent over two conventional 6 MHz NTSC channels. A first signal, the main signal, is developed by encoding circuitry from HDTV source signals to be compatible with existing NTSC receivers in that it produces a display on those receivers which is not significantly distorted. The main signal includes psychophysically hidden video information which may be used by an extended definition receiver to produce a widescreen image having a higher level of detail than a conventional video image. A second signal, the auxiliary signal, is developed at the transmitter by decoding the main signal and subtracting the decoded main signal from the original HDTV source signals. The auxiliary signal, which includes frequency components from 0 Hz to 20 MHz is split into three bands, A (0 Hz-6MHz), B (6 MHz-12 MHz) and C (12 MHz-18 MHz). Bands B and C are frequency converted to occupy the 0 Hz-6 MHz band and are time division multiplexed on a line by line basis. The combined B and C bands are then time division multiplexed with the A band on a frame by frame basis for still images. For moving images, only the A band is sent. The receiver decodes the main signal, and, using a motion signal sent with the main signal, decodes the auxiliary signal. The decoded main and auxiliary signals are combined to reproduce the HDTV image.

Extended definition widescreen television system using plural signal

In a video signal expanding/compressing system including a video signal interpolator, video signals are peaked prior to interpolation. The amount of peaking is controlled in response to a signal representative of the distance between a pixel of an expanded/compressed video signal and a corresponding pixel of an original video signal.

Video signal interpolator with peaking

A widescreen television signal having left side, right side and center panel information is converted into a signal compatible with a standard television system, such as NTSC. In the compatible signal, center panel information is expanded to occupy the standard display region seen by a viewer, side panel low frequency information is compressed into the horizontal overscan region, and side panel high frequency information modulates an alternative subcarrier other than the chrominance subcarrier.

Compatible widescreen television system

The present application discloses a video signal processing apparatus for minimizing cross-color and cross-luminance interference in a composite video signal. A first filter is coupled to a color difference signal input terminal and generates a signal occupying a first region of a predetermined spatio-temporal frequency space. A second filter is coupled to a brightness signal input terminal and generates a signal occupying a second region of the predetermined spatio-temporal frequency space exclusive of the first region. An encoder forms a composite video signal from the filtered color difference and brightness signals such that they occupy mutually exclusive spatio-temporal frequency spaces. A television receiver for decoding the composite video signal is described which comprises the serial connection of a vertical-temporal filter and a horizontal filter. Filters are also disclosed for the first and second filters described above which are the serial connection of vertical-temporal filters and a horizontal filter. Specific vertical-temporal filter arrangements are also disclosed.

Video signal processing apparatus

A memory system for a television receiver is disclosed. The memory system contains an array of addressable memory cells, each row of which can contain one line of sampled video signals. The number of rows in the array is greater than the number of lines in a frame. Apparatus is included in the memory system for simultaneously writing more than one line of samples into the memory, for simultaneously reading more than one line of samples from the memory, or for both. Simultaneous access to multiple lines allows the reading and writing of multiple corresponding lines of samples from both the current and the prior frame. The row addresses that are used to store the lines of samples for a frame are not the same for each frame, rather the lines of each new frame are stored in rows with lesser addresses than the rows used for the prior frame. This introduces a backward scrolling of the stored image from frame to frame which avoids overwriting data to be used in time-domain or spatial-domain filtering done directly from memory.

Television memory system

The storage locations of a memory system map a field of sample points. Apparatus affording parallel access to a plurality of storage locations describing an array of the sample points in an access window, which window can be shifted to any selected region of field of sample points responsive to orthogonal address coordinates of one of the sample points in the array, is described.

Window-scanned memory

Graphics for television display which emphasize circles, ellipses, circular or elliptical arcs, and the radii of circles or ellipses are conveniently stored in image memories addressable in polar coordinates. Television images which are to be rotated are conveniently stored in such memories, so the angular coordinate of the image memory addresses can be incremented or decremented to rotate the image with hardware as simple as a single adder. To read image memories addressed in polar coordinates, the Cartesian coordinates descriptive of television raster display are scan-converted to polar coordinates. This scan conversion takes place in real time at video sampling rates. The generation of the angular coordinate of the polar coordinates is facilitated by dividing one Cartesian coordinate by another by differentially combining their logarithms as found from read-only-memory table look-up, then finding an arc tangent from the logarithm of their difference as found from further read-only-memory table look-up. Since the non-linearities of the logarithm and arc tangent functions tend to track each other to a degree, combining the anti-logarithm and arc tangent look-up steps in a single read-only memory provides greater angular resolution for number of bits used in the read-only-memory input addresses.

Growing community of inventors

Westmont, NJ, United States of America

Terrence R Smith