High-definition television signal processing for transmitting and

Abstract

Video sources from a progressively scanned camera are processed so as to simulate a video source derived from motion picture film. The simulated film source video creates a distinctive 'pseudo-film pattern,' in which at least some of every SDTV video field has no motion or low motion with respect to corresponding picture areas of the SDTV video field paired with it (occasional rare camera-originated scenes result in a field in which the entire picture has high motion, breaking the pseudo-film pattern). Corresponding picture areas within the pairs of fields having no motion or low motion are merged, in the manner in which interlaced fields derived from the same motion picture frame are merged. Corresponding picture areas within the pairs of fields having high motion are subject to interlace-to-progressive scan conversion processing which is not purely a merger of fields. The result, during a pseudo-film pattern, is a progressively-scanned picture tantamount to that produced by the progressively-scanned camera--no motion and low motion portions of the reproduced picture are very sharp and essentially identical to that of the original camera source, whereas high motion portions of the picture will have lower resolution, appearing slightly 'fuzzy.' The resulting psychovisual impression is essentially identical to that of an HDTV system which stays progressive all the way from the source to the display, but at a fraction of the complexity and cost.