Digital television coding standards

Significant progress in international digital television standards has recently been made by the agreement in the CCIR on many fundamental digital coding parameters. The paper reviews the history of digital activities in both the European Broadcast Union (EBU) in Europe and the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) in North America. The subjects of composite and component signal coding, sampling frequency, and the extensible family of digital coding levels are discussed. A summary is given of the scope and results of the digital coding demonstrations held by the EBU in January 1981 and by the SMPTE in February 1981. The draft recommendation agreed on in February 1982 by the CCIR Plenary Assembly is described in detail. The paper concludes with a brief look into the future.