HDTV Standards Converter

Abstract

HDTV programs are presently being made according to the 1125/60/2 : 1 standard and the 1250/50/2 : 1 standard. Cooperation between the producers using different systems requires that standards converters be used, and such converters with motion compensation to reduce the generation of unnatural movement in the converted pictures are starting to be introduced. We have developed an experimental motion-compensated HDTV standards converter that can the two types of HDTV signals in real time. To improve the quality of the converted picture, we have developed better ways to detect the motion vectors by the iterative gradient method and assign these detected vectors. We have found that this improved conversion method results in picture quality that is acceptable for broadcasting general programs. This paper reports primarily on the motion detection and the field rate conversion.