A hierarchical transmission scheme improves the service continuity of the satellite ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) against heavy rain. In this paper, the coding scheme of base layer picture for digital HDTV broadcasting is discussed. It is required that the bit rate should be reduced to as low as possible within an acceptable picture quality, because strong error-correction and modulation scheme should be introduced in the base layer. In order to decide the bit rate of base layer picture, the relationship between bit rate and picture quality, display size, viewing distance, transition between low quality picture and high quality picture is clarified by means of subjective assessment. As a result at least 1.5 Mbps with MPEG2 is required for the bit rate of base layer picture in case of displaying it as a small window, under the condition that both the base layer picture quality and the unnaturalness due to layer transition are acceptable. 0.75 Mbps with MPEG1 is allowable if the unnaturalness of the layer transition is not so important.
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