Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Viewers
Contents
1. 6 3 1 Main Program Audio If the downstream equipment being fed directly by the PIRD supports PCM then the ATSC Professional PIRD should output left and right channel PCM for the SDI transport If the downstream equipment supports AC 3 inputs then that should be output The advantage of using AC 3 is the associated AC 3 metadata can then reach other equipment downstream In any case the audio processing recommendations of Section 5 3 should be followed 6 3 2 Second Program Audio If the downstream equipment being fed directly by the PIRD supports PCM then the ATSC Professional PIRD should output monaural PCM for the SDI transport If the downstream equipment supports AC 3 inputs then that is also an option The advantage of using AC 3 is the associated AC 3 metadata can then reach other equipment downstream In any case the audio processing recommendations of Section 5 3 should be followed 6 3 3 Use of Audio Metadata for Determining Main and Second Audio Placement When there is only one audio stream it should be mapped to main audio Mapping of multiple ATSC audio streams to the main and second audio channels should be based on the priority field of the AC 3 descriptor defined in A 52 13 Section A 3 4 When there is more than one audio stream e If one streame priority field is set to the value 01 Primary Audio that stream should be placed on the main audio channel Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 e If one2. advancedtelevisionsystemscommitteeinc ATSG Recommended Practice Gonversion of ATSG Signals for Distribution to NTSC Viewers Document A 79 12 December 2008 Advanced Television Systems Commitiee Inc 1750 K Street N W Suite 1200 Washington D C 20006 Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 The Advanced Television Systems Committee Inc is an international non profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television The ATSC member organizations represent the broadcast broadcast equipment motion picture consumer electronics computer cable satellite and semiconductor industries Specifically ATSC is working to coordinate television standards among different communications media focusing on digital television interactive systems and broadband multimedia communications ATSC is also developing digital television implementation strategies and presenting educational seminars on the ATSC standards ATSC was formed in 1982 by the member organizations of the Joint Committee on InterSociety Coordination JCIC the Electronic Industries Association EIA the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers IEEE the National Association of Broadcasters NAB the National Cable Telecommunications Association NCTA and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers SMPTE Currently there are approximately 140 members representing the broadcast broadcast equipment motion picture consum
3. 1 20 Section 7 It should be noted that while AFD signaling helps to eliminate the postage stamp affect that can occur when receivers show bars all around a small active image broadcasters still need to ensure that signals coded for transmission do not lead to this effect In particular AFD cannot signal the presence of letterbox and pillarbox bars simultaneously so such picture formats should never be broadcast 7 1 3 VANC Data Considerations Many devices in the studio processing chain e g production switchers digital effects units recorders and video servers may pass data on only a small subset of lines in the VANC space and some devices may not pass VANC packets at all Care should therefore be taken in selecting the location of AFD data packets to be carried in VANC and in designing video systems to ensure that the integrity of the VANC data path is maintained Guidance on this is provided in Annex B of SMPTE 2016 3 21 Contribution and network distribution systems often carry video in compressed form where VANC data is not included In this case other arrangements should be made to enable the data to be distributed to the destination along with the video 7 1 4 AFD Insertion in the ATSC Encoder Irrespective of where it is originally generated for over the air transmission the AFD data is inserted into video user data by the ATSC station encoder Many current generation encoders are capable of extracting the
4. CEA 708 16 When present CEA 608 14 data carried per A 53 Part 4 6 should take precedence over any line 21 or line 284 data present in ANSI SCTE 127 15 payloads Where CEA 608 14 data is recovered and reinserted into analog line 21 format it is important that CEA 608 14 null pairs 0x80 0x80 are not inserted between redundant transmissions of CEA 608 14 control pairs It has been found that CEA 608 14 decoders compliant with FCC specifications will display anomalies if this null code insertion occurs between redundant transmissions of certain command pairs and all special and extended character pairs 5 4 2 ANSUSCTE 127 Data ATSC PIRDs should decode ANSI SCTE 127 15 payloads carried per ATSC A 99 17 and should re encode all the payload data as analog waveforms on the appropriate line When present CEA 608 14 data carried per A 53 Part 4 6 should take precedence over any line 21 or line 284 data present in ANSI SCTE 127 14 payloads 6 ATSC RECEPTION AND PROCESSING FOR CONVERSION TO SD DIGITAL ATSC PIRDs with baseband digital outputs should have the following capabilities 6 1 Reception and Decode ATSC PIRDs should support reception and decoding of 8 VSB ATSC signals that conform to ATSC Digital Television Standard A 53 1 The conceptual block diagram Figure 4 2 does not include RF or other electrical interfaces rather assumes an MPEG 2 Transport Stream TS as a starting point MPEG 2 TS monitoring and
5. alarm generation should follow the ATSC A 78 2 recommendations Default alarming should be restricted to TOA POA and CM with selection of QOS at operator discretion TNC errors should be ignored Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 6 2 Video Processing When a 4 3 SD digital SDI video signal with associated audio and data is not directly available from a broadcast station the MVPD may derive this signal from the available ATSC signal To ensure proper formatting and delivery of the converted signals ATSC PIRDs should have the following capabilities 6 2 1 Conversion of Compressed Formats The considerations detailed in Section 5 2 1 apply except that the output video format should be SDI SMPTE 259M 4 compliant 6 2 2 Aspect Ratio Control The considerations detailed in Section 5 2 2 apply except that the output video format is SDI 6 2 3 Color Space Conversions from HD to SD The considerations detailed in Section 5 2 3 apply except that the output video format is SDI 6 3 Audio Processing The ATSC PIRD should produce PCM or a passed through AC 3 stream Depending on the system architecture the digital audio signals from the ATSC PIRD may be either embedded in the video SDI signal as shown in Figure 4 2 or provided as separate non embedded outputs In all cases care must be taken to preserve audio video synchronization Audio may be embedded with its associated video or routed directly
6. equivalent analog video signal required for the output of the conversion process 5 2 1 2 Vertical Dimension In analog NTSC services the first line of the picture is line 23 the preceding lines even those defined as active video in the FCC Rules typically contain data services including captions or test signals It is therefore recommended that PIRDs with downconversion capabilities should convert all incoming HD or SD signals to 480 lines which should include any bars inserted as part of the aspect ratio conversion see Section 5 2 2 The first line of converted video including such bars if present should be placed on line 23 of the analog video output This arrangement allows for new line 21 data to be added to the NTSC output signal see Section 5 4 1 It should be noted that for letterbox output video the first line of the active image will typically start at line 53 Although ATSC A 53 Part 4 6 Table 6 2 SD formats all specify a vertical size value of 480 lines SMPTE 170M 5 and SMPTE 125M 7 both of which predate the widespread use of video compression stipulate 486 lines for the image size Some existing baseband downconverter units may produce image sizes with more than 480 lines typically in the range 484 to 487 lines This variation from the recommendation for 480 lines should be recognized if such format converters are used in a MVPD facility Implementers should consult SMPTE RP202 8 for additional guidance on form
7. first 20 horizontal lines in each NTSC field see definition of Line above These lines are not intended to be directly displayed by a receiver In digital systems the VBI does not exist although the line numbers are allocated as if it does Frequently lines 21 and 22 are considered a part of VBI but such classification is technically incorrect 4 SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY There are several different system architectures that may be deployed by MVPDs 1 Systems which pass through the ATSC Transport Stream with minor modifications such as changing the Terrestrial Virtual Channel Table in the PSIP for a Cable Virtual Channel Table This document will not discuss this system architecture further 2 Systems which convert the ATSC Transport Stream into an analog NTSC signal and modulate that for delivery to their customers Such a system is outlined in Figure 4 1 and discussed in Section 5 1 Note that SMPTE 170M 5 does not use Field x Line y nomenclature rather lines are numbered from the start of Fields 1 and 3 See ANSI SCTE 127 7 1 4 for a conversion formula Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers Video PES 608 compatibility bytes extraction 708 caption extractor Video decoder AFD extractor SCTE 127 data stream Video PES 525 line video Video format conversion Video PES AFD formatting information 608 Data Data inse
8. mix for second audio program SAP 7 Proper choice of AC 3 Dynamic Range Compression DRC profile This recommendation does not include processing of ATSC signals for delivery to SCTE 54 or SCTE 128 compliant receivers It is noted that the SCTE Standards for delivery of digital transport streams using QAM signals and the associated reception decode for display via many combinations of equipment are well documented by the cable industry 2 REFERENCES At the time of publication the editions indicated below were valid All documents are subject to revision and parties to agreement based on this RP are encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent editions of the documents listed below 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ATSC ATSC Digital Television Standard Part 1 Digital Television System Doc A 53 Part 1 2007 Advanced Television Systems Committee Washington D C 3 January 2007 ATSC Recommended Practice Transport Stream Verification Doc A 78A Advanced Television Systems Committee Washington D C 9 May 2007 SMPTE SMPTE 292 2006 1 5 Gb s Signal Data Serial Interface Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y SMPTE SMPTE 259M 2006 SDTV Digital Signal Data Serial Digital Interface Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y SMPTE SMPTE 170M 2004 Composite Analog V
9. selection of QOS at operator discretion TNC errors should be ignored 5 2 Video Processing When an NTSC analog video signal with associated audio and data is not directly available from a broadcast station the MVPD may derive this signal from the available ATSC signal To ensure proper formatting and delivery of the converted signal ATSC PIRDs should have the following capabilities Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 5 2 1 Conversion of Compressed Formats ATSC PIRDs should support format conversion of any A 53 Part 4 6 Table 6 2 video format as well as the 720x480 video format to NTSC analog format in accordance with SMPTE 170M 5 5 2 1 1 Horizontal Dimension 1080 line and 720 line HD video formats should be downconverted to fill an active line with 720 pixels as defined in SMPTE 125M 7 480 line SD video may be coded as lines of 720 704 or 640 pixels If coded as 720 pixels the reconstructed video will map directly into an active line as defined in SMPTE 125M 7 If the coded video lines are 704 pixels long the reconstructed video should be centered on the line as defined in SMPTE 125M 7 with the first eight and last eight pixels of the full 720 pixel active line set at black Video coded as 640x480 should be scaled horizontally to fill the full active line as defined in SMPTE 125M 7 SMPTE 125M 7 defines the relationship between the 525 line digital pixel samples and the
10. such as cable or direct to home satellite It recommends the equipment capabilities needed to provide the highest quality programming to viewers who only receive NTSC services In case of any uncertainty about whether ATSC Transport Streams conform to the relevant standards or to the recommendations in this document then local coordination should occur to resolve any ambiguous or omitted signaling This RP covers professional equipment and excludes any recommendations for design or implementation of consumer equipment Delivery to the home is not addressed by this Recommendation 1 1 Introduction and Background In preparation for the 2009 digital transition broadcasters cable systems and satellite providers will need to arrange for distribution of broadcast channels to their standard definition viewers Many markets will not have direct access to NTSC or serial digital interface SDI SD versions of broadcast services but will be limited to direct reception of ATSC digital television DTV signals These DTV signals may contain HD or SD formats This recommendation provides guidance for the creation of the replacement NTSC signal Two cases are explicitly covered and one case is implicitly covered The first case is direct delivery via NTSC on a RF channel The second case is for head end facilities that have SDI interconnections from the broadcast station signal receive rack to the multi channel system transmit rack holding NTSC modulators or o
11. 4 shows a color matrix error 120 ANGELA Figure 4 4 Incorrect color matrix conversion luminance portion of the color bar signal Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 5 3 Audio Processing The conversion of the ATSC sound program should be done in a manner that vvill present the NTSC listener with main and secondary program services whose loudness with respect to 100 percent aural modulation and dynamic range are as close to the existing NTSC services as possible The conversion process should consider the fact that NTSC receivers may not be able to reproduce as wide a dynamic range audio signal as some ATSC receivers or home theater systems It should also take into account that the gain structure of existing NTSC receivers is optimized for program dialog levels in the order of 17 to 20 dB below peak FM modulation 5 3 1 Main Program Audio The main program audio decoder should be set to produce a stereo compatible Dolby Surround downmix also called Pro Logic Left total Right total or Lt Rt downmix of the multichannel source program that is suitable for Dolby Surround Pro Logic decoding this downmix mode will not affect an incoming stereo program signal It should also be set to RF Mode and have compression and dialog normalization enabled at all times The gain structure of the converter should allow a 0 dBFS signal level in the digital domain of the Main Audio Program decoder to prod
12. AFD data placed in VANC and inserting it into the MPEG 2 video user data Some encoders are also capable of setting AFD codes based on user presets or external commands 21 Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 Station output bitstreams using AFD should at all times contain valid AFD data consistent vvith the associated video The intermittent presence of AFD is highly undesirable as it may result in unknown operation of equipment downstream 7 2 ATSC Encoding Video Alignment It is recommended that the spatial alignment of pixels and lines set out in SMPTE RP202 8 should be used for the ATSC encoding of video signals for broadcast This will help ensure that signal decoding and conversion occurring downstream will result in output signals with optimum video images This is especially important for SD signals where the vertical placement of the coded 480 lines can vary if not correctly specified It is also noted that the inclusion of line 21 and line 22 in broadcast DTV programming may result in very visible and undesirable visual artifacts at the top of the picture on many DTV receiver displays and this should be avoided 7 3 Closed Captioning and CEA 608 Data Infrastructure ATSC transmissions must conform to the requirements of A 53 Part 4 6 regarding the carriage of CEA 708 16 closed caption data Such caption data may be supplied to the ATSC encoder via mechanisms defined in SMPTE 334 1 18 or SMPTE 333 22 and possi
13. BFS deciBels Full Scale DBS Direct Broadcast Satellite DRC Dynamic Range Compression DTV Digital Television Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 DVB Digital Video Broadcasting dynrng DRC variable EIT Event Information Table ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute FCC Federal Communications Commission FM Frequency Modulation IPTV Internet Protocol IP Television IRD Integrated Receiver Decoder sometimes termed Receiver Descrambler but not in these systems ATSC content is always in the clear ITU International Telecommunication Union HANC Horizontal ANCillary HD High Definition HDTV High Definition Television HD SDI High Definition Serial Digital Interface compliant with SMPTE 292 3 MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group MVPD Multichannel Video Programming Distributor NTSC National Television System Committee PCM Pulse Code Modulation PID Packet IDentifier PIRD Professional Integrated Receiver Decoder see IRD above POA Program Off Air see A 78 2 PSIP Program and System Information Protocol QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation QOS Quality of Service see A 78 2 RF Radio Frequency RP Recommended Practice SAP Secondary Audio Program SCTE Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers SD Standard Definition SDI Serial D
14. ERENCES 8 3 DEFINITIONS 10 3 1 Compliance Notation 10 3 2 Treatment of Syntactic Elements 10 3 3 Symbols Abbreviations and Mathematical Operators 10 3 4 Acronyms and Abbreviations 10 3 5 Terms 12 4 SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY 12 5 ATSC RECEPTION AND PROCESSING FOR CONVERSION TO ANALOG NTSC 14 5 1 Reception and Decode 14 5 2 Video Processing 14 5 2 1 Conversion of Compressed Formats 15 5 2 1 1 Horizontal Dimension 15 5 2 1 2 Vertical Dimension 15 5 2 2 Aspect Ratio control 15 5 2 3 Color Space Conversions from HD to SD 16 5 3 Audio Processing 17 5 3 1 Main Program Audio 17 5 3 2 Secondary Audio Program SAP 17 5 3 3 Use of Audio Metadata for Determining Main and SAP Placement 17 5 3 4 Considerations for Continued Use of Existing Equipment 18 5 4 Data Signals Processing 18 5 4 1 CEA 608 Data 18 5 4 2 ANSI SCTE 127 Data 18 6 ATSC RECEPTION AND PROCESSING FOR CONVERSION TO SD DIGITAL 18 6 1 Reception and Decode 18 6 2 Video Processing 19 6 2 1 Conversion of Compressed Formats 19 6 2 2 Aspect Ratio Control 19 6 2 3 Color Space Conversions from HD to SD 19 6 3 Audio Processing 19 6 3 1 Main Program Audio 19 6 3 2 Second Program Audio 19 6 3 3 Use of Audio Metadata for Determining Main and Second Audio Placement 19 6 3 4 Considerations for Continued Use of Existing Equipment 20 6 4 Data Signals Processing 20 6 4 1 CEA 608 Data 20 6 4 2 ANSI SCTE 127 Data 20 7 BROADCAST STATION INFRASTRUCTURE GUIDELINES 20 7 1 AFD Infrastructure 20 Advance
15. FINITIONS 3 1 Compliance Notation This RP contains no normative references or mandatory requirements 3 2 Treatment of Syntactic Elements This document contains symbolic references to syntactic elements used in the audio video and transport coding subsystems These references are typographically distinguished by the use of a different font e g restricted may contain the underscore character e g sequence_end_code and may consist of character strings that are not English words e g dynrng 3 3 Symbols Abbreviations and Mathematical Operators The symbols abbreviations and mathematical operators used herein are as found in Section 3 4 of ATSC A 53 Part 1 1 and as herein specified Numbers preceded by Ox are to be interpreted as hexadecimal values and numbers within single quotes e g 10010100 are to be interpreted as a string of binary digits 3 4 Acronyms and Abbreviations The following acronyms and abbreviations are used within this specification AC 3 ATSC Digital Audio Compression Standard see A 52 13 AFD Active Format Description AMOL Automated Measurement of Lineups ANSI American National Standards Institute ASI Asynchronous Serial Interface ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee BTSC Broadcast Television Systems Committee CEA Consumer Electronics Association CDP Caption Distribution Packet CM Component Missing see A 78 2 compr DRC variable d
16. NC VBI insertion AMOL and other data Main program audio Document A 79 Digital 525 line video with VANC or VBI data SD SDI To MVPD transport rack HANC insertion formatter SMPTE 337 HANC data Second audio formatter NOTE Care must be taken to ensure the proper synchronization of video audio and associated data at the output of this system Figure 4 2 Conceptual block diagram ATSC bitstream conversion to digital SD SDI video with audio and data to build an implementation It is out of scope for this document to supply implementation specifics MVPD system operators should understand these block diagrams as outlining functionality which should be included in equipment they deploy again with the understanding that different devices may process steps differently 5 ATSC RECEPTION AND PROCESSING FOR CONVERSION TO ANALOG NTSC ATSC PIRDs with analog NTSC outputs should have the following capabilities 5 1 Reception and Decode ATSC PIRDs should support reception and decoding of 8 VSB ATSC signals that conform to ATSC Digital Television Standard A 53 1 The conceptual block diagram Figure 4 1 does not include RF or other electrical interfaces rather assumes an MPEG 2 Transport Stream TS as a starting point MPEG 2 TS monitoring and alarm generation should follow the ATSC A 78 2 recommendations Default alarming should be restricted to TOA POA and CM with
17. alnorm value and the actual dialog level can result in severe over compression of the program even if the encoder compression profile is set to None This is done to avoid the possibility of even more annoying signal clipping in the decoder 7 5 1 Audio Metadata Proper setting of audio metadata is important to the mapping of multiple ATSC audio streams to the NTSC main and SAP audio channels Special attention is called to the priority field of the AC 3 descriptor defined in A 52 13 Section A 3 4 For the main ATSC audio stream the priority field 5 See audio encoder s user manual for additional information 6 Note that some older than the DP569 Dolby Digital Multichannel Audio Encoders may allow RF Overmodulation protection to be enabled or disabled Experience has shown that audio quality is improved when this is disabled and therefore it should be disabled 23 Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 should be set to the value 01 Primary Audio For an ATSC audio stream intended to be mapped to the NTSC SAP audio the priority field should be set to 10 Other Audio When three or more audio streams are present in the ATSC Virtual Channel for all audio streams that are neither the main nor SAP audio the priority field should be set to 11 Not specified for each Although not needed for audio mapping encoders should also ensure the language field is properly set according to A 53 Pa
18. at conversions 5 2 2 Aspect Ratio control In conversion to a 4 3 SD raster ATSC PIRDs should support aspect ratio control with the following configurable options for 16 9 source conversion to the 4 3 aspect ratio e Center Cut forced aspect ratio conversion to center cut ignoring AFD e Letterbox forced aspect ratio conversion to letterbox ignoring AFD e Auto automatic selection of center cut or letterbox as activated by the ATSC AFD data decoded from input See Annex A for details When in Auto ATSC PIRDs should support control of picture aspect ratio through AFD with the following additional capabilities e Switch between aspect ratio modes should be frame accurate following AFD data Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 e When valid AFD data is no longer present ATSC PIRDs should be able to automatically switch to a user programmable setting center cut or letterbox This is intentionally different from the consumer equipment advice given in CEA CEB16 9 If the incoming signal has a 4 3 coded frame under all circumstances the full frame should be used and the output signal should be 4 3 Any AFD present should be ignored 5 2 3 Color Space Conversions from HD to SD When the HDTV signal is downconverted the ITU R BT 709 10 color space should be converted to NTSC SMPTE 170M 5 SMPTE 125M 7 BT 601 11 color space Figure 4 3 shows a correct downconversion while Figure 4
19. bly others Guidance on the implementation of systems for DTV closed captioning is provided in SMPTE EG43 23 Typically such systems use caption distribution packets CDPs now defined in SMPTE 334 2 24 which include CEA 708 16 caption data CEA 608 14 data and caption service information As occurred with NTSC program distribution insertion of closed captioning data may occur at the network release facility and some captioning may occur at the local broadcast station Current generation CEA 708 16 caption equipment allows for CDPs distributed with a video signal from a network to be modified if necessary downstream at the local station so that captions may be added or modified for the program being transmitted 7 3 1 CEA 608 Data In accordance with the requirements of A 53 Part 4 6 as well as the guidelines of CEA 708 16 the closed captioning data carried in the ATSC bitstream from the broadcaster should include CEA 608 14 data as well as CEA 708 16 captioning data It is important to note that the CEA 608 14 data should include all the data that would normally have carried in the broadcaster s previous NTSC service including all 4 caption services all 4 text services and all XDS bytes Where the CEA 608 14 data is generated and inserted into the CDPs depends on the operational practices of the broadcaster If an NTSC signal chain including CEA 608 14 line 21 data is maintained within the broadcast facility then t
20. cture are private by nature and are out of scope of this RP This RP does not address delivery of digital signals to residences and is silent on the requirements that exist for MVPD owned and or consumer owned devices in residences which include providing NTSC signals with certain characteristics While legal and regulatory advice for such devices is out of scope of this document the reader s attention is drawn to the FCC Rules dealing with digital conversion of ATSC signals by consumer devices with NTSC outputs if the delivery system does not provide NTSC signals directly to consumer devices Figures 4 1 and 4 2 are conceptual block diagrams showing the steps that must be taken to properly recover the video audio and data signals but not necessarily in the precise order required 2 These generators may be found in home STBs or other locations Such NTSC generation processes are out of scope of this RP Advanced Television Systems Committee MPEG 2 TS DEMUX ATSC transport stream Video PES 708 caption extractor Video decoder AFD extractor SCTE 127 data extractor Video PES Video PES AFD formatting information Main audio program select Second audio program select Digital video 608 compatibility bytes extraction Video format conversion VANC VBI data formatter SMPTE 337 HANC data 525 line 608 Data video VA
21. d Television Systems Committee Document A 79 7 1 1 AFD Generation 20 7 1 2 Image Processing Considerations 21 7 1 3 VANC Data Considerations 21 7 1 4 AFD Insertion in the ATSC Encoder 21 7 2 ATSC Encoding Video Alignment 22 7 3 Closed Captioning and CEA 608 Data Infrastructure 22 7 3 1 CEA 608 Data 22 7 3 2 Content Advisory 23 7 4 ANSI SCTE 127 Data 23 7 5 Audio Processing 23 7 5 1 Audio Metadata 23 7 6 PSIP Considerations 24 Annex A Active Format Description 25 A1 INTRODUCTION 25 Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers Table of Contents 12 December 2008 Index of Tables and Figures Table A 1 AFD Format Conversion Illustrations 26 Figure 4 1 Conceptual block diagram ATSC bitstream conversion to analog NTSC video audio and data 13 Figure 4 2 Conceptual block diagram ATSC bitstream conversion to digital SD SDI video with audio and data 14 Figure 4 3 Correct color matrix conversion luminance portion of the color bar signal 16 Figure 4 4 Incorrect color matrix conversion luminance portion of the color bar signal 16 ga CS Cc Advanced Television Systems Committee ATSC Recommended Practice Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Viewers 1 SCOPE This Recommended Practice RP provides guidance to broadcasters and other creators of ATSC high definition HD or standard definition SD content and to the operators of Multichannel Video Programming Distributor MVPD systems
22. er electronics computer cable satellite and semiconductor industries ATSC Digital TV Standards include digital high definition television HDTV standard definition television SDTV data broadcasting multichannel surround sound audio and satellite direct to home broadcasting Contact information is given below Mailing address Advanced Television Systems Commniittee Inc 1750 K Street N W Suite 1200 Washington D C 20006 Telephone 202 872 9160 voice 202 872 9161 fax Web site http www atsc org E mail standards atsc org Note The user s attention is called to the possibility that compliance with this recommended practice may require use of an invention covered by patent rights By publication of this document no position is taken with respect to the validity of this claim or of any patent rights in connection therewith One or more patent holders may have filed a statement regarding the terms on which such patent holder s may be willing to grant a license under these rights to individuals or entities desiring to obtain such a license The ATSC Patent Policy and Patent Statements are available at http www atsc org The revision history of this document is given below A 79 Revision History A 79 approved 12 December 2008 Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers Table of Contents 12 December 2008 Table of Contents 1 SCOPE 7 1 1 Introduction and Background y 2 REF
23. h SMPTE 2016 3 21 The use of bar data is not covered in this RP The AFD specifications provide for a variety of active format scenarios The codes listed in Table A 1 are those that may legally be present in 16 9 digital video signals intended for transmission in the USA excluding codes 0010 and 0011 which although legal are not recommended in the ATSC standard Codes marked in Table A 1 as Recommended are those considered most likely to be in common use The table illustrates various configurations for 16 9 frames that may be signaled with AFD and shows the format of the resulting 4 3 frames after down conversion and or aspect ratio conversion With the exception of codes 1011 and 1110 all aspect ratio conversions shown are effectively a 4 3 center cut or a 16 9 letterbox operation Alternative center as mentioned in some format descriptions refers to an area of essential picture information in which case other parts of the picture may be cropped without significant loss to the viewer The cross hatch areas in some converted frame illustrations show the extent of the letterbox bars that should be added by the video processing equipment These bars are recommended to be black AFD 0000 indicates that image format information is not available and is undefined Unless bar data is available DTV receivers and video equipment should interpret the active image area as being the same as the c
24. he CEA 608 14 data may be simply bridged to the CEA 708 16 caption generator device that inserts the CDPs into the SDI or HD SDI video signal Where the line 21 infrastructure is no longer present then alternative paths should be established to provide this data to the CEA 708 16 caption generator As occurred with NTSC program distribution some CEA 608 14 data may originate at the network release facility and some or all at the local broadcast station Current generation CEA 708 16 caption equipment allows for CDPs distributed with a video signal from a network to be modified if necessary downstream at the local station so they include valid and current CEA 608 22 Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 14 data for the program being transmitted including content advisory V Chip network name time of day and other air time specific XDS packets 7 3 2 Content Advisory Broadcasters should ensure consistency between the XDS content advisory bytes V chip carried in CEA 608 14 data and the content advisory information carried in PSIP 25 for the same program Depending on the operational practices of the broadcaster it may be desirable to provide equipment that reads EIT data from the PSIP for the broadcast and verifies or inserts appropriate data into incorrect or missing XDS bytes 7 4 ANSI SCTE 127 Data The ATSC encoder should encode ANSI SCTE 127 15 payloads if pr
25. ideo Signal NTSC for Studio Applications Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y ATSC ATSC Digital Television Standard Part 4 MPEG 2 Video System Characteristics with Amendment No 1 Doc A 53 Part 4 2007 Advanced Television Systems Committee Washington D C 24 December 2007 Amendment No 1 dated 24 December 2007 SMPTE SMPTE 125M 1995 Component Video Signal 4 2 2 Bit Parallel Digital Interface Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y SMPTE RP202 2008 Video Alignment for Compression Coding Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y CEA CEB16 Active Format Description AFD and Bar Data Recommended Practice Consumer Electronics Association Arlington VA 31 July 2006 10 ITU ITU R BT 709 5 2002 Parameter Values for the HDTV Standards for Production and International Programme Exchange 11 ITU ITU R BT 601 5 1995 Studio Encoding Parameters of Digital Television for Standard 4 3 and Wide Screen 16 9 Aspect Ratios Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 12 FCC OET Bulletin No 60 Revision A 1986 Multichannel Television Sound Transmission and Audio Processing Requirements for the BTSC System 13 ATSC Digital Audio Compression Standard AC 3 E AC 3 Doc A 52B Advanced Television Systems Committee Washing
26. igital Interface compliant with SMPTE 259M 4 SDTV Standard Definition Television SMPTE Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers STB Set Top Box Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 TNC Technically Non Conformant see A 78 2 TOA Transport stream Off Air see A 78 2 TS Transport Stream VANC Vertical ANCillary VBI Vertical Blanking Interval VSB Vestigial Sideband XDS eXtended Data Services 3 5 Terms The following terms are used within this specification ATSC Professional Integrated Receiver Decoder PIRD A device employed in a broadcast station MVPD headend or similar professional location which has the capability to produce NTSC or SDI video with associated audio and data from all ATSC standard formats Bar data Additional information which accompanies AFD data providing exact sizes of either top and bottom bars or side bars for image aspect ratios other than 4 3 or 16 9 such as widescreen movies Line A specification of a given television scanning line number defined in different image format standards For NTSC the line numbers are as defined by Figure 7 of SMPTE 170M EN VANC An acronym for Vertical ANCillary data space In a broadcast facility in uncompressed SDUHD SDI the Vertical ANCillary VANC data space is used for VBI and other non video signals VBI An acronym for Vertical Blanking Interval which is composed of the
27. mentation of CEA 708 B and CEA 608 B Closed Captioning Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 24 SMPTE SMPTE 334 2 2007 Caption Distribution Packet CDP Definition Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 25 ATSC Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable Revision C With Amendment No 1 Doc A 65C Advanced Television Systems Committee Washington D C 9 May 2006 26 ATSC ATSC Digital Television Standard Part 3 Service Multiplex and Transport Subsystem Characteristics Doc A 53 Part 3 2007 Advanced Television Systems Committee Washington D C 3 January 2007 27 CEA CEA 2020 2006 Other VBI Waveforms Consumer Electronics Association Arlington VA August 2006 28 DVB ETSI ETSI TS 101 154 V1 8 1 Digital Video Broadcasting DVB Implementation Guidelines for the use of MPEG 2 Systems Video and Audio in Satellite Cable and Terrestrial Broadcasting Applications Annex B June 2007 Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 29 SCTE ANSI SCTE 54 2004 Digital Video Service Multiplex and Transport System Standard for Cable Television Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Exton PA 30 SCTE ANSI SCTE 128 2007 AVC Video Systems and Transport Constraints for Cable Television Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Exton PA 3 DE
28. nalog waveform CEA 608 14 data should be conveyed in a format that is compatible with downstream equipment being fed directly by the PIRD 6 4 2 ANSI SCTE 127 Data The ATSC PIRD should decode ANSI SCTE 127 15 payloads carried per ATSC A 99 17 and should either insert all the payload data as VANC packets per SMPTE 2031 19 or as VBI data consisting of digital samples of the analog waveform ANSI SCTE 127 15 data should be conveyed in a format that is compatible with downstream equipment being fed directly by the PIRD Care should be taken to ensure proper timing in relationship to the associated video is maintained When present CEA 608 14 data carried per SMPTE 334 1 18 or as VBI data should take precedence over any line 21 or line 284 data present in ANSI SCTE 127 15 payloads 7 BROADCAST STATION INFRASTRUCTURE GUIDELINES 7 1 AFD Infrastructure In order for the automatic aspect ratio control function described in Section 5 to work correctly it is necessary for the ATSC video signal from the broadcaster to include associated AFD data as described in Annex A Points to note are described below 7 1 1 AFD Generation How and where AFD is generated will depend on the operational practices of the broadcaster but in most cases the data defined in SMPTE 2016 1 20 is expected to be inserted into the VANC in 20 Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers 12 December 2008 baseband SDI or HD SDI signals a
29. oded frame This code should be used with caution For further information on AFD codes and the bar data that may be associated with AFD see ATSC A 53 Part 4 6 and SMPTE 2016 1 20 CEA CEB16 9 provides comprehensive Page 25 Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 guidance on how consumer devices should respond to AFD and bar data in some cases this is different from that shown here for professional equipment Table A 1 AFD Format Conversion Illustrations Aspect Converted 4 3 AFD Code Ratio Description Original 16 9 Frame Frame 0000 16 9 Undefined Letter box image vvith an aspect 0100 16 9 ratio greater than 16 9 vertically centered in the coded frame 1000 Full frame 16 9 N Recommended 16 9 e the same as the coded see Co rame N J Eege 1001 Pillarbox 4 3 image horizontally E d k Recommended 16 9 centered in the coded frame O Q L J K Es KE 1010 16 9 Full frame 16 9 image with no J b N J Recommended 3 cropping permitted L UO 4 Pillarbox 14 9 image 1011 16 9 horizontally centered in the coded frame 1101 16 9 Pillarbox 4 3 image with 14 9 alternative center 26 Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Vievvers Annex A 12 December 2008 Table A 1 AFD Format Conversion Illustrations Full f
30. ovisioned to do so CEA 608 14 data should be carried per A 53 Part 4 6 as mentioned in Section 7 2 1 rather than ANSUSCTE 127 15 7 5 Audio Processing To facilitate the downstream conversion of the ATSC sound program the local broadcast station should ensure that the AC 3 encoder audio service bit stream information parameters pre processing conditions etc D are set appropriately for each audio stream of program material being encoded If pre compressed AC 3 audio is being passed through at the station then station personnel should take care to ensure the settings in the stream are correct The station should also set the dialnorm parameter value appropriately for each audio stream of program material being encoded The appropriate value may either be fixed in which case the dialog level of the program should be adjusted before transmission to match the fixed dialnorm value or the dialnorm parameter should be set to match the actual dialog level of each program being transmitted The station should also set in the absence of a Dynamic Range Compression DRC profile specified by the original program producer the Line and RF mode DRC profiles to Film Standard for each audio stream of program material being encoded Note that if the dialnorm parameter value does not represent the dialog level of the program the quality of the audio delivered to the NTSC service may be compromised Specifically a large mismatch between the di
31. rame 16 9 1110 16 9 image vvith 14 9 alternative center 1111 16 9 Full frame 16 9 image vvith 4 3 Recommended i alternative center 27 advancedtelevisionsystemscommitteeinc Advanced Television Systems Commitiee Inc 1750 K Street N W Suite 1200 Washington D C 20006
32. rt 3 26 and when more than one audio service has the same language the component_name_descriptor is required to be added according to A 65 25 7 6 PSIP Considerations Station personnel need to understand that per ATSC A 65 25 and the FCC Rules they will continue to use their pre transition major channel number which in all cases was an NTSC broadcast channel assignment This applies to those few stations which surrendered their analog channels pre transition Failure to use their analog channel number as their major channel number will result in confusing both their viewing audience who are accustomed to thinking of channel N and the relevant MVPDs who are also accustomed to thinking of the station as channel N 24 Annex A Active Format Description 1 INTRODUCTION Active Format Description AFD is industry standard metadata that can be used to describe active picture information about a video signal This metadata enables video processing devices to make automatic adjustments according to aspect ratio and other picture information signaled by the AFD either for presentation on a video display or during conversion from one video format to another The AFD code and bar data values are carried in the video user data of the MPEG 2 Elementary Stream in accordance with ATSC Digital Television Standard A 53 Part 4 6 AFD and bar data are also carried in the VANC space of baseband digital video signals in accordance wit
33. rtion 525 line video extractor AMOL and other data Main audio program decoder Main audio program select Audio downmix to stereo LtRt Second audio Audio program downmix to decoder mono Second audio program select Stereo LtRt program audio with data 12 December 2008 NTSC composite video __ NTSC Encoder To BTSC encoder and RF modulator Mono SAP audio NOTE Care must be taken to ensure the proper synchronization of video audio and associated data at the output of this system Figure 4 1 Conceptual block diagram ATSC bitstream conversion to analog NTSC video audio and data 3 Systems vyhich convert the ATSC Transport Stream into a digital 4 3 SD signal and then send that digitized signal to the MVPD transmit rack Such a system is outlined in Figure 4 2 and discussed in Section 6 Note that in this case the transmit rack may hold NTSC modulators or suitable transmission equipment for digital systems such as IPTV or DBS The possible further compression stage during distribution should be kept in mind during the discussion in Section 6 Some MVPDs currently convert the legacy NTSC input signal to digital form or accept a pre digitized signal and use a digital infrastructure to deliver the digital signal to NTSC generators at points remote from the input The other directly provided digital signals that may use this same infrastru
34. s described in SMPTE 2016 3 21 AFD insertion may occur in various places such as during production or postproduction of programs and advertisements at network facilities at the syndicator and at local broadcast stations Specifics are out of scope of this RP In all cases the AFD should correctly describe the image characteristics of the associated video signal Full AFD information always includes the aspect ratio of the coded frame as well as the four bit AFD code During insertion of commercial advertisements care should be taken to ensure the correct AFD information describing the advertisement s image characteristics is signaled AFD codes may also be set as part of the ATSC encoding process under automation control see Section 7 1 4 SMPTE 2016 1 20 and ATSC A 53 Part 4 6 also define bar data that may be associated with AFD The use of bar data is not covered in this RP 7 1 2 Image Processing Considerations Various video processes that signals pass through during the broadcast production and distribution chain may change the aspect ratio of the active image area and or coded frame These include up and down format converters aspect ratio converters video switchers and digital video effects units Whenever such video processing and conversion occurs the equipment should process the associated incoming AFD such that the AFD data on the output correctly describe the associated output video signal as described in SMPTE 2016
35. stream s priority field is set to the value 10 Other Audio that stream should be placed on the second audio channel When three or more audio streams are present in the ATSC Virtual Channel all audio streams that have the priority field set to 11 Not specified should be assumed to be neither the main nor second audio 6 3 4 Considerations for Continued Use of Existing Equipment Some existing ATSC PIRDs select and route audio services by PID value The broadcaster should attempt to maintain consistent PID assignments for the audio service intended for SD digital main and the audio service intended for SD digital secondary audio 6 4 Data Signals Processing Processing of data signals is of necessity different from their handling in an NTSC conversion The metadata associated with the incoming ATSC TS that is needed to control the eventual creation of an NTSC signal including data as described in see Section 5 should be mapped into a suitable carriage method for delivery to the transmit rack 6 4 1 CEA 608 Data To provide a data service consistent with current practices for distribution of broadcasters analog signals CEA 608 14 data as detailed in Section 5 4 1 should be delivered to the digital system for eventual insertion into line 21 of the NTSC output signal in other equipment downstream CEA 608 14 data may be inserted in SDI as VANC data per SMPTE 334 1 18 or as VBI data consisting of digital samples of the a
36. the D A converter Also see ATSC Digital Audio Compression Standard AC 3 E AC 3 A 52 13 Sections 7 7 2 and 7 7 2 1 for details of the compr gain word used in the RF Mode 4 In some cases the monaural sum is implemented downstream from the 2 channel output of the audio decoder IC However some decoder IC manufacturers may directly support a monophonic downmix Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 When three or more audio streams are present in the ATSC Virtual Channel all audio streams that have the priority field set to 11 Not specified should be assumed to be neither the main nor SAP audio 5 3 4 Considerations for Continued Use of Existing Equipment Some existing ATSC PIRDs select and route audio services by PID value The broadcaster should attempt to maintain consistent PID assignments for the audio service intended for NTSC Main and the audio service intended for NTSC SAP 5 4 Data Signals Processing This section addresses the processing of CEA 608 14 and ANSI SCTE 127 15 data 5 4 1 CEA 608 Data ATSC PIRDs should conform to the guidelines of CEA 708 16 Sections 9 23 9 24 9 25 10 1 and Annex B regarding the processing of CEA 608 14 datastream bytes All CEA 608 14 datastream bytes are expected to be present including all 4 caption services all 4 text services and all XDS packets Special attention should be paid to decoder handling of the XDS content advisory packet type 5 according to
37. ther suitable transmission equipment which may require different techniques than those used for direct conversion to NTSC These guidelines cover equipment capabilities needed to support both scenarios The implicit case is for multi channel systems that do not have the ability to deliver an analog signal except at the output of the consumer s STB such as IPTV or DBS In the implicit case the distribution system is treated as a black box with this recommendation only addressing how to replicate the NTSC or baseband digital input to the IPTV or DBS head end This document provides basic technical recommendations and guidelines for equipment capabilities supporting distribution of HD originated broadcasts SD 16 9 and all other ATSC standard coding formats with provision for either direct down conversion to analog or an intermediary down conversion to SDI which then is converted to analog for rendering on consumers NTSC sets When generating an NTSC or SDI signal with associated audio and data from the ATSC transmitted format the following capabilities should be considered 1 Format conversion under control of AFD Page 7 Advanced Television Systems Committee Document A 79 2 Extraction of CEA 608 data 3 Preservation and distribution of content advisories 4 Preservation and distribution of ANSUSCTE 127 data 5 Identification and proper AC 3 5 1 down mix to Lt Rt for main audio 6 Identification and proper AC 3 5 1 down
38. ton D C 14 June 2005 14 CEA CEA 608 D Line 21 Data Services Consumer Electronics Association Arlington VA May 2007 15 SCTE ANSI SCTE 127 2007 Carriage of Vertical Blanking Interval VBI Data in North American Digital Television Bitstreams Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Exton PA 16 CEA CEA 708 D Digital Television DTV Closed Captioning Consumer Electronics Association Arlington VA August 2008 17 ATSC Carriage of Legacy TV Data Services Doc A 99 Advanced Television Systems Committee Washington D C 23 July 2008 18 SMPTE SMPTE 334 1 2007 Vertical Ancillary Data Mapping of Caption Data and Other Related Data Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 19 SMPTE SMPTE 2031 2007 Carriage of DVB SCTE VBI Data in VANC Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 20 SMPTE SMPTE 2016 1 2007 Format for Active Format Description and Bar Data Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 21 SMPTE SMPTE 2016 3 2007 Vertical Ancillary Data Mapping of Active Format Description and Bar Data Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 22 SMPTE SMPTE 333 2008 DTV Closed Caption Server to Encoder Interface Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers White Plains N Y 23 SMPTE EG43 2004 System Imple
39. uce 100 percent modulation of the NTSC aural carrier 5 3 2 Secondary Audio Program SAP The Secondary Audio Program SAP decoder should be set to produce a monaural downmix It should also be set to the RF mode and have compression and dialog normalization enabled at all times The analog signal levels produced by the Secondary Audio Program decoder or associated DACs should be set so that 0 dBFS SAP signal produces 100 percent modulation in the BTSC 12 domain Implementers should also ensure that the bandwidth of the SAP channel does not exceed the 10 kHz mandated by the BTSC standard This function may be performed by the BTSC modulator itself 5 3 3 Use of Audio Metadata for Determining Main and SAP Placement When there is only one audio stream it should be mapped to NTSC main audio Mapping of multiple ATSC audio streams to the NTSC main and SAP audio channels should be based on the priority field of the AC 3 descriptor defined in A 52 13 Section A 3 4 When there is more than one audio stream e If one streame priority field is set to the value 01 Primary Audio that stream should be placed on the main BTSC audio channel e If one stream s priority field is set to the value 10 Other Audio that stream should be placed on the SAP channel 3 In RF Mode the overall program level is raised 11 dB which brings the program loudness closer to NTSC practice while the peaks are limited to prevent signal overload in
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