1080P/50: The Third-Generation HDTV System: Is it a Feasible Option for Production and Emission?

Recently introduced cameras provide outputs in 1920 x 1080 progressive with frame rates at 50 and 60 Hz (abbreviated 1080p50/60), and new studio interfaces are available that support the required baseband bit rate. In addition, the developments in mezzanine studio compression formats for 1080p50/60 further support the format in the production environment. One of the critical questions for the future of HDTV is whether the 1080p/50 HDTV format would provide a significant image-quality improvement when delivered to consumers, to justify its use, compared to the existing 720p/50 or 108005 HDTV formats. This paper presents the results of initial subjective tests to begin to answer this question. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) tests conditions, sequence selection, and coding of the sequences with MPEG-4 AVC, and subjective test are described. The results of the tests are presented and discussed, and a conclusion is drawn. First indications are that the "quality efficiency" of AVC compressed 1080p/50 may actually be higher than that of AVC compressed 1080i/25. This may sound like a surprising result, but some suggestions for the reasons are given.