THE TELEVISION PICTURE _ Television is basically a system for reproducing a still picture such as a snapshot. However, the pictures are shown one over the other fast enough to give the illusion of motion. One picture frame by itself is just a group of small areas of light and shade. This structure can be seen in Fig. 2-16, which is a magnified _ view to show the details of the still picture in Fig. 2-1a. All the details with ; _ varying light and dark spots provide the video signal for the picture information. __ We consider black-and-white, or monochrome, pictures first because these requirements apply for color also. A color television picture has black-and- white outlines with color filled in for the main areas of the scene. More details _ about the television picture are described in the following topics: 21 Picture Elements 2-2 Horizontal and Vertical Scanning 3 Video Signal Information 4 Motion Pictures z a Frame and Field Frequencies izontal and Vertical Scanning Frequencies zontal and Vertical Synchronizationta) 24 PICTURE ELEMENTS A still picture is fundamentally an arrangement of many small dark and light areas. In a photo- graphic print, fine grains of silver provide the differences in light and shade needed to repro- duce the image. When a picture is printed from a photoengraving, there are many small black, printed dots that form the image. Looking at the magnified view in Fig. 2-16, we can see that the printed picture is composed of small elemen- tary areas of black and white. This basic structure of a picture is evident in newspaper photographs. If they are examined closely, the dots will be seen because the picture elements are relatively large. Each small area of light or shade is a picture or picture element. For short, it is called ‘ora pel. All the elements together con- the visval information in the scene, If these ts are transmitted and reproduced in the (b) Fig. 2-4 (a) Stil picture illustrates picture Information. (b) Magnified view shows Individual Picture elements same degree of light or shade as the original and in proper position, then the picture is reproduced, As an example, suppose that we want to trans- mit an image of a black cross on a white back- ground, at the left in Fig. 2-2, to the right side of the figure. The picture is divided into the ele- mentary areas of black and white shown. Picture elements in the background are white, and the pixels forming the cross are black. When each Reproduction Image Fig. 2-2 Reproducing a picture by.dupicating its pic: ture elements.re clement is transmitted to the right side and reproduced in the original posi- its shade of black or white, the image ge picture element is a pixel. Il picture has many picture elements. ;position of a picture clement is not impor- in the reproduction. Bottom Fig. 2-3 How horizontal linear scanning is done. at a time. This method is called horizontal linear eer we ; scanning. It is used in the camera tube at the seceion a. - ee pansies transmitter to divide the image into picture ele- a ae. ered other, ments and in the picture tube at the receiver to 4 oe ; reassemble the reproduced image. for one video signal to include all the “The sequence for scanning all the picture ele- ments is as follows: 1, The electron beam sweeps across one horizon- tal line, covering all the picture elements in that fine. 2, At the end of each line, the beam returns very quickly to the left side to begin scanning the next horizontal line. The return time is called retrace, ot flyback. No picture information is scanned during retrace because both the camera tube and the picture tube are blanked out for this period. Thus the retraces must be very rapid, since they are wasted time in terms of picture information. 3. When the beam has returned to the left side, its vertical position is lowered so that the beam will scan the next line down and not repeat the same line. This is accomplished by the vertical scanning motion of the beam, which is provided in addition to horizontal scanning. tre is scanned in the same way THE TELEVISION PICTURE 27,As a result of the vertical scanning, horizontal lines slope downward slighth top to bottom. When the beam is at the vertical retrace returns the beam to th Start the scanning sequence again all the ly from bottom, ie top to LINES PER FRAME The number of scanning lines for one complete picture should be large in order to include the greatest number of picture ele- ments and thus more detail. However, other fac- tors limit the choice, and it has been standardized at a total of 525 scanning lines for one complete Picture or frame. This is the optimum number of scanning lines per frame for the standard 6. MHz bandwidth of the television broadcast chan- nels. FRAMES PER SECOND Note that the beam moves slowly downward as it scans horizontally. This vertical scanning motion is necessary so that the lines will not be scanned one over the other The horizontal scanning produces the lines left to right, while the vertical scanning spreads the lines to fill the frame from top to bottom. The time for one complete frame with 525 scanning lines is 140 s. Then the picture repetition rate equals 30 frames per second. Test Point Questions ‘Answers at End of Chapter a. How many oe Picture frames are a scanned in 1 ; rae seacy Hoetenoiil ecciaita tre br there | in one fame? f i q One horizontal _ ‘scanning ting | white wie! Vor! Black Time in scanning——e Fig. 244 Video signal information for: i Pema ‘On horizontal ing video signal is shown in Fig. 2-4. Consider this signal as the result of the scanning shown in Fig. 2-3 for the image in Fig. 2-2. This video signal shows the black-and-white information for one horizontal scanning line at the center of the cross. At the left side, the information is white ‘Then the information is. black for a longer time at the center. Finally, the information becomes white again for the end of a line at the right side. A video signal is produced im this way for the horizontal lines scanned across the picture. The total of $25 lines makes one frame. All 525 lines are scanned in '4o s. Therefore, the frames are repeated at the rate of 30 Hz. Note that 30 Hz is one-half the ac power-line frequency of 60 Hz, ‘The video signal amplitudes can have wl up for positive polarity and black down for nega- tive polarity, or with opposite polarities, depend- ing on the application. Either way, the main effect is that white and black are represented by oppo- site voltage polarities in an ac video signal. ‘The video signal is produced by a camera tube. This pickup device converts picture information in the form of light variations to electrical varia- tions in the video signal. The camera tube in- cludes a photoelectric image plate for the eter sion of light. Also, the electron beam is made to move across the image plate to scan os picture elements. Actually, the waveshape in Fig: 2-4 is for a camera signal. ble i icture tube is at FF th ono fc» itr ABREE 2 i assity, corresponding to the picture information. Maximum beam current produces white. Black corresponds to zero beam current. Also, the de- flection yoke around the neck of the tube provides scanning to fill the screen with the entire picture, ‘The video signal is the means by which picture tion can be conveyed from one location fo another. The main requixement is to get the picture information from the output of the cam- ‘era to the input of the picture tube, Common methods include the following: 1, Closed-circuit television 2, Video recording, on magnetic tape or record disks 3. Television broadcasting 4, Cable television 5, Satellite television The first method uses the baseband video signal ‘directly, without modulation of an RF carrier " wave. The others require modulated RF signals a a oe the scanning process, it is also nt the picture to the eye in of motion-picture film. a series of still pictures Fig. 25 Still picture frames in ai strip of motion-picture fm THE TELEVISION PICTURE 297 vidually as a still picture. However, the frames are shown one after the other in rapid succession to produce the illusion of continuous motion, In standard commercial motion-picture prac. tice, 24 frames are shown on the screen for every second during which the film is projected. A shutter in the projector rotates in front of the light source. The shutter allows the light to be Projected on the screen when the film frame is still, but blanks out any light while the next film frame is being moved into position. As a result, a rapid succession of still film frames is seen on the screen. The only time you see the film is when it is not moving. PERSISTENCE OF VISION. The impression made by any light seen by the eye persists for a small fraction of a second after the light source is re- moved. Therefore, if many views are presented to the eye during this interval of persistence of vision, the eye will integrate them and the viewer has the impression of seeing all the images at the same time. It is this persistence effect that makes possible the televising of one basic element of a picture at a time. When the elements are scanned rapidly enough, they appear to the eye "i addition, 0 create the illusion of motion, ‘enough complete pictures must be shown during In motion-picture films, the is Solved by running the fim he “titer Jector at 24 frames per second but ater ote PO frame twice, so that 48 pictures see in8 Sch the screen during each secon, There are 48 views of the scene during each Second, and the screen is blanked out 48 times Per second, although there are still the same De Picture frames per second. As a result of the increased blanking rate, flicker is eliminated. Test Point Questions 2-4 Answers at Endl of Chapter Answer True or False. a, Motion is shown by a rapid succession of still pictures. b. Flicker results when the blanking rate is too fast. 25 FRAME AND FIELD FREQUENCIES A process similar to motion-picture film is used in television to reproduce motion in the se Not only is each picture broken down eptete many individual picture elements, but also the scene is scanned rapidly enough to inbee fi enough complete pictures or ae | i ae to give the illusion of motion. Ins ie of 24 frames per second used in nae aie, tion-picture practice, however, the fra pin, tion rate is 30 per second in the televist™ jon This repetition rate provides the req! i of 30 per second tion fp overcome ficker althe light levels produced by the pict ‘sereen. Again, the solution is dan oo as ‘motion-picture practice. Each frame is divided into two parts, so that 60 views of the scene are presented to the eye during each second. " However, the division of a frame into two parts ¢annot be accomplished simply by a shutter as in film, because the picture is reproduced one | element ata time in television. Instead, the same effect isobtained by interlacing the horizontal ‘scannifg lines in two groups, one with the odd- ‘numbered lines and the other with the even-num- fered lines. Each group of odd or even lines is ‘alled a field. The repetition rate of the fields is 60 per sec- ond, as two fields are scanned during one frame period of '4o s. In this way, 60 views of the picture fare shown during | s. This repetition rate is fast ‘enough to eliminate flicker. The frame repetition rate of 30 is chosen in television because most homes in the United States are supplied with 60-Hz ac power. When | the frame rate is 30 per second, the field rate equals the power-line frequency of 60 Hz. In countries where the ac power-line frequency is ‘50 Hz, the frame rate is 25 Hz, which makes “the field frequency 50 Hz. Television standards the United States and other countries are ured in App. D. beam completes its cycles of vertical motion, from top to bottom and back to top again. There” fore, vertical deflection circuits for either the camera tube or the picture tube operate at 60 Hz. The time of each vertical scanning ¢ycle for one field is 340 5: ‘The number of horizontal scanning lines in & field is one-half the total 525 lines for a complete frame, since one field contains ‘every other line. This yields 262% horizontal lines for each verti- cal field. : Since the time for a field is Yo. s and since it contains 26234 lines, the number of lines per sec- ond is 26244 x 60 = 15,750 Or, considering 525 lines for a successive pair of fields, which is a frame, we can multiply the frame rate of 30 by 525, which gives the same 15,750 lines scanned im | s. “This 15,750-Hz frequency is the rate at which the electron beam completes its cycles of horizon~ tal motion, from left to right and back to left again, Therefore, horizontal deftection circuits for cither the camera tube or the picture tube operate at 15,750 Hz. HORIZONTAL LINE TIME The time for each hori- zontal (H) scanning line is }{s,750 8. In terms ‘of microseconds, 1,000,000, 15,759 Mm S35 HS Htime (approx.) ‘This time in microseconds indicates that the video signal for picture elements within a hori- zontal line can have high frequencies, on the or- der of megahertz. Remember that frequency f is equal to 1/T. If there were more lines, the scanning time would be shorter, resulting in higher video frequencies. Actually, in our 525- line system, the highest video frequency is limited to approximately 4 MHz because of the 6-MHz restriction for the commercial television broad- cast channels. THE TELEVISION PrCTurE 3