Fundamental concepts in video

Introduction
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and
display of moving visual media.[1] Video was first developed for mechanical
television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode ray tube (CRT) systems
which were later replaced by flat panel displays of several types.
Video systems vary in display resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate, color capabilities
and other qualities. Analog and digital variants exist and can be carried on a variety of
media, including radio broadcast, magnetic tape, optical discs, computer files,
and network streaming.
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing,
transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.

Fundamental concepts in Video

 Video is a series of images. When this series of images are displayed on screen at fast
speed ( e.g 30 images per second), we see a perceived motion.

 It projects single images at a fast rate producing the illusion of continuous motion.

 These single images are called frames.

 The rate at which the frames are projected is generally between 24 and 30 frames per
second (fps).

 Each screen-full of video is made up of thousands of pixels.

 A pixel is the smallest unit of an image. A pixel can display only one color at a time.

 Your television has 720 vertical lines of pixels (from left to right) and 486 rows of pixels
(top to bottom).

 A total of 349,920 pixels (720 x 486) for a single frame.

Basic Concepts (Video Representation

 immanent properties of the eye determine essential conditions related to video systems.

Video signal representation consists of 3 aspects:

 Visual Representation

objective is to offer the viewer a sense of presence in the scene and of participation in the
events portrayed.

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 Transmission

Video signals are transmitted to the receiver through a single television channel

 Digitalization

analog to digital conversion, sampling of gray(color) level, quantization

aspect ratio

Aspect ratio describes the dimensions of video screens and video picture elements.

All popular video formats are rectilinear, and so can be described by a ratio between width and
height.

The screen aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4:3. High definition televisions use an
aspect ratio of 16:9.

Chrominance

Chrominance (chroma for short), is the signal used in video systems to convey the color
information of the picture, separately from the accompanying luma signal.

Chrominance is usually represented as two color-difference components: U = B'–Y' (blue –

luma) and V = R'–Y' (red – luma). Each of these difference components may have scale factors
and offsets applied to them, as specified by the applicable video standard.

luma represents the brightness in an image

Types of Video Signals

 Video signals can be organized in three different ways: component video, composite
video, and S-video.

 Component video

 In popular use, it refers to a type of analog video information that is transmitted or

stored as three separate signals for the red, green, and blue image planes. Each color
channel is sent as a separate video signal.

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  This kind of system has three kind wires (and connectors) connecting the camera or
other devices to a TV or monitor.

 Most computer systems use Component Video, with separate signals for R,
G,and B signals.

 For any color separation scheme, Component Video gives the best color
reproduction since there is no “crosstalk” between the three channels.

 This is not the case for S-Video or Composite Video, discussed next. Component
video, however, requires more bandwidth and good synchronization of the three
components.

Component video

Composite Video — 1 Signal

 Composite video: color (“chrominance”) and intensity (“luminance”) signals are mixed
into a single carrier wave.

 This type of signal used by broadcast color TVs; it is downward compatible with
black-and-white TV.

 When connecting to TVs, Composite Video uses only one wire and video color signals
are mixed, not sent separately. The audio and sync signals are additions to this one
signal.

 Since color and intensity are wrapped into the same signal, some interference between
the luminance and chrominance signals is inevitable

S-Video (separate video) — 2 Signals

 S-video as a compromise, uses two wires, one for luminance and another for a composite
chrominance signal.

 As a result, there is less crosstalk between the color information and the crucial gray-scale
information.

 The reason for placing luminance into its own part of the signal is that black-and-white
information is most crucial for visual perception.

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 In fact, humans are able to differentiate spatial resolution in grayscale images with a
much higher acuity than for the color part of color images.

 As a result, we can send less accurate color information than must be sent for intensity
information — we can only see fairly large blobs of color, so it makes sense to send less
color detail.