HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO RECORDING FORMATS

As your present analog and digital video recorders grind themselves into
retirement, you may be wondering what format the next round of VCRs need to
be. Perhaps your postproduction facility, school, or business is gearing up for
the coming of HD (High Definition) or perhaps you are a broadcaster feeling the
hot breath of the FCC with its impending requirements to broadcast in DTV. Of
course you could stick with the present standard definition (SD) gear and using
an upconverter, change whatever you are using now to "pseudo HD",
something with the data structure of HD but lacking the true high definition. Or,
maybe you will go all the way, forging a path onto the nascent landscape of high
definition television recording.

Whatever you do, the coming HD revolution is likely to make pioneers of many
of us. It will be easy to tell which of us were the pioneers; we'll be the ones with
the arrows in our backs. That's because the decision to move into HD will be
expensive and dangerous. The list of what's available and how much it costs
will change rapidly making almost any decision you make a short term one. Put
another way, whatever you buy, needs to be supported by a business plan that
shows heavy use of your HD purchase so that it can be amortized over two or
three years. Let me put it still another way, because this is important. Your HD
recorder will cost between $40,000 and $100,000, based on what's available
today. As new products reach the market, competition will drive some of these
prices down. If a gizmo you paid $80,000 for today can be replaced by another
gizmo that costs only $40,000 two years from now, you'd better have a plan to
work the heck out of that $80,000 gizmo if you want to compete two years from
now with your neighbor who will then be buying a $40,000 gizmo that's better
than yours.

Although this is an article about formats, it's not very instructive to compare
technical specifications like track length and data rates. These riveting tidbits
are available through SMPTE at smpte.org. It's the implementation of the format
that counts, so let's see what the VCR manufacturers are doing.

Some generalities about HD recorders

You have three kinds of recorders out there; the expensive, no-holds-barred,
high bit rate recorders that suck up data with wild abandon, you have the the
newer HD recorders, and you have the common SV recorders like DVCAM,
DVCPRO50, D-9, D-7, etc.

The top-of-the-line recorders (i.e. D6, HDD1000) can handle HD but are too
expensive to be practical.

The SD recorders don't have a chance of recording all that data unless you
compress the beegeebers out it. It can be done, though. Just slap an encoding
processor onto an SD machine and squash away. Although this sounds like a
bad solution, it's not so bad if the SD machine started with a high bit rate.
Panasonic's D-5 recorder, for instance, records 235 Mbps uncompressed SD
CCIR-601 data. It's not a huge leap to add a processor to the existing D-5
machine and squash the raw 1.5 Gbps HD data down to 235 Mbps, making an
uncompressed SD recorder into a compressed HD recorder.

Other popular solutions: speed up the SD machines (usually doubling the tape
speed, head rotation speed, and bit rate) and also compress the data mildly.
The combination balances between the expense of high bit rates and the
sharpness-damaging artifacts of compression.

Who has what?

JVC offers D9-HD based on its D9 (also called Digital S) format VCR.
Second in JVC's HD arsenal is W-VHS, an analog component video
recorder/player used primarily for playing HDTV recordings.
Another format, D-VHS, is designed primarily for recording and playing back
pre-encoded MPEG-2 data streams like you might get from a satellite receiver.
JVC and Panasonic sell it.

Sony offers two HD video production formats, the HDD1000 1" reel-to-reel
studio recorder that handles uncompressed high bit rate data, and its more
affordable and more popular HDCAM.

Panasonic offers three formats, the high end D5-HD, a high bit rate studio deck
modeled after the D5 format, and its more moderately positioned DVCPRO-HD,
modeled after its DVCPRO (also called D7) line. Panasonic also offers a D-VHS
deck.

JVC's D9-HD

The D9-HD format offered by JVC is modeled after its D9 (Digital S) recording
system. They are switchable between 720/p60 (720 scanning lines per picture,
progressively scanned, 60 times per second and 1080i60 (1080 scanning lines
per frame, interlaced with 540 lines per field every sixtieth of a second), as well
as 1080p24 (1080 scanning lines per frame, progressively scanned at 24
frames per second with each frame containing 2 fields with 540 lines each).
According to Dave Walton, D9-HD is "designed to be a cost-effective high
quality digital recording format that offers practicality that one would get with an
SD format. For example, with a D9-HD we have a recording time on
camcorders as well as studio decks of 62 minutes.

"The logical comparison with any six millimeter format is going to be regarding
the amount of data you could put on a tape. We use ½" metal particle tape and
½" tape gives you the ability to record essentially more data and have longer
record times. It also provides backwards compatibility with D9."
The D9 HD compression scheme is DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) and uses
a mild 3.3:1 intraframe compression. Although some manufacturers list a
luminance and chrominance bandwidth for their HD VCRs, JVC does not. As
Dave Walton explains, "The D5 machine has no analog inputs or outputs on it.
Therefore, you can only feed a digital signal into it which doesn't have a
bandwidth associated with it. If you are looking at the encoder or decoder that's
used, then you are not measuring the frequency response of the video deck but
the frequency response of the encoder. If you use the same encoder with a D5
machine as you used with the D9 machine or HDCAM, you'd have exactly the
same spec, if in fact the sampling frequency of the video and audio were the
same. The only difference would be in the compression algorithm. In D5, for
example, it's a DCT based compression of about 4 ½ to 1. An HDCAM has a
compression ratio of 7 to 1. But they are both recording the same sampling
frequency of 74.25 MHz (MHz). So the difference is not in frequency response,
the difference is in how much degradation takes place in the compression
algorithms. The sampling frequency is fixed, thus the inherent resolution is
fixed."

JVC's ½" metal particle video cassettes are modeled after a VHS cassette shell
and cost about $45 for a 62 minute DS-104 cassette. JVC points out that 62
minutes is a long recording time for a standard sized cassette. The small
camcorder cassettes used by HDCAM and DVCPRO-HD run 40 and 46
minutes in length respectively. The other formats require a large cassette,
inappropriate for camcorders (to get recording times up to 124 minutes).
The D9 format can record up to 8 editable 16 bit audio channels.

JVC's D-VHS

D-VHS is the digital version of VHS capable of recording MPEG-2 data like the
kind transmitted via a satellite and will be transmitted by DTV broadcasters. As
explained by Dave Walton," The D-VHS format is able to record 28.4 megabits
per second on a standard oxide VHS-like cassette that sells for about $8. This
adds up to about 45 Gb (gigabytes) or nine times the capacity of a DVD that
can be recorded on a D-VHS cassette. Put another way, you can record a 3 ½
hour HDTV movie with the full HDTV quality on one cassette. The D-VHS
machines would provide forward and backward compatibility with VHS
machines already in use. There are a billion people now who have VHS
machines and libraries of this material that they will be able to view 10, 15, or 20
years from now."

The D-VHS format is a marriage of two things: tape speed (which is proportional
to the amount of data that is recordable and inversely proportional to the length
of recording that can fit onto a tape) and the amount of MPEG-2 compression
used. For instance, a high definition MPEG-2 data stream with reduced
compression would require the machine to run at its fastest speed, recording
maybe two hours at 28.4 megabits per second. A more compressed HDTV
signal transmitted using the FCC mandated bandwidth of 19.4 megabits per
second would permit the D-VHS VCR to record at a slower speed, recording 3.5
hours of an HDTV signal (but with more artifacts and less quality because of the
increased compression). MPEG-2 can be adjusted to very high compression
rates permitting as much as 49 hours to be recorded on a D-VHS tape. Thus
the D-VHS format is extremely flexible allowing a wide range of image qualities
and record times.

The D-VHS machines cost about $1000 and a 300 minute DF-300 cassette
costs about $8 making D-VHS a very affordable way to store HDTV once it has
been encoded. Although previous models required external encoder/decoders,
JVC is now introducing models with built-in encoder/decoders with IEEE 1394
inputs/outputs.

D-VHS machines are not production recorders as the data has been far too
compressed (using interframe compression) to be editable.

"I'm not sure what all the applications for that might be," says Dave Walton,
"but it is reasonable to believe that there will be some applications in the
production process for D-VHS machines whether it be archiving material off
your hard disk or long recording times for DTV material. D-VHS is a long term
format for both standard and high definition recording. The original designation
of this format as simply nothing more than a 'bit bucket' has somewhat changed
since the announcement in Japan of the D-VHS machines with built-in MPEG-2
coders and decoders. The bottom line is that a D-VHS machine is a VHS-type
machine at extremely low cost that is specifically designed to record formatted
MPEG-2 data whether that MPEG-2 data is created in the machine or supplied
externally. But MPEG-2 has been decided upon as the transmitted DTV format
so this recorder is designed to record and play that back at minimal cost and
maximal benefits for the user.

"Our consumer division has been selling D-VHS format machines built into a
dish network receiver for several years now. In the past couple of years, the
only source of digital programming to the user at home has been through the
satellite receiver. So, the only digital recorder practical for the home has been
the D-VHS machines built into the satellite receivers that let you record and
playback the signal you were receiving from the satellite."

JVC's W-VHS format

Unlike the other formats, W-VHS is analog, recording and playing the standard
Y/Pb/Pr video component signals used by HD VCRs, monitors, and set top
boxes. JVC is presently marketing the $4795 SR-W5 model and the $5950 SR-
W7 model, the latter having BNC connectors and time code. W-VHS can record
high definition 1035i, 1080i, or 1125i component analog signals. W-VHS
machines can record or play regular VHS tapes, but when used with the high
grade WT-120 ($65) or WT-180 ($80) metal particle VHS-like cassettes, the W-
VHS machines can record and play the higher definition signals. Although they
are not meant to be editors, the W-VHS models have assemble edit and audio
dub capabilities and a VGA output for use with computer monitors.
According to Dave Walton, W-VHS "is an outstanding distribution format. We
have corporations that pay megabucks to have large screen productions made
for corporate meetings. Advertising agencies want to be able to view
commercials.
Even people in the home theatre environment may want to record a high
definition football game in the home. What are their options? The fact is it'll plug
into any DTV desktop box and record your game, it will plug into any HD
camcorder, it will plug into any D5-HD machine. Y/Pb/Pr is the component
standard, whether it's on a monitor or on a set top box.

"Another benefit of the W-VHS recorder is that we have provided a VGA output
on the back so it can be plugged into a computer monitor so it can be used as
an inexpensive HDTV monitor. "

Although W-VHS and D-VHS are both at the low end of the HD format
spectrum, the two have about as much in common as lightning and lightning
bugs. Both are backward compatible with existing VHS recordings but W-VHS
is strictly an analog record/play mechanism while D-VHS is strictly digital. If you
are starting with analog component video, you can feed it directly into a W-VHS
machine. The D-VHS machine needs the video to be digitized and encoded
(compressed) into an MPEG-2 datastream (internally or externally) to be
recorded.

Panasonic DVCPRO-HD

DVCPRO-HD is a production format on a par with JVC's D9 and Sony's

HDCAM. It is built on (and backward compatible to) the DVCPRO format (which
is also called D-7).

Panasonic will be offering two camcorders shortly after the first of the year, the
AJ-HDC10 ($50,000) and the AJ-HDC20 ($65,000), the first having one million
pixels per CCD and the second having 2.2 million pixels per CCD. (Camcorder
prices are always quoted as list and without lens.) There is also a studio
recorder, the AJ-HD150 ($65,000).

Although the camcorders operate in the 1080i (also 1035i ) domain, the studio
recorder is a little different. According to Jeff Merritt, Panasonic's Product
Marketing Manager for HDTV, "The HD150 is a native 1080i recorder but with
an optional built-in universal format converter. The HD150 is playback
compatible with all DV formats --- that's all DV --- That's mini DV, that's DVCAM,
that's DVCPRO, 25, 50 megabit, progressive, any DV format. When using a
format converter, it is possible to play back any of those DV formats, or
DVCPRO formats and output either 1080i or 720p. "Not only is the HD150
studio deck compatible with all of the other DVCPRO and DV products on the
market, it has eight channel digital audio capability and it's compatible with
metadata and ancillary data recording. That's already built-in, it's not optional;
that's part of the format. Metadata is data about data. Ancillary data is such
things as closed captioning, it could be setup functions, it could be all kinds of
other things, but they are pretty well clearly defined as not being data about
data but being data by themselves. That is what is called ancillary data. SMPTE
is working very diligently on making all of the standards of this stuff work."
Jeff Merritt goes on to say that the DVCPRO-HD format "... is is an extension of
the entire strategy of Panasonic of not abandoning any previous formats but
moving forward into newer technology with existing formats. In other words,
DVCPRO25 was the first of the really large scale DVCPRO products to go
virtually worldwide. And Panasonic developed the next version of that to deal
with not only 25 megabit but 50 megabit 4:2:2 for example rather than 4:1:1. It is
still backwards compatible with 50 megabit equipment, and backwards
compatible with 25 megabit equipment. Now we get into 100 megabit
equipment. It's still compatible with the 25 and 50 megabit stuff for playback. So
we're staying with what works, with what has been accepted worldwide as a
standard.
"The DVCPRO-HD VCRs are compatible with other manufacturers' DV
products; you can even play back a DV tape made on a home DV camcorder.
The advantage is for people who have already acquired a library in either the 25
megabit or 50 megabit DVCPRO material. That material is not obsolete, that
material can now be repurposed by being up converted to the 1080i or 720p
and mixed with other high definition material."

DVCPRO-HD uses DCT compression like the other DV formats, but it is

variable up to 7:1, depending on what's in the image.

The camcorders operate at 59.94 fps (fields-per-second) only, the studio model
is switchable between 59.94 and 60 fps.

The format supports eight discrete 16 bit audio channels at 48 Khz sampling.
The Panasonic camcorders are unable to edit these audio channels but the
studio deck can.

Although the ATSC table lists 1080 x 1920 pixels for an HD picture, the
DVCPRO-HD studio machine is only capable of recording 720 x 1280. You can
feed it 1080 x 1920, but it records and plays back only 720 x 1280, with some
pixels obviously manufactured by the machine. This "cheat" was necessary to
reduce the data rate to the 100 megabits per second range manageable by the
VCR.
Panasonic doesn't presently support the 1080p24 format with DVCPRO.
According to Jeff Merritt, "it's under development".
One welcome surprise is that the DVCPROHD machines from Panasonic all
use standard DVCPRO tape, so you don't have to stock another tape flavor on
the shelf.

Panasonic D5-HD

D5-HD is Panasonic's top of the line high definition format. D5-HD is a studio
production format. The VCRs are studio consoles only, there are no
camcorders. Although it is based on its standard D5 format, the HD machines
will not play D5 standard definition tapes.

Jeff Merritt explains the background of D5-HD: "We have to take a look at the
history of D5 and work up to D5-HD to understand what's going on here. D5, a
SMPTE format, is uncompressed, what we call CCIR601. It is an integral serial
digital component 4:2:2. Well, what we did was to take that basic format and
married an AJ-HDP500 high definition processor with the D5 format and then
were able to put up to 235 megabits on tape working in the high definition
domain at 1080i." In other words, the DCT processor compresses the 1.5Gbps
found in the CCIR601 uncompressed data stream down to the 235Mbps
recordable on tape. "Now from there we incorporated the HDP500 processor
into the next generation of the machine which became the AJHD2000 which
has since been discontinued, replaced by the HD2700. Where this gets us is to:
a strictly HD only machine, the AJHD2700 that's compatible with native 720p
and1080i, full bandwidth 4:2:2.

The original AJ-D580 machine still exists and we still sell many of them. As
facilities are moving from analog to digital, they would like to go uncompressed
and they can do that with the D5. We have announced a new tape machine
whose model number is currently AJHD3000 that incorporates all D5 formats in
one machine including D5, uncompressed CCIR601, 1080p24, 1080i 720p, all
in one machine. It records and plays all D5 formats and an optional universal
format converter can be part of the package."
Panasonic's first deliveries were in the summer of 2000. The AJ-2700 costs
$99,000 as will its successor the AJ-HD3000. The AJD580 (standard definition
D5) costs $72,000 and the AJ-HDP-500 processor costs $52,000. The
combination of these two devices will make high definition video.
Panasonic's D5 HD machines, because they are based on the D5 format, work
in the full bandwidth 10 bit domain (there's no prefiltering or postfiltering of the
signal as is done with the Sony HDCAM. Also the HDCAM works only in the 8
bit mode.) Panasonic's D5-HD is also switchable to an 8 bit mode. While in that
mode it uses a 4:1 intraframe compression. In its 10 bit mode, it uses a 5:1
intraframe compression.

The VCR is switchable between 59.94 fps and 60 fps.

As with the DVCPROHD studio deck, the new D5-HD VCR has 8 editable audio
channels.

One thing setting the D5-HD apart from other formats is that it records a true
1920 pixels by 1080i image (Panasonic's DVCPROHD records only 1280 pixels
and Sony's HDCAM records only 1440 pixels). It is also switchable to 1035i and
720p. One reason why the D5-HD machines can record such a detailed picture
is that they're throwing 235 megabits per second onto the tape, (as opposed to
DVCPRO-HD's 100 megabits per second, D9-HD's 100 megabits per second,
and HDCAM's 140 megabits per second).

Who's using this format? Jeff Merritt explains, "It is the defacto standard of high
resolution recording and playback for high definition. Every motion picture
company, every high end posthouse in the Hollywood community and the New
York community is working in high definition, virtually every broadcast network
is recording or originating in HD. It is the delivery standard of choice for all of
these people, the networks in particular including HBO. When you watch ABC
Monday Night Football in high definition, you see instant replays done on D5-
HD, on the HD2700, for example. This was the format chosen by the Lucas
organization, Lucas Arts, to master the Star Wars Trilogy on."

Panasonic D-VHS

Although DVHS, as mentioned earlier, is not a production format, it is still a high

definition video recording format. Panasonic's PV-HD1000 costs under $1000
and is now available. It connects to a set top box which decodes satellite TV
signals and feeds them to the VCR via an IEEE 1394 connector. The PV-
HD1000 is essentially a "bit bucket" recording and playing raw data and doing
nothing with it. When the data is played back, the signal is fed out through the
IEEE 1394 connector back into the decoder which feeds the television via the
set-top box. Unlike the JVC model, the PV-HD1000 has no MPEG encoders or
decoders. Like the JVC model, it will record and play standard VHS and SVHS
tapes. When recording MPEG-2 data, however, one must use D-VHS tape, a
higher grade ½" metal particle tape similar to that used for SVHS.
The PV-HD1000, according to Jeff Merritt, is popular among broadcasters
playing back videos in their lobbies.
Sony HDCAM

HDCAM uses a Betacam-like cassette with metal particle tape but none of the
present VCRs are backward compatible with Betacam, DVCAM, or other
formats (this may come later). Presently available is the HDW-500 studio deck
($61,400), the HDWF-500 studio VCR ($69,300), the HDW250 portable deck
(no price available), and HDW-700 one-piece camcorder ($78,800). All work in
the 1080i native domain, but with an additional circuit board, the output can be
converted to 720p. The HDWF-500 can record and play in 1080i and 1080p24.
There are four models of tape to feed the hungry HDCAM. Only the studio
VCRs can take the BCT-124HDL (124 minute) and BCT-64HDL (64 minute)
large cassettes. The camcorders and studio decks both accept the BCT-40HD
and BCT-22HD mini cassettes (which run 40 and 22 minutes respectively).

The main advantages of selecting HDCAM over other formats, according to

Robert Ott, Vice-President of VTR/Storage Marketing and Products is "that
we've had an acquisition piece as well as a full studio VTR available for more
than a year now. We have them in active use on major television shows such as
Chicago Hope. It was the equipment that was used to produce the first high
definition regularly scheduled program which was the Tonight Show. We've go a
track record.

Without a doubt, the HDCAM format, because it has had acquisition from day
one, has made it a very viable format because it is not just an editing format
such as telecine transfer or studio camera oriented; it's truly electronic field
production and electronic cinematography. So, people are out there shooting in
HDCAM right on their shoulder and that's a big advantage of this format. It is
robust, it holds up just like the Betacam format which has a very good
reputation. HDCAM has that same reputation for taking a beating and keeping
on taping."
Sony is tight lipped about publishing details such as compression ratio,
sampling frequencies, bandwidth, and the like. Sony will tell you that it uses
DCT intraframe compression, but it's up to the user to do the math and
conclude that it uses 7:1 compression.

Says Robert Ott, "We've been making ½" transports since 1982 in the form of
Betacam, so basically, if we forget all the compression issues and everything
that has to do with picture quality, if we just talk about someone taking a
camcorder out and beating the heck out of it, for lack of a better term, we know
we have products that take that kind of punishment and that's what the industry
is looking for because they do beat the heck out of it. Not intentionally, but you
know, they are on a rollercoaster, they are climbing mountains, they're doing
everything with this equipment and they need a tape format that is a proven,
reliable tape format. HDCAM, because it is based on ½" tape and we have so
much experience in building transports, will take G-forces and everything else.

HDCAM just lives off that legacy of ½". Basically, our philosophy is you can take
a tape that was recorded in 1982 in a Betacam deck and play it back in a digital
Betacam deck that was purchased last week. And that's the philosophy that we
intend to follow through on all of our products."

The ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tables indicate that a

4:2:2 sampled 1080i image should have 1920 luminance pixels in the image.
Chroma should be 960 pixels. Put another way, the 4:2:2 sampling should
translate to 1920:960:960. Sony's HDCAM is said to record only 1440:480:480
pixels. If you do the math, this translates to 3:1:1, a number worse than 4:2:2.
The numbers don't tell you everything, however; the HDCAM image is gorgeous
and Sony challenges anyone to see the difference between the HDCAM output
and that of its rivals.

The 3:1:1 numbers would also imply that the image is worse than a consumer
DV camera (4:1:1) and this definitely not the case. A home DV camcorder has a
sampling of 13.5 MHz yielding 720 pixels per line. According to the ATSC, HD is
sampled at 74.25 MHz (true whether the format is 1080i, 1035i, or 720p)
yielding 1920 pixels for luminance per line. Thus, 4:1:1 in the SD DV world
means 720:180:180 pixels. In the HD world, 4:1:1 would mean 1920:480:480
pixels. So you can't compare DV's 4:1:1 with HDCAM's purported 3:1:1; that
would be comparing grapes to grapefruit.

Now here's the real concern: HDCAM supposedly uses a 55.68 MHz sampling
rate which should technically resolve to 1440 luminance and 480 chrominance
pixels per channel. Comparing these numbers to the ATSC HD specs, we
would come up with the number 3:1:1 which looks below par.
When pressed on the issue of how many pixels are being recorded by the
HDCAM machines, Robert Ott could only state; "The HD SDI signal from an HD
SDI standpoint, based on the SMPTE 292M standard, facilitates a 1920 x 1080
pixel baseband digital capability." The author conjectures that the VCR
manufactures the missing pixels. Whether they're visually missed is a tough
question. You remember (no doubt) from the sidebar earlier that if you have
more data but compress it more, you hammer the picture sharpness.. Less
initial data, compressed less, could look just as good.

The HDCAM is an eight bit machine, but Robert Ott goes on the explain,
"HDCAM uses eight bit data reduction, but from a quantization standpoint, the
inputs and outputs are ten bits. So, from a compression standpoint, we're eight
bit data reduction. But from a quantization standpoint in the video, we're ten bits
on the inputs and the outputs. "

Although Sony doesn't publish the number of bits being recorded on the tape
(it's purported to be around 140 Mbs per second), Sony has interface boards
that output whatever bit rates that are needed, such as 1.5 Gbps and 270Mbps
SDTI.
Robert Ott was careful to point out that any rumors of Sony replacing its DCT
compression with an MPEG-2 compression in the near future is totally false.
Sony plans to support DCT compression in their HD line for the foreseeable
future.
The author would not be surprised to see MPEG-2 rear its head in some HD
product down the line. If you consider the Sony Betacam SX is MPEG-2 based
at the standard definition 480i, it wouldn't be an outrageous leap to double the
tape speed, add a little more compression, and go HD. The author would further
conjecture that, at some time in the future, Sony would make a deck that played
all their legacy formats besides (SX, digital Betacam, and HDCAM), since they
all use the same sized tape.

Back to known facts, all HDCAM models will operate in both the 59.94 and 60
field per second modes.

HDCAMs have four editable 20 bit, uncompressed audio channels capable of

20 KHz frequency response. According to Robert Ott, "The 24p as well as the
1080i machine will be Dolby-E compatible which means that you will get eight
channels. Two [of the format's 4] channels remain compressed, and the other
two channels (When you record in Dolby-E, you are taking up two audio
channels), can be converted to eight using Dolby-E. And the nice part about
using Dolby-E is that all eight channels are still editable," unlike Dolby AC3
where once the signal is encoded it is no longer editable.