High definition television (HDTV)

High-definition (HD) images are now available on television: HDTV (high-definition television). Initiated in analog form in the mid-1980s by the Japanese, then by the Europeans, HDTV was temporarily abandoned and only really revived with the digital television project in the United States. This process led to international standards in the mid-1990s.

This dossier not only updates the [TE 5 674] dossier published in February 2004, "High-definition images: between digital cinema and HD television", but also completes it with a detailed functional and technical presentation of the entire HD television chain. It is divided into three parts:

• the first part concerns formats. The first document, [TE 5 680] , describes the native parameters of images produced by HDTV and the corresponding standards. The following document [TE 5 681] details the compression formats used to reduce the bit rate of HD digital video, making it possible to capture, transport, store, transmit and receive HD images in the world of television. It also presents the problem of encapsulating HD images in data file container or transport formats;

• a second part, consisting of the three documents, will explain the main functions, from camera lens glass to flat screen glass (from glass to glass), of capturing/recording, editing [TE 5 682] , broadcasting and distribution [TE 5 683] , displaying and evaluating the quality of HD images