An HDTV MAC format for FM environments

The system-level architecture for the encoding and decoding of an HDTV (high-definition TV) satellite MAC (multiplexed analog component) signal format suitable for FSS (fixed satellite service) and DBS (direct broadcast service) applications is discussed. A baseband signal processing scheme for video information is shown, the digital data channel capacity is derived, and an analysis of signal-to-noise issues is presented. A decoder consisting of multiple horizontal and vertical signal processing blocks, which does not require frame memory and is therefore not very complex, is described. The horizontal, vertical, and temporal resolution delivered by this system is well tailored to the human visual system. The hardware has been built and used to demonstrate the picture quality, which has proved to be excellent. A digital data channel has been incorporated within the HDTV format. The channel capacity is a minimum of 1.375 Mb/s and research suggests that a doubling of this capacity to 2.75 Mb/s is possible with acceptable performance. The unweighted luminance S/N has been calculated to be 22 dB+C/N, using the suggested transmission parameters