HD Lite

HD Lite is an informal term used to describe the re-transmission of a particular HDTV channel, at reduced picture quality compared to the source.

Background

In a simplified view of US digital-TV distribution, the cable/sat operator receives a programing feed (producer) from a network station, repackages it for carriage on a data-network or distribution channel (satellite, digital-cable) of known parameters, then re-transmits the modified bitstream to the customer-site (viewer.) The viewer's settop-box decoder decompresses the delivered bitstream, and displays the program on-screen.

HD Lite refers to the TV-program received by the viewer, which has been somehow compromised (reduced) in fidelity. In internet vernacular, HD-Lite generally refers to programming delivered by commercial (subscription-based) providers such as DirectTV, Dish Network, and the major cable-TV operators. This is likely due to the customer's (heightened) expectation of a base quality level of service, that a commercial operator should provide picture-quality equal to or better than public over-the-air (free) ATSC-broadcast programming.

HD Lite can be achieved by any combination of several techniques. "Rate-shaping" dynamically adjusts allocated bit rate for each of a set of TV-channels, based on an allocation-policy (which can come from realtime video-analysis or an operator-specified program weighting.) Rate shaping allows a set of channels to be transmitted with less bandwidth, based on the statistical observation that not all channels display the same level of motion-activity at a given instant of time (or the period of observation.) "Downsampling" reduces the spatial (horizontal and/or vertical) resolution of the TV-program, reducing the TV-signal's pixel-rate, and therefore its bandwidth requirements. Thus far, customers have reported downsampling on "1080i" signals only; 1920x1080i can be downsampled to 1440x1080i or 1280x1080i, with a corresponding reduction in transmission bandwidth. In contrast, over-the-air (ATSC) broadcasts of 1080i are fixed at 1920x1080. Temporal (frame-rate) reduction has not been attempted yet, as it unacceptably changes the character of motion video sequences.

Any form of rate-shaping or downsampling is inherently intrusive, in that the source bitstream is altered significantly, often due to a full re-compression process. The re-compression process is the point of contention raised by critics: "HD-Lite" programming is perceptibly worse than the original HDTV broadcast, to the point where the degradation is discernible absent a direct (A/B) comparison against the original source. Fact|date=February 2007 Distortion (caused by the operator) is characterized by reduced sharpness, reduced detail, excessive compression artifacts (mosquito noise and blocking), and in some cases, alteration of the color-palette. The reduced video quality is assumed to be introduced by the sat/cable operator's handling of the source video (recompression.)

It is important to note that digital video compression is a complex field of study. Downsampling and bitrate-reduction are often deployed together, to prevent the pixel/bitrate ratio from falling below acceptable levels.

Some material shown on 1080i high-definition channels in the US originates from material shot on older cameras that was only capable of 1440 samples per scanline, yet this material is generally quite acceptable to most viewers and is considered high-definition. Focusing on resolution alone can be misleading. For example, a signal transmitted in its original 1920 x 1080 format, even if only having 1440 unique samples per scanline, will likely appear superior to a highly recompressed signal shown at 1440 x 1080 with a lower bitrate than the standard 19.2 Mbit/s.

In the US television programming market, cable and DBS/satellite operators compete against each other to deliver HDTV programming. An HDTV program requires much higher datarates (3-4x) than a standard-definition program. This places a huge burden on a service-operator, which must deliver a variety of programming (many channels), including increasing amounts of HDTV programming, over a resource-constrained distribution medium. Re-compression by cable/satellite operators is a technical necessity for carriage of diverse TV-programming over limited bandwidth capacity of the respective providers.

What remains to be seen, is whether the cable/sat service providers leverage re-compression of TV-programs only as a short-term arrangement until greater capacity can be brought online, or a permanent fixture in their distribution and business model.

Technical merits to reduced resolution

In 1998 ABC Television made available the "Frequently Asked Questions" document in regards to HDTV standard, chosen by the company, which was 720p. One of the questions, titled "Which scanning standard is best suited for future?" contained the following information: "The 1080 x 1920 (1080I) interlace format specified in the ATSC standard CANNOT be compressed to fit in a 6MHz channel without creating objectionable artifacts and it has been recommended that the 1920 pixels be sub-sampled to 1440 to reduce compression artifacts. Therefore, encoder manufacturers have elected to discard approximately 25% of the picture for over-the-air transmission." [cite web|url=http://www.tech-notes.tv/Archive/tech_notes_017.htm|title=Digital TV Tech Notes, Issue #17]

On the other hand, this document was about traditional over-the-air broadcast, which has 6MHz limit to each channel. Satellite and cable companies are not limited by 6MHz bandwidth, therefore theoretically they can deliver a better signal compared to over-the-air signal.

Another compelling reason for reducing frame resolution, in particular horizontal resolution, is that humans are less sensitive to horizontal resolution. The 720p format definitely has lower horizontal resolution than 1080, but viewers do not seem to notice it much. Sony has made good use of the fact that humans will give up horizontal resolution in their HDCAM format. HDCAM can only record about 75% of the 1920 pixels, but like the 1280 horizontal pixels in 720p, the picture still looks good. Panasonic's DVCPRO HD format uses similar pre-filtering techniques as HDCAM does. [cite web|url=http://www.tech-notes.tv/Archive/tech_notes_057.htm|title=Digital TV Tech Notes, Issue #57, Michael Brinkman, employee of Panasonic]

Operators who alter HDTV re-transmission

In 2004, DirectTV subscribers reported that DirectTV broadcasts some HDTV-programming at a reduced resolution of 1280 x 1080i. Since these reports, DirectTV has removed the resolution-indicator from the user-interface of customer equipment.Fact|date=February 2007

In September 2007, Dish Network reduced the resolution on HBO-HD and Showtime-HD from 1920x1080 to 1440x1080. These were the last two channels that Dish Network was still offering in the "full" 1920x1080 resolution.

Lawsuit versus DirectTV

A class-action lawsuit against DirectTV has been filed that questions the legitimacy of DirectTV's "astonishing quality" marketing-claim.fact|date=October 2007

There is some debate about whether HD Lite channels can be considered HDTV or not. Some people think that the various programming providers have been misinforming their customers by providing less-than-HDTV signals while calling them HDTV. Many people believe that this is a form of false advertisement.

References

External links

* http://ftp.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2001/fcc01022.pdf
* http://www.atsc.org/standards/practices/a_54a.pdf
* http://www.atsc.org/standards/a_81.pdf
* http://www.ce.org/shared_files/resources/95DTV%20Definitions.pdf
* http://www.highdefforum.com
* http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/01/11/the-engadget-hd-interview-directvs-cto-re-hd-lite/
* http://www.satelliteguys.us