Enhanced-definition television

It has been suggested that Extended-definition televisionbe mergedinto this article or section. (Discuss)

"EDTV" redirects here. For the 1999 movie directed by Ron Howard, see EDtv. Television Portal

Enhanced-definition television, extended-definition television, or EDTV is a CEA marketing shorthand term for certain digital television (DTV) formats and devices - specifically those which deliver a picture that is superior to that of standard-definition television (SDTV), but not as sharp as high-definition television (HDTV).

The term refers to devices capable of displaying 480 or 576-line signals in progressive scan (commonly referred to as "480p" and "576p" respectively) as opposed to interlaced fields per second, as broadcast in the NTSC, PAL and SECAM SDTV standards, commonly referred to as "480i" or "576i". A progressive signal can have greater vertical resolution than an interlace signal with the same number of scan lines, and eliminates flicker around fine horizontal details. High motion is optional for EDTV, but if it is present, (50Hz or 60Hz mode) EDTV eliminates the line crawl and motion distortion that is visible when interlaced displays attempt to show high motion.

1 Connectivity
2 Broadcast & Displays
3 DVDs
4 Gaming

Connectivity

As EDTV signals require more bandwidth than is feasible with SDTV connection standards, such as composite video or S-Video, higher bandwidth media must be used to accommodate the additional data transfer. Consumer electronic devices such as a progressive scan DVD player or modern video game console must be connected through at least a component video cable (typically using 3 RCA cables for video), a VGA connector, or a DVI or HDMI connector. For over-the-air television broadcasts, EDTV content uses the same connectors as HDTV.

Broadcast & Displays

EDTV broadcasts use less digital bandwidth then HDTV, so TV stations can broadcast several EDTV stations at once. Like SDTV, EDTV signals are broadcast with non-square pixels. The horizontal resolution is 704 or 720 pixels regardless of intended aspect ratio. Because the same number of horizontal pixels used in 4:3 or 16:9 broadcasts, the 16:9 mode is sometimes referred to as anamorphic widescreen. Most EDTV displays use square pixels, yielding a resolution of 854*480. However since no broadcasts use this pixel count, such displays always scale anything they display. (The only sources of 854*480 video are internet downloads, such as from iTunes, and some video games.) When 854*480 plasma displays were common, viewers found that what the sets were not theoretically HD, downscaled HD signals looked far better than DVDs on such sets. Unlike 1080i and SDTV formats, plasma displays can show EDTV signals without the need to de-interlace them first. This can result in a reduction of motion artifacts.

DVDs

The progressive output of a DVD player can be considered the baseline for EDTV - but only if playing a well mastered, progressively encoded disk at high data rates. (No more than 2 hours on a single layer disk.) DVDs cannot encode high motion without resorting to interlace, so some important forms of EDTV cannot be delivered in this way. The Blu-ray format can encode all EDTV forms - but because HDTV is a primary selling point of Blu Ray disks, to date, this has been used only on certain bonus content.

Gaming

The video resolution of video game consoles reached EDTV specifications starting with the Sega Saturn. The Playstation 2 was also EDTV compatible with a component connection. The Wii and Xbox 360 can output 480p via YPbPr component cables. The PlayStation 3 can also output in 480p and 576p via its HDMI, and component video(Y/Pr/Pb), and RGB connections. Also, some consumer devices, such as a video game console, typically use a horizontal resolution of 640 square pixels when outputting an EDTV signal, which is already a 4:3 format.

v • d • e Digital Video ResolutionsDesignation Usage Examples Definition (lines) Rate (Hz) Interlaced (fields) Progressive (frames)

Low; MP@LL LDTV, VCD240; 288 (SIF) 24, 30; 25

Standard; MP@ML SDTV, SVCD, DVD, DV480 (NTSC, PAL-M) 60 24, 30576 (PAL, SECAM) 50 25

Enhanced EDTV 480; 576 60; 50

High; MP@HL HDTV, BD, HDV720 24, 30, 60; 25, 501080 50, 60 24, 30; 25

This table illustrates total horizontal and vertical pixel resolution via box size. It does not accurately reflect the screen or pixel shape (aspect ratio) of these formats, which is either 4:3, or 16:9. v • d • e Broadcast video formats Television Analog525 lines NTSC · NTSC-J · PAL-M625 lines PAL · PAL-N/NC · PALplus · SECAM Audio BTSC (MTS) · NICAM-728 · Zweiton (A2 / IGR) · EIAJHidden signals Captioning · Teletext · CGMS-A · GCR · PDC · VBI · VEIL · VITC · WSS · XDSDefunct systems Pre-1940 · 405 lines · 819 lines · Baird-Nipkow · MAC · MUSE