Overview

There are myriad other issues to consider when figuring out what to do with this digital television dilemma. The next two chapters are a hodgepodge of those issues that couldn't be broken down into chapters that would stand on their own. The writing is a collection of excerpts from the years 1994 1997, when we were all pondering the various implications of becoming digital.

When it comes to image quality, many decisions go well beyond just the server itself. The effects on overall image quality of various compression schemes, concatenation, or even the potential requirements for splicing different or variable bit rates become more important. With DTV on the schedule, new issues involving upconversion, downconversion, and even interlace to progressive conversion are all on the table.

How you handle the 16:9 aspect ratio will create a new agenda for production. Do we record everything in two formats? That would be nice, except it would halve the available storage on the server. The new domain of widescreen and compressed digital video brings with it many challenges. For example, videotape transports as well as video servers will have no knowledge of whether they are recording or playing back a 16:9 or a 4:3 aspect ratio. This could change once metadata is embedded in the bit stream and the servers contain the appropriate processing equipment that would be triggered by that data. Yet even if the data were there, is has not been determined what you'd do with it in the mixed-format facilities...