CompuServe Messages

<<1. What constitutes broadcast quality as of Jan. 1995, beyond the technical specs of RS-170A (or whatever it is)?>> -This is tough one since it is more a subjective standard to measure. The issue is the amount of noticable artifacts you get depending on a number of playback conditions. JPEG seems the best current scenario for the average DTV user. <<2. Are there any hard disk recorders that offer direct to air quality?>> -Avid has a box called "Airplay" that is currently in use by broadcast stations around the country. Also Quantel has some kind of playback box. I am using the Data Translations Media 100 which has (to my subjective opinion) the best compression available. They use a Component option which records 4:2:2 video on the YRB inputs of a BetacamSP deck. recently they began offering an HD option which used a hard disk array for extremely good video quality (Near D-2!) <<3. How serious is the artifacting on JPEG, Motion JPEG, MPEG and MPEG II codecs?>> -Once again it's all subjective…. MPEGII has a promising future, but the price has to come down and it requires some special functions for frame-accurate editing with Time-Code. Most of the current DTV devices use JPEG. <<4. What will likely be accepted for broadcast (i.e. Beta, BetaSP, M-II,D1, D2, etc.) by:>> a) Cable access -3/4" Umatic b) local broadcast stations -BetacamSP, 1" Type c c) networks -BetacamSP, D-2 Hope this helps! -Mitch Hill/Hill Creative Services