The HDTV broadcast standard: Subjective evaluation of proponent systems

Six high-definition television (HDTV) systems were tested to establish a proposed HDTV terrestrial transmission standard. The tests occurred in two rounds and were conducted at the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC); and at Cable Labs in Alexandria, VA; and at the Advanced Television Evaluation Laboratouy (ATEL) in Ottawa, Ont., Canada, The testing process played an important role in accelerating the development of HDTV technology in North America, culminating in the development of the digital Grand Alliance HDTV System, the adopted standard. This paper summarizes the results of subjective image quality tests (Basic Received Quality, Impairment/Interference, and Receiver Scan Conversion) of the proponent HDTV systems from both rounds of testing, thereby permitting the reader to compare the relative performance of competing systems and gain some insight into the testing process conducted at ATEL.