ABSTRACT
With the upcoming Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Technical Conference theme of "The Digital Era Ready or Not?," seems a good time to step back and see what has been happening in the forest while one has been scrutinizing the trees. Sources for advanced television systems can range from standard definition television (SDTV), through all kinds of film formats, to high definition television (HDTV). Film will always have to be transferred first to video before further processing. An important issue for such film transfers in the future will be the frame rate at which they are recorded. SDTV signals can accommodate both standard 4:3 and widescreen aspect ratios either by mapping the pixels differently or by changing the number of pixels in a line to switch between the two. HDTV, gives essentially a 16:9 medium; material originated in other aspect ratios is handled by placing borders on the top or the sides of the image.
