ABSTRACT
Every television program service, whether it is a broadcast network, a cable network, a television station, a local cable operator, a direct broadcast satellite operation, or an industrial programming operation, has a certain "look" to its program continuity. That look consists of the way in which it makes transitions from one program to another. The human visual system is not so sensitive to distortions in moving images or ones of great complexity. Complicating the situation is the fact that most digital video compression systems are adaptive. The feedback is based on the buffer fullness, a measure of how much data is in the buffer at any instant waiting for transmission. As the buffer empties, the feedback will allow more bits to be generated, thus filling the buffer to the target fullness level. The use of a buffer and the selectable normalization matrix provides the greatest opportunity for differentiation of the designs of the several systems.
