Digital TV standard chroma format

[Movie-Maker]

What is the standard chroma format for Digital TV ? Is it 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 ?

I realize it uses mpeg-2 format for digital transmission but its unclear what is the standard for the chroma format to be used.
Does anyone know for sure what the standard is ?

Thanks!

[edDV]

What is the standard chroma format for Digital TV ? Is it 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 ?

I realize it uses mpeg-2 format for digital transmission but its unclear what is the standard for the chroma format to be used.
Does anyone know for sure what the standard is ?

Thanks!

ATSC is usually 4:2:0. Most ATSC encoders will accept 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 input

I'm looking to see if 4:2:2 is ever allowed. If so all ATSC tuner-decoders would be required to decode it.

Of course, all LCD-TV sets convert 4:2:0 to 4:4:4 RGB for display.


PS: Many networks maintain internal MPeg2 4:2:2 networking @ ~45-50 Mb/s for higher editing and post-processing quality. For this purpose signals are routed and up-down linked in wide bandwidth 4:2:2. Conversion to 4:2:0 is done in the ATSC encoder. Most local stations still lack local HD editing or storage. They just switch the network download to the ATSC encoder.

This is one interesting test (PDF) of 4:2:2 vs. 4:2:0 over multiple recodes.
http://www.ebu.ch/en/technical/trev/trev_276-caruso.pdf


PPS: I find no evidence that 4:2:2 ATSC output is supported for any of the 18 ATSC formats including 640x486.

[Movie-Maker]

Thanks. I will check out the pdf too.
Recently I was having some color issues (color bleed) with my satellite receiver and someone suggested that it could be the infamous Chroma Upsampling Error. I didn't realize that DTV was 4:2:0 so that thought didn't cross my mind at all.

I suppose the only way to NOT let a cable or sat receiver do the chroma upsampling would be to use a digital connection ? like HDMI ? ofcourse assuming that the A/V receiver or the TV does a better job at it!

[edDV]

Thanks. I will check out the pdf too.
Recently I was having some color issues (color bleed) with my satellite receiver and someone suggested that it could be the infamous Chroma Upsampling Error. I didn't realize that DTV was 4:2:0 so that thought didn't cross my mind at all.

I suppose the only way to NOT let a cable or sat receiver do the chroma upsampling would be to use a digital connection ? like HDMI ? ofcourse assuming that the A/V receiver or the TV does a better job at it!

Satellite is always 4:2:0 and much more compressed. I was refering to up/down links broadcasters use to move video around and the network feed to the local TV stations. The last step is encoding and multiplexing to ATSC.