Video Conversion

1.1.1 Video Resolution: Dial

In this first test, a long white, rectangular "dial" rotates inside the white outline of a graduated circle. To determine the quality of field interpolation, you need to watch the rotating dial and judge at which angle the long edges of the dial start to distort. The lower the angle at which the distortion begins, the better the quality of field merging or field interpolation.

1.1.2 Video Resolution: Dial with Static Pattern

This test is identical to the prior "Dial" test except for the addition of a circular white mesh just within the circle outline. By including the white mesh, the local motion-adaptivity capability of the video processor is being stressed. In other words, not only does the video processor need to draw the rotating dial with smooth edges, it also needs to re-draw the mesh without any flickering distortion, jaggies or missing lines and without any additional distortion of the rotating dial.

1.1.3 Video Resolution: Gray Bars

This test uses four sets of rotating bars, ranging from bright white to very dark gray. It's important to clearly see all four sets of bars to make a proper assessment. If necessary, refer to the "Set Up - Display Settings" portion of the HQV2.0 Blu-ray disc, for instructions on configuring the brightness and contrast settings of your monitor.

1.1.4 Video Resolution: Violin

This test shows a girl playing a violin. During the test sequence, the girl arbitrarily sways back and forth, making the violin, and more importantly, the violin strings move randomly through many low angles. Reproducing the violin's strings without any artifacts tests the video processor's spatial interpolation as well its adaptive directional filtering capabilities.

1.2 Film Resolution: Stadium 2:2 and 3:2

In video cadence testing, the severity and visibility of moiré patterns is used as an indicator to determine how well the cadence detector is working. A moiré pattern is simply a set of concentric curves that can be of equal or unequal widths. These tests assess the video processor's ability to detect and lock onto two basic cadences, 2:2 and 3:2. For both tests, the video pans slowly across the seating in a stadium. (This same video sequence and test procedure is also used in the Multi-Cadence tests.) If the cadence detector is faulty, a moiré pattern will be easily visible in the seating sections of the stadium. The curves of the pattern may be distorted and the pattern may change as the scene pans across the seats. This pattern can be present throughout the entire test sequence or may flicker in and out of view. If the cadence detector is working properly, the video sequence may initially show severe moiré, but this will quickly be corrected by the cadence detector. Some minor, "residual moiré" may still remain, but the initial level of distortion does not return.

1.3 Text Overlays on Film: Horizontal & Vertical

Text that is overlaid onto film can have a cadence that is different from that of the underlying film. In these instances, the video processor must correctly identify the two cadences and adjust the local video processing to account for the different cadences.

If the video processor locks onto the cadence of the background film content, but not the overlaid text, then the text will appear shredded. Similarly, if the video processor locks onto the cadence of the overlaid text, but not the background film content, then the background will appear shredded.

1.4 Response time

These tests focus on the performance of the cadence detector at various motion speeds. They are more challenging than the earlier Stadium 2:2 and 3:2 tests.

1.5 Multi-Cadence

The tests in this chapter explore various additional cadences which can occur in video content from a variety of sources. Like the Stadium 2:2 and 3:2 tests, severe moiré is used as an indication that cadence lock has not been achieved. It's the amount of time it takes to achieve a cadence lock, indicated by a reduction in the moiré distortion, which is the scoring criterion for this test. Cadence lock indicators are provided on the screen for convenience.

1.6 Color Upsampling: ICP / CUE

Both of these tests check for color artifacts introduced by upsampling of previously downsampled (i.e. compressed) video. When video is compressed, the color data is condensed. This truncated color information can result in artifacts if the image cannot be properly up-scaled from the remaining information. The ICP test checks for artifacts introduced in the compression of interlaced video, while the CUE test checks for video artifacts introduced by the compression of progressive video.