Audio Video News

A recent study—presented at the NAB convention in Las Vegas by Dr. Marvin A. Hecht, assistant professor of psychology at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana—examined "how broadcasters can make the most use of digital television." The college reports that, in the study, some of its students were shown identical scenes in both high-definition digital television (HDTV) and standard-definition digital television (SDTV) in six different content areas: action, drama, sports, documentaries, entertainment television, and news.

According to information released by the school, the goal was to determine if people could tell the difference between HDTV and SDTV, and what types of content benefit most from the increased resolution provided by a hi-def picture. Hecht explained that, "unlike current television broadcasts, which have only one level of picture quality, in the future broadcasters will be able to decide to show either a single program in HDTV or use the same bandwidth to show multiple programs in SDTV."

The school states that, in a mini-theater environment constructed for the study, viewers watched and rated 42 short video clips in both HDTV and SDTV without being told in advance the level of video quality they were seeing. "Viewers watched the material on a 108" diagonal screen, seated at the recommended viewing distance of 2.5–3 picture heights. The display device used was a Sony VPH-G90U multiscan CRT projector."

Hecht reported that the results showed that HDTV material was preferred significantly more than SDTV material overall—"as expected, certain programs benefited more than others." The results showed that sports and documentaries showed the greatest difference in clarity and how much people liked the picture, followed by news and entertainment television. Interestingly, action and drama clips, while the most popular content areas, showed the least improvement in clarity and picture liking.

In addition, the results showed that willingness to watch more if the program was in HDTV was highest for documentaries and dramas, medium for sports, news, and entertainment television, and least for action. Overall, Hecht feels that the study suggests that, while it is a safe bet to provide action movies and dramas in HDTV, sports and documentaries best illustrate the new medium and are the content most likely to draw people to the format.

Hecht added that "when you view sports such as football and you can see the emotion on the faces of the players and individual audience members, it creates a heightened sense of reality and involvement with the game, compared to regular television. This is good news for professional sports leagues and science/learning networks such as PBS, but is also of interest to local broadcasters who have the capability to shoot a parade or air show in HDTV."