The world’s first viable television contained only 30 vertical lines, while today, almost one century later, there exist roughly one million to eight million pixels on a single TV screen. Of course, due to numerous innovations throughout a substantial period of time, the technological advancements in this field have been immense, and there are now three formats in which high-definition television is transmitted: 1080p (1920x1080p), 1080i (1920x1080i), and 720p (1280x720p). Common household televisions or devices are capable of playing video content at one of these formats.
The interface between televisions and certain synchronized systems is therefore an important interest, and guidance in managing it can be crucial for its reliability. CTA-770.3-E R-2017 – High Definition TV Analog Component Video Interface defines two raster-scanning systems (referring to the rectangular pattern of image capture and reconstruction in television, which updates each pixel one after the other) for representing images sampled temporally at a constant frame rate. These image formats are specified as 1280×720 samples (pixels) inside a total raster of 750 lines and 1920×1080 samples (pixels) inside a total raster of 1125 lines.
All the permissible scanning systems for these two formats are given in Table 1 of the standard, so a compliant interface is expected to implement one or more of these scanning systems. CTA-770.3-E R-2017 states that the intended uses of interfaces compliant with its guidelines are:
- “For interconnection between High Definition Television (HDTV) Receiver Decoder set top boxes and compatible television receivers or monitors.
- For interconnection between HDTV Digital Cable TV set top boxes (STBs) or Satellite DBS Receiver Decoders, and compatible television receivers or monitors.
- For interconnection of equipment to complete, self-contained analog component video systems of relatively small size.”
CTA-770.3-E R-2017 was written and developed by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which formerly went by the name Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). CTA serves the technology industry, helping to accelerate growth and progress for the market while advocating for emerging technology. In addition to developing standards for video systems, audio systems, and television data, CTA hosts trade shows, most notably the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which has overseen the unveiling of new technologies throughout the past fifty years.
CTA-770.3-E R-2017 – High Definition TV Analog Component Video Interface is available on the ANSI Webstore.
