6010/15/20 Application Notes Main Channel Aspect Ratio Conversion

1. Overview
The purpose of this document is to explain the different aspect ratio conversion methods between 4:3 and 16:9 formats. The aspect ratios for standard TV inputs are usually 4:3 while that of HDTV are usually 16:9. There are four methods supported for 4:3 to 16:9 conversion: 1. 2. 3. 4. Anamorphic Panoramic Pillar box Expand

There are three methods supported for 16:9 to 4:3 conversion: 1. 2. 3. Letterbox Pan-scan and crop Expand

This document will describe and give examples of how registers are programmed and what effect the conversion would have on the image.

2. 4:3 to 16:9 Conversion

2.1. Anamorphic format conversion Anamorphic format conversion is performed when displaying DVD movies that have been anamorphically transferred from film to video, which essentially is the process of squeezing/shrinking the image horizontally. To display the anamorphic source on a 16:9 display, perform a linear zoom horizontally and vertically. Example: 720 x 480i to 1920 x 1080i 720 2 20 = 0.375 2 20 = 0x60000 1920 240 18 Vertical Scale Value = 2 = 0. 4 218 = 0x1C71C 540 Horizontal Scale Value =

Figure 1: Anamorphic from 4:3 to 16:9 2.2. Panoramic format conversion

Most video sources have a 4:3 aspect ratio, so other methods of conversion are used to display the video on a 16:9 wide screen TV. Panoramic format conversion is one of these methods. The center portion of the source is scaled linearly while the side panels are scaled non-linearly, resulting in distortion only on the peripheral areas of the image. Most people would concentrate on the center of the screen, which will not have any distortion when this method is used. There are five parameters to program for panoramic scaling: 1. Zone1: The end of the left side panel that would be scaled non-linearly. 2. Zone2: The end of the central region starting from the first active pixel on the left hand side. 3. Base scale value: The horizontal scale value for the first active pixel on the left hand side.

4. Nonlinear scale factor: The incremental nonlinear scale value. 5. Parabolic scale factor: The incremental parabolic scale value. For most applications, Zone1 should be between 30% to 40% of the display width. For example, a 1920x1080i HDTV may have a value between 576 (30%) to 768 (40%) for Zone1. The following steps are used for calculating these parameters: WTAR 2 Z1TAR 2 Z1SRC 2 K1 Z1TAR 1 Tincinc = Z1TAR Z1SRC = WSRC K1 Z1 Tinc 0 = K1 TAR 1 2 Tincinc 2 W 852 K1 = SRC for 480 lines per frame WTAR 640 Z1SRC = Zone1. Z1SRC = Corresponding width of zone1 in source image. WSRC = Width of source image. WTAR = Width of target image. The Nonlinear and Parabolic scale factors are calculated using a C-model utility provided by the Video DSP group.

Zone1

Zone2

Figure 2: Panoramic from 4:3 to 16:9 The following table provide the parameters for some of the common modes:

Input Mode 720x480i 720x480i 720x480i

Output Mode 1280x720p 1280x720p 1280x720p

Ratio Zone1 Zone2

HSV_ BASE 0x20DB5 0x37A62 0x48BC6 0x164A5 0x2501A 0x306C0

HSV_NL HSV_PB

30% 35% 40% 30% 35% 40%

384 448 512 576 672 768

896 832 768 1344 1248 1152

0x0173B 0x0108C 0x00C19 0x00A33 0x0078F 0x005A4

0x01F 0x013 0x00C 0x009 0x006 0x004

720x480i 1920x1080i 720x480i 1920x1080i 720x480i 1920x1080i

2.3.

Pillar box format conversion

The pillar-box format conversoin preserves the 4:3 aspect ratio by adding vertical black bars on the left and right hand side of the source image. This intermediate image is then scaled up to fit as much area in the target resolution of the display as possible. The resulting image does not have any distortion, but the full benefit of the wide screen TV is not realized. Example: 720 x 480i to 1920 x 1080i First, calculate the width of the vertical black bars to create an intermediate image that has a 16:9 aspect ratio: 480
16 = 853. 3 854 9

Hence, each black bar should be 854 / 2 = 427 pixels. Then, we can calculate the scale ratios: 854 2 20 = 0.4448 2 20 = 0x71DDD 1920 240 18 Vertical Scale Value = 2 = 0. 4 218 = 0x1C71C 540 Horizontal Scale Value = Notice that the scale values are approximately equal. Hence, there is no distortion in the output.

Figure 3: Pillar box from 4:3 to 16:9 2.4. Expand format conversion

This simplest conversion technique is to scale the 4:3 image vertically and horizontally to fit the entire 16:9 display. This creates distortion uniformly throughout the image such that objects would become taller and wider. Example: 720 x 480i to 1920 x 1080i 720 2 20 = 0.375 2 20 = 0x60000 1920 240 18 Vertical Scale Value = 2 = 0. 4 218 = 0x1C71C 540 Horizontal Scale Value =

Figure 4: Expand from 4:3 to 16:9

3. 16:9 to 4:3 Conversion

3.1. Letterbox format conversion The letterbox format conversion compresses the 16:9 image by the same amount horizontally and vertically, so that the output 4:3 image maintains the original aspect ratio of the source. No distortion is introduced by this method, but the top and bottom section of the screen is filled by black bars. Example: 1280 x 720p to 720 x 480p First, calculate the scale value to compress 1280 pixels to 720 pixels: Horizontal Scale Value =
1280 2 20 = 1. 7 2 20 = 0x1C71C7 720

Since we want to compress the same amount vertically, we will use the same vertical scale value: Vertical Scale Value = 1. 7 217 = 0x38E38 This will generate 720 / 1. 7 = 405 lines, so an additional the top and bottom would be padded with 480 405 = 75 lines.

Figure 5: Letterbox from 16:9 to 4:3 3.2. Pan-scan and crop

Since the 16:9 format has more horizontal pixels / information than the 4:3 format, the pan-scan and crop method selects a region of interest within the source image that has a 4:3 aspect ratio, then scales it to the size of the target display resolution to fill the whole screen. This method does not introduce any distortion, but some information from the original image is lost. Example: 1920 x 1080i to 720 x 480i

First, calculate the image size that has an aspect ratio of 4:3 when there are 1080 lines per frame: 1080 4 = 1440 3

This means we have to cut 1920 1440 = 480 pixels from the original image. Then we can calculate the scale values: 1440 2 20 = 2 2 20 = 0x200000 720 540 18 Vertical Scale Value = 2 = 2.25 218 = 0x90000 240 Horizontal Scale Value =

Figure 6: Pan-scan and crop from 16:9 to 4:3 3.3. Expand format conversion

In this conversion method, the source 16:9 image vertically and horizontally to fit the entire 4:3 display without regard to aspect ratio. This is the least desirable method to use due to the distortion it creates in both dimensions. Example: 1280 x 720p to 720 x 480p
1280 20 2 = 1. 7 2 20 = 0x1C71C7 720 720 17 Vertical Scale Value = 2 = 1.5 217 = 0x30000 480

Horizontal Scale Value =

Figure 7: Expand from 16:9 to 4:3