Charles Poynton
tel +1 416 535 7187
charles @ [Link]
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Poynton’s Vector 7 Primaries for HD content
In last month’s article I discussed the demise of the CRT as the defini-
tive display device for approving colour content of HD programming.
The inability of content creators to obtain CRT reference displays
causes an immediate need for a replacement. However, even in the era
when CRT reference displays were viable, there was a latent issue that
no one talked about, and it’s that issue that I’d like to raise this
month: Worldwide standards for HD specify BT.709 primaries.
If you’re a consumer video expert, perhaps a home theatre calibrator,
you say, well, of course, that’s obvious! But let’s investigate.
ITU-R Rec. BT.709 is the main international standard for HD content.
R’G’B’ values are supposed to be displayed according to a particular
set of primary chromaticities specified in the document. The Recom-
mendation was adopted in 1990. (It was called ccir Rec. 709 at the
time). In the years following, various national and continental stan-
dards followed suit. For example, smpte 274M, the main studio
production standard in North America, states:
“Equipment should be designed in accordance with the colorimetric
analysis … defined in this section. This corresponds to ITU-R BT.709.”
Comparable provisions are found in atsc, dvb, and ebu standards.
In 1993, the computer industry enthusiastically adopted the BT.709
primaries as one aspect of the sRGB standard. The sRGB standard is
now ubiquitous for desktop computing, not just for stills (such as Exif
JPEGs), but for video: sRGB video encoding is implicit in new video
distribution channels such as YouTube, Skype, the Apple iTunes Store,
[Link], Netflix, and so on.
Sony’s BVM-D32E1W CRT was the However, HD content creators hold a dark secret: Following
“gold standard” studio reference international agreement on BT.709 in 1990, content creators in 60 Hz
display. It was available with smpte
countries never switched from the smpte primaries of 480 i SD to the
or ebu phosphors – but was never
offered with BT.709 phosphors! BT.709 primaries, and content creators in 50 Hz countries never
switched from the ebu primaries of 576 i SD to the BT.709 primaries.
HD content is generally not approved on BT.709 displays! smpte “C”
(RP 145) primaries remain entrenched for 60 Hz HD in North America,
Japan, and much of Asia; ebu primaries remain entrenched for 50 Hz
HD in Europe and other parts of the world.
Charles Poynton © 2010-08-06 1 of 2
2 PRIMARIES FOR HD CONTENT
BT.709 supposedly exists for international exchange; however, interna-
tional HD program exchange in practice does not use BT.709. We find
ourselves in the ironic situation that studio and broadcast HDTV does
not use the “HDTV” (BT.709) primaries, but the computer industry has
embraced them to the virtual exclusion of everything else! (Displays
having Adobe RGB 1998 primaries are deployed in limited numbers
for applications in high-end graphics arts.)
SD and HD luma coefficients differ, High-end HD production and distribution standards conversion equip-
necessitating a transform of Y’CBCR ment (such as from Snell & Wilcox and Teranex) can be configured to
upon conversion between SD and
perform colour primary transforms among smpte, ebu, and BT.709
HD. Within any geographical region
the underlying R’G’B’ are identical, primaries at the time that programme material is subject to standards
though, so the discrepancy in luma conversion (say from 60 Hz to 50 Hz). However, if such a conversion is
coefficients has absolutely no effect done, gamut clipping and gamut mapping issues are liable to arise. In
on colour gamut or “colour space.”
my view, it is best to leave the R’G’B’ alone, and live with some small
By the way, there’s no such thing as
“BT.601 colour space.” BT.601 is systematic colour errors (which are unlikely to be visible without
primary-agnostic. It is implicit that comparison to the original) rather than risk gamut clipping (which is
480 i content has smpte primaries likely to be visible even without access to the original).
and 576 i content has ebu primaries.
At the consumers’ premises, 60 Hz content has almost certainly been
mastered with smpte primaries. If you’re a home theatre calibrator,
you may be tempted to calibrate your display primaries to the smpte
spec rather than BT.709. In my view that would be a mistake, for the
reason that I mentioned a moment ago in connection with colour
primary transforms in production: The risk of artifacts from colour clip-
ping outweighs any advantage in colour accuracy – and in any event,
when transmitted through an atsc or dvb channel, the content effec-
tively declares itself to be BT.709, so that’s how you should display it.
Studio display manufactures will face increasing difficulty in sustaining
a pair of legacy chromaticity sets (smpte and ebu) for high end HD
content, especially when the discrepancy with BT.709 confers no func-
tional benefit. In the face of increasingly global distribution of televi-
sion programmes, and with a single worldwide standard for desktop
computing used in emergent video distribution technologies, it will be
increasingly difficult for content creators, aggregators, and broad-
casters to justify different primary chromaticities for 50 Hz and 60 Hz
regions. The next 1 to 4 years will see replacement of CRTs across
virtually the entire installed base of studio reference displays. Deploy-
ment of FPD studio reference displays (not “monitors”; see Issue 5)
provides an opportunity for broadcasters throughout the world to
migrate to BT.709 primaries. In my view, that’s the only sensible way
forward is BT.709. If you’re a home theatre enthusiast, calibrating to
BT.709 prepares you for this eventuality.
Wide-gamut television receivers are now commercially available that
warp perfectly reasonable BT.709 colours into regions of colourspace
that the content creators never intended: I call it wild gamut. Faithful
presentation cannot be achieved with such processing. HDMI 1.4 and
xvYCC/[Link] are implicated. The development of legitimate wide
gamut will be the subject of a future issue. Meanwhile, I welcome
your comments!