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LICENSEES AND AWARDS
1987: SMPTE
DAVID SARNOFF GOLD MEDAL AWARD
for
Contributing in Optimizing NTSC Performances
1988: MONITOR AWARD
for
Excellence in Engineering
NTSC Encoders and Decoders
1989: BM/E AWARD
for
Excellence in Engineering
1991: Technology Executive of the Year
from Cable TV Business
1991: EMMY
from The National Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences
for
Techniques for Minimization of NTSC Artifacts
Through Advanced Encoding Techniques
1992: VIDEO GRAND PRIX AWARD
Audio/Video International
LD100 Line Doubler Advanced Technology Award
1993: VIDEO MAGAZINE
Video Visionary
LD100 Line Doubler 10 Best Products
1995: Broadcast Engineering
VP400 10 Best Products
3 Licensees Around the World
Faroudjas inventive approach to improving the quali-
ty of video imaging has caught the eye of some of
the worlds greatest high technology companies. The
following list represents those that have recognized
the value of Faroudjas solutions to imaging problems
and incorporate this technology in their advanced
video products:
CanonMicrotime
ConracMitsubishi
General InstrumentNAC
Grass ValleyNEC
HitachiSanyo
IkegamiSharp
JVCSony
Matsushita (Panasonic)Toshiba
Awards and Achievements
Yves Faroudja and Faroudja Laboratories have
garnered worldwide recognition and a number of
industry awards. These honors are notable for
several reasons. They are in response to the signifi-
cant impact that Faroudjas technology has made on
the serious improvement of video quality. They are
also a reflection of his long term dedication to contin-
ually improving and optimizing the performance of
the NTSC video format.
In chronological order, these awards and their specif-
ic focus are listed including an EMMY in 1991 for
minimizing artifacts in the NTSC broadcast encoding
process.
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LD200 TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS- The LD200 is far more than simply a line doubler. It is a truly unique product in the
world of high performance video. The LD200 is actually a complex image processor that consists of three distinct
elements - all utilizing patented Faroudja technologies and engineered into one chassis; the decoder , the
Faroudja proprietary line doubler, and Faroudjas innovative bandwidth expansion circuit that allows for the
sharpening of image details.Line doubling by itself is simple and inexpensive to achieve. But simply doubling the lines
of information is worse than doing nothing at all because the visual result is a picture of lesser quality. To achieve film-like
quality, a great deal more is required than just doubling the lines. The block diagram below provides a simple view of
Faroudjas multi-faceted solution for perfect pictures. The technical and visual benefits of each of these special circuits are
explained more fully below.
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SECTION A - The LD200 SuperNTSC Decoder: Elimi-
nates COLOR BLURRING- The engineers of the 1940s
(and the 1950s, before and during the development of
color broadcasting), had no idea that video images would
one day be presented as large as they are today. They
therefore designed the color section of the NTSC standard
with severe bandwidth restrictions. This causes colors in
various video images to blur and smear. These effects
are further aggravated by storage media, such as VHS
tapes, that further degrade the chroma or color signal.
e.g. - note how deep reds smear on VHS tape images.
The Faroudja LD200 utilizes proprietary circuitry to recreate
and correct color details. Technically, this is accomplished
by making use of the sharper black and white transitions
to develop a correction signal that is then used to sharpen
the color transitions. The result is colors that are restored
with sharp details and video images that retain their origi-
nal crisp look.
RAINBOW PATTERNS - When you notice the fine detail
of a striped referees shirt rippling with colored rainbows as
the camera pans by, youve seen video cross-color inter-
ference.
This annoying artifact is caused by imperfect separation of
the color (chroma), and black and white (luminance) sig-
nals by the color decoder circuitry. Simple techniques used
commonly to separate the two signals can be effective
most of the time, but occasionally are fooled by finer pitch
detail areas like the referees shirt. The decoder in the
LD200 has patented digital adaptive comb filter circuitry
that eliminates decoding errors of this type and enables
the reproduction of sharper, cleaner color images.DOT CRAWL and HANGING DOTS- This phenomena is
easily seen with large, highly saturated, stationary graphics
like titles and credits. Dot crawl is a rapid upwards move-
ment of colored dots on sharp vertical transitions. Hanging
dots lie underneath all the colored horizontal transitions.
Both of these color aberrations are artifacts that appear
due to an imperfect color decoding process. The LD200
has two separate and patented correction circuits that
work to eliminate both of these distortions. The impact is
color transitions that are clear, sharp and natural.
SECTION B- THE LD200 Patented Line Doubler: elimi-
nates VISIBLE SCAN LINES- The secret of the LD200s
uncanny ability to double the lines of information without
adding digital artifacts is in its unique ability to detect
motion and interpolate correctly to fill in the blank lines.
The Faroudja LD200 does this better than other line
doublers thanks to its proprietary, patented circuitry. It can
detect the difference between a film image that has been
transferred to video or video image that emanates from a
video camera. After detecting the image type, the LD200
selects its algorithm to compensate accordingly.
This is critical because todays home theaters are primarily
used to show films that were transferred to video whether
on tape, laserdisc or off the air (virtually all prime time pro-
grams are film transferred to video). The inability of other
line doublers to detect motion correctly is what causes
most of them to be unwatchable due to digital artifacts.
The LD200 offers sharper, uniquely clean, artifact-free film-
like images without visible scanning lines.
Historically speaking again, electrical engineers back in the
1940s knew the resolution of a picture tube depends on
TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS
SYNC
OUT R OUT
G OUT
B OUT Y
R-Y
B-Y Y
R-Y
B-Y VIDEO
IN DECODER LINE DOUBLERBANDWIDTH
EXPANDER VGA
OUT
VGA
IN
ABC Y/C IN
LD200 BLOCK DIAGRAM
