ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021
(Main)Information technology — Coding-independent code points — Part 4: Usage of video signal type code points
Information technology — Coding-independent code points — Part 4: Usage of video signal type code points
This document describes common industry representation practices for the usage of video signal type code points, as these properties are conveyed across video content production and distribution carriage systems.
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TECHNICAL ISO/IEC TR
REPORT 23091-4
Third edition
2021-05
Information technology — Coding-
independent code points —
Part 4:
Usage of video signal type code points
Reference number
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
©
ISO/IEC 2021
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO/IEC 2021
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 3
5 Overview . 5
6 Workflow domains . 6
7 Common video signal type combinations. 7
7.1 General . 7
7.2 Colour coding characteristics . 8
7.2.1 General. 8
7.2.2 Colour properties . 9
7.2.3 Common descriptions and carriage – standard dynamic range video with
narrow colour gamut .11
7.2.4 Common descriptions and carriage – standard dynamic range video with
wide colour gamut .12
7.2.5 Colour coding characteristics and carriage – high dynamic range video
with wide colour gamut .13
7.2.6 Baseband carriage of colour coding characteristics descriptions .14
7.3 Mastering display colour volume descriptions .16
7.3.1 Mastering display colour volume properties .16
7.3.2 Common descriptions and carriage – mastering display colour volume
descriptions . .17
Annex A (informative) Additional combinations not specified as industry standards .19
Annex B (informative) Relevance of system identifier tags in consumer distribution
specifications .21
Bibliography .22
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical
activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the
work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for
the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives or www .iec .ch/ members
_experts/ refdocs).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject
of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent
rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the
Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents) or the IEC
list of patent declarations received (see patents.iec.ch).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www .iso .org/
iso/ foreword .html. In the IEC, see www .iec .ch/ understanding -standards.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information in collaboration
with ITU-T (as ITU-T Series H Supplement 19 (04/2021)).
This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO/IEC 23091-4:2020), which has been
technically revised.
The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:
— clarity and terminology have been improved;
— an error in the value of the registration identifier for the MasteringDisplayMinimumLuminance
parameter of SMPTE ST 2067-21 for the BT709x100n05 tag combination has been corrected.
A list of all parts in the ISO/IEC 23091 series can be found on the ISO and IEC websites.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html and www .iec .ch/ national
-committees.
iv © ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Introduction
This document discusses video signal property description code points and their combinations that
are widely used in production and video content workflows. Video properties and values are usually
expressed in "metadata" that can exist across production and distribution workflows. Knowledge of
these properties and their combinations has value as content is processed in the end-to-end production-
to-distribution workflow chain.
The combinations of all possible expressible video properties as code point values can hypothetically
result in hundreds or thousands of permutations; but many of those combinations are rarely or
never used in practice. For example, it is highly unlikely that perceptual quantization (PQ) transfer
characteristics function specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 would be combined with the colour primaries
specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.601. Only a small subset of the possible combinations is used in practice.
This document is written to provide information to help the producers of various content processing
tools to avoid processing mistakes that can cause video quality degradation due to having incorrect
assumptions made about video property combinations. There are only a few limited sets of video
property combinations that are widely used in present-day video production and distribution equipment
chains. This document describes these limited sets of combinations that are currently widely used
and describes how the associated signal type metadata is carried to aid in the automation of content
workflows across various domains of capture, production, and distribution. Lastly, this document aims
to help its readers, especially toolset developers, to repurpose tools to work properly across several
domains (e.g. capture, production, production distribution, and service distribution) where similar
video conversion functions (e.g. chroma subsampling or colour space conversions) can be performed.
© ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved v
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TECHNICAL REPORT ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Information technology — Coding-independent code
points —
Part 4:
Usage of video signal type code points
1 Scope
This document describes common industry representation practices for the usage of video signal type
code points, as these properties are conveyed across video content production and distribution carriage
systems.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10, Information technology — Coding of audio-visual objects — Part 10:
Advanced video coding
Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2, Information technology — High efficiency coding and media delivery
in heterogeneous environments — High efficiency video coding
Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2, Information technology — Coding-independent code points — Part 2:
Video
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions in Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2,
Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 and Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2 and the following apply.
ISO ad IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org
3.1
3G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 2.970 Gbit/s and 2.970/1.001 Gbit/s for transporting
uncompressed digital video signals
3.2
6G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 5.94 Gbit/s and 5.94/1.001 Gbit/s for transporting
uncompressed digital video signals
3.3
10G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 10.692 Gbit/s for transporting uncompressed digital
video signals
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
3.4
12G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 11.88 Gbit/s and 11.88/1.001 Gbit/s for transporting
uncompressed digital video signals
3.5
colour coding characteristics
combination of colour gamut, colour primaries, dynamic range, transfer function, colour representation,
video range, and chroma sample location
3.6
colour volume
space of all colours and intensities that a device or signal can reproduce or convey
3.7
creative intent
desired vision of the content creator (e.g. a director, cinematographer, videographer, editor or colourist)
who adjusts and approves the appearance of rendered content in the production process
3.8
dual-link SDI
two parallel serial digital interfaces for transporting uncompressed video signals
3.9
electro-optical transfer function
EOTF
function to map a non-linear video signal to display linear light
3.10
full range
range in a fixed-point (integer) representation such that the active video range spans the full range of
values that can be expressed with that bit depth
3.11
HD-SDI
serial digital interface for transporting uncompressed digital HD video signals
3.12
inverse electro-optical transfer function
inverse EOTF
function that is the inverse of an EOTF (3.9)
3.13
inverse opto-electrical transfer function
inverse OETF
function that is the inverse of an OETF (3.15)
3.14
narrow range
range in a fixed-point (integer) representation such that the active video range does not span the full
range of values that can be expressed with that bit depth, although the remaining range can potentially
be used for undershoot or overshoot processing artefacts and sync
Note 1 to entry: Narrow range is, in some applications, referred to by synonyms such as: “limited range”, “video
range”, “legal range”, “SMPTE range” or “standard range”.
3.15
opto-electrical transfer function
OETF
function to map relative scene linear light to a non-linear video signal
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
3.16
opto-optical transfer function
OOTF
function to map relative scene linear light to display linear light
3.17
quad-link SDI
four parallel serial digital interfaces for transporting uncompressed video signals
3.18
random access point access unit
RAPAU
access unit in a video bitstream containing an intra-coded picture with the property that all pictures
following the intra-coded picture in output order can be correctly decoded without using any
information preceding it in the bitstream
3.19
SDI
serial digital interface for transporting uncompressed video signals
3.20
SD-SDI
signal digital interface for transporting uncompressed digital SD video signals
3.21
transfer function
function among any of the following: EOTF (3.9), inverse EOTF (3.12), OETF (3.15), inverse OETF (3.13),
OOTF (3.16), or inverse OOTF
3.22
U-SDI
multilink (up to 24 links) serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 10.692 Gbit/s per link for
transporting uncompressed digital video signals
4 Abbreviated terms
2K informally used to refer to an HD resolution (1920 × 1080 for television or 2048 × 1080 for film)
4K informally used to refer a UHD resolution (3840 × 2160 for television or 4096 × 2160 for film)
8K informally used to refer to a UHD resolution (7680 × 4320 or 8192 × 4320)
AVC advanced video coding (Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10)
CICP coding-independent code points (Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2)
EOTF electro-optical transfer function
GBR green, blue and red component colour system in linear light domain; same as RGB, although
emphasizing that the green component is handled as the primary colour component by some
technical elements of the video coding technology
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, GBR represents the same component colour system as RGB.
G′B′R′ green, blue and red component colour system in a non-linear domain associated with a transfer
function which maps the linear light domain to a more perceptually uniform domain; same
as R′G′B′, although emphasizing that the green component is handled as the primary colour
component by some technical elements of the video coding technology
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, G′B′R′ represents the same component colour system as R′G′B′.
HD high definition
HDR high dynamic range
HEVC high efficiency video coding (Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2)
HLG hybrid log-gamma (as defined in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
HVS human visual system
IC C constant intensity signal format (as defined in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
T P
LCD liquid crystal display
LED light-emitting diode
LUT look-up table
MDCV mastering display colour volume
MXF material exchange format (as defined in SMPTE ST 377-1)
N/A not applicable
N/R not required
NCG narrow colour gamut (typically as per Rec. ITU-R BT.709)
NCL non-constant luminance
OETF opto-electrical transfer function
OOTF opto-optical transfer function
OLED organic light-emitting diode
PQ perceptual quantizer (as defined in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
QP quantization parameter
RAPAU random access point access unit
RGB red, green and blue component colour system in linear light domain
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, RGB represents the same component colour system as GBR.
R′G′B′ red, green and blue component colour system in a non-linear domain associated with a transfer
function which maps the linear light domain to a more perceptually uniform domain
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, R′G′B′ represents the same component colour system as G′B′R′.
SD standard definition
SDR standard dynamic range
SEI supplemental enhancement information
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
UHD ultra-high definition
UL universal label (as defined in SMPTE ST 377-1)
VUI video usability information (a sequence-level syntax structure in HEVC and AVC bitstreams)
WCG wide colour gamut (a gamut substantially wider than the gamut conveyed by Rec. ITU-R BT.709,
e.g. as per Rec. ITU-R BT.2020 or Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
XYZ CIE 1931 colour space (wherein Y corresponds to the luminance signal)
Y′CbCr luma (Y′), chroma blue (Cb) and chroma red (Cr) colour representation defined by a matrix
transformation relationship to an R′G′B′ colour system
NOTE A Y′CbCr representation is commonly used for video/image distribution as a way of
encoding RGB information. Such a representation is also commonly expressed as YCbCr, Y′C C ,
B R
or Y′C′ C′ , and can also be known as YUV in some documents. The relationship between Y′CbCr
B R
and R′G′B′ considered in this document is defined by matrix coefficients specified in Rec. ITU-R
BT.601, Rec. ITU-R BT.709, Rec. ITU-R BT.2020 or Rec. ITU-R BT.2100. Unlike the CIE-Y com-
ponent in the linear-light XYZ representation, it is possible that the non-linear, approximately
perceptual uniform Y′ will not represent true luminance, regardless of the transfer function.
5 Overview
This document discusses video signal property description code points and their combinations that
are widely used in production and video content workflows. Video properties and values are usually
expressed in "metadata" that can exist across production and distribution workflows. Knowledge of
these properties and their combinations has value as content is processed in the end-to-end production-
to-distribution workflow chain.
The combinations of all possible expressible video properties as code point values can hypothetically
result in hundreds or thousands of permutations; but many of those combinations are rarely or never
used in practice. For example, it is highly unlikely that the perceptual quantization (PQ) transfer
characteristics function specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 would be combined with the colour primaries
specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.601. Only a small subset of the possible combinations is used in practice.
This document is written to provide information to help the producers of various content processing
tools to avoid processing mistakes that can cause video quality degradation due to having incorrect
assumptions made about video property combinations. There are only a few limited sets of video
property combinations that are widely used in present-day video production and distribution equipment
chains. This document describes these limited sets of combinations that are currently widely used
and describes how the associated signal type metadata is carried to aid in the automation of content
workflows across various domains of capture, production, and distribution. Lastly, this document aims
to help its readers, especially toolset developers, to repurpose tools to work properly across several
domains (e.g. capture, production, production distribution, and service distribution) where similar
video conversion functions (e.g. chroma subsampling or colour space conversions) can be performed.
The coding-independent code points (CICP) specification for video (Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2)
defines code points and fields that identify properties of video signals. These code points are defined
independently from how these properties are carried in a coded video-layer bitstream such as an HEVC
or AVC bitstream, which can differ depending on bitstream format. The compressed representation
is sometimes considered to be a temporary, compacted state for distribution or delivery of the video
signal, while the reconstructed video signal output from a video decoder can be interpreted as having
the same meaning as a video signal immediately prior to compression in the encoder.
Subclauses 7.2 and 7.3 define system identifier tags for combinations of the described commonly used
values of such video signal property combinations that apply across signal domains. In addition, these
subclauses also identify how the video property values are carried in the signal processing workflow.
Subclause 7.3 defines system identifier tags for commonly used values for mastering display colour
© ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved 5
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
volume descriptions. Annex A defines system identifier tags used for additional combinations that
are not specified as industry standards. Annex B defines system identifier tags that are used in some
existing consumer distribution formats.
6 Workflow domains
Figure 1 illustrates workflow domains (capture, production, production distribution, and service
distribution) in which video content can exist, be edited, or be converted. Typical content workflows
across these domains are either theatrical/scripted (episodic) TV or live events. There are many similar
video processing functions that can be performed in each domain and often these functions can be
repeated in the next successive domain.
Figure 1 — Video workflows through different carriage domains
In the capture domain, content is created through sensors on cameras converting optical signals into a
digital format. Content is retained at its highest informational format, although some conversions can
be performed to reduce transport bandwidth demands.
In the interface to the production domain, content undergoes further processing transformations such
as non-linear transformations, chroma subsampling (e.g. 4:4:4 to 4:2:2), colour representation changes
(e.g. RGB to Y′CbCr NCL) and bit depth reduction (e.g. 16 bits per sample to 10 bits per sample). For
theatrical/scripted TV workflows entering in the production domain, content can be augmented with
computer-generated imagery sources, overlaid with graphics, and colour graded using a mastering
display. For live event workflows, there is always a real-time constraint, which limits content
processing to real-time operations. After the colour grading, both static and dynamic metadata can be
generated that are to be attached to the content workflow. However, for live events, it is possible that
the generation of highly customized metadata will not be practical and the metadata will need to be
generated further downstream by automated content analysis approaches.
In the production distribution domain, some additional processing is done to the content to further
reduce transport bandwidth demands. This can include some sample-wise processing transformations
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
(chroma subsampling and bit depth) and compression (e.g. using HEVC or AVC) but mostly employing
spatial compression techniques.
For 4:2:0 chroma subsampling operations, it is important to make known the relative location alignment
of the initial subsampling location processing of the content to avoid unnecessary quality degradation
upon further content processing. For the purposes of this document, this property is described in
terms of the ChromaLocType variable as defined in HEVC, which further corresponds with the value
of the syntax elements chroma_sample_loc_type_top_field and chroma_sample_loc_type_bottom_field
in HEVC and AVC. For NCG material, the usual alignment corresponds to ChromaLocType equal to 0
(vertically interstitial). For wide colour gamut (WCG) material, the usual alignment corresponds to
ChromaLocType equal to 2 (co-sited).
At the service distribution domain, the content version in the workflow is in final form, though the
presentation of it can have some additional overlay graphics. Content processing at this interface
continues to reduce signal information to address transport bandwidth distribution demands while
still maximizing perceptual optimizations to retain content video quality. Operations reduce the
content to a compressed representation of 4:2:0 Y′CbCr 8 or 10 bit video using HEVC or AVC for the
compression representation. Alternatively, MPEG-2 (Rec. ITU-T H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2) can be used as
a compressed representation for 4:2:0 Y′CbCr 8 bit video content. This content workflow then finishes
with the content being distributed to the customer through broadcast, multicast, or unicast approaches
and then being presented for viewing.
Many of the content processing operations can employ multiple third-party content processing tools.
Currently most of such tools are designed and operate within a specific domain with general assumptions
of how content was handled in the preceding domain. Tools can also have further constraints depending
on the content resolutions (e.g. HD or UHD). Some applications restrict the utilized colour volume to
be smaller than what can be expressed in a Rec. ITU-R BT.2020 or Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 container, such
as the smaller P3D65 colour gamut (as specified in SMPTE ST 2113) and intensity range of common
mastering or reference displays used in content production and delivery presentations. The approved
colour volume, which can be smaller than the container volume, is often indicated with SMPTE ST 2086
metadata. Over time, it is expected that WCG or high dynamic range (HDR) applications will evolve to
use more of the available container colour volume.
7 Common video signal type combinations
7.1 General
This clause enumerates common combinations of video properties and values that are currently
used within the content industry. Common methods of conveying video property information are
also described for the capture, production, production distribution, and service distribution carriage
domains.
System identifier tags are provided in this document to succinctly identify each commonly used
combination. Such system identifier tags can be used as out of band metadata for conversion tools,
and by production/distribution teams, to identify the workflow path needed to process and distribute
content.
Content conversion tools need the locations and values of stream properties and metadata values
associated with the corresponding system identifier. In some cases, the information to identify and
locate video properties of the stream information are described in a specific coded video stream
specification.
For example, SMPTE MXF structure
...
TECHNICAL ISO/IEC TR
REPORT 23091-4
Third edition
Information technology — Coding-
independent code points —
Part 4:
Usage of video signal type code points
PROOF/ÉPREUVE
Reference number
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
©
ISO/IEC 2021
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED DOCUMENT
© ISO/IEC 2021
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Email: copyright@iso.org
Website: www.iso.org
Published in Switzerland
ii PROOF/ÉPREUVE © ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 3
5 Overview . 5
6 Workflow domains . 6
7 Common video signal type combinations. 7
7.1 General . 7
7.2 Colour coding characteristics . 8
7.2.1 General. 8
7.2.2 Colour properties . 9
7.2.3 Common descriptions and carriage – standard dynamic range video with
narrow colour gamut .11
7.2.4 Common descriptions and carriage – standard dynamic range video with
wide colour gamut .12
7.2.5 Colour coding characteristics and carriage – high dynamic range video
with wide colour gamut .13
7.2.6 Baseband carriage of colour coding characteristics descriptions .14
7.3 Mastering display colour volume descriptions .16
7.3.1 Mastering display colour volume properties .16
7.3.2 Common descriptions and carriage – mastering display colour volume
descriptions . .17
Annex A (informative) Additional combinations not specified as industry standards .19
Annex B (informative) Relevance of system identifier tags in consumer distribution
specifications .21
Bibliography .22
© ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved PROOF/ÉPREUVE iii
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that
are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through
technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of
technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other
international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also
take part in the work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for
the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives or www .iec .ch/ members
_experts/ refdocs).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject
of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent
rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the
Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents) or the IEC
list of patent declarations received (see patents.iec.ch).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www .iso .org/
iso/ foreword .html. In the IEC, see www .iec .ch/ understanding -standards.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information in collaboration
with ITU-T (as ITU-T Series H Supplement 19 (04/2021)).
This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO/IEC 23091-4:2020), which has been
technically revised.
The main changes compared to the previous edition are as follows:
— clarity and terminology is improved;
— an error in the value of the registration identifier for the MasteringDisplayMinimumLuminance
parameter of SMPTE ST 2067-21 for the BT709x100n05 tag combination is corrected.
A list of all parts in the ISO/IEC 23091 series can be found on the ISO and IEC websites.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html and www .iec .ch/ national
-committees.
iv PROOF/ÉPREUVE © ISO/IEC 2021 – All rights reserved
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Introduction
This document discusses video signal property description code points and their combinations that
are widely used in production and video content workflows. Video properties and values are usually
expressed in "metadata" that can exist across production and distribution workflows. Knowledge of
these properties and their combinations has value as content is processed in the end-to-end production-
to-distribution workflow chain.
The combinations of all possible expressible video properties as code point values can hypothetically
result in hundreds or thousands of permutations; but many of those combinations are rarely or
never used in practice. For example, it is highly unlikely that perceptual quantization (PQ) transfer
characteristics function specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 would be combined with the colour primaries
specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.601. Only a small subset of the possible combinations is used in practice.
This document is written to provide information to help the producers of various content processing
tools to avoid processing mistakes that can cause video quality degradation due to having incorrect
assumptions made about video property combinations. There are only a few limited sets of video
property combinations that are widely used in present-day video production and distribution equipment
chains. This document describes these limited sets of combinations that are currently widely used
and describes how the associated signal type metadata is carried to aid in the automation of content
workflows across various domains of capture, production, and distribution. Lastly, this document aims
to help its readers, especially toolset developers, to repurpose tools to work properly across several
domains (e.g. capture, production, production distribution, and service distribution) where similar
video conversion functions (e.g. chroma subsampling or colour space conversions) can be performed.
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TECHNICAL REPORT ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
Information technology — Coding-independent code
points —
Part 4:
Usage of video signal type code points
1 Scope
This document describes common industry representation practices for the usage of video signal type
code points, as these properties are conveyed across video content production and distribution carriage
systems.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10, Information technology — Coding of audio-visual objects — Part 10:
Advanced video coding
Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2, Information technology — High efficiency coding and media delivery
in heterogeneous environments — High efficiency video coding
Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2, Information technology — Coding-independent code points —
Part 2: Video
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions in Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2,
Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 and Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2 and the following apply.
ISO ad IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org
3.1
3G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 2.970 Gbit/s and 2.970/1.001 Gbit/s for transporting
uncompressed digital video signals
3.2
6G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 5.94 Gbit/s and 5.94/1.001 Gbit/s for transporting
uncompressed digital video signals
3.3
10G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 10.692 Gbit/s for transporting uncompressed digital
video signals
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3.4
12G-SDI
serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 11.88 Gbit/s and 11.88/1.001 Gbit/s for transporting
uncompressed digital video signals
3.5
colour coding characteristics
combination of colour gamut, colour primaries, dynamic range, transfer function, colour representation,
video range, and chroma sample location
3.6
colour volume
space of all colours and intensities that a device or signal can reproduce or convey
3.7
creative intent
desired vision of the content creator (e.g. a director, cinematographer, videographer, editor or colourist)
who adjusts and approves the appearance of rendered content in the production process
3.8
dual-link SDI
two parallel serial digital interfaces for transporting uncompressed video signals
3.9
electro-optical transfer function
EOTF
function to map a non-linear video signal to display linear light
3.10
full range
range in a fixed-point (integer) representation such that the active video range spans the full range of
values that can be expressed with that bit depth
3.11
HD-SDI
serial digital interface for transporting uncompressed digital HD video signals
3.12
inverse electro-optical transfer function
inverse EOTF
function that is the inverse of an EOTF (3.9)
3.13
inverse opto-electrical transfer function
inverse OETF
function that is the inverse of an OETF (3.15)
3.14
narrow range
range in a fixed-point (integer) representation such that the active video range does not span the full
range of values that can be expressed with that bit depth, although the remaining range can potentially
be used for undershoot or overshoot processing artefacts and sync
Note 1 to entry: Narrow range is, in some applications, referred to by synonyms such as: “limited range”, “video
range”, “legal range”, “SMPTE range” or “standard range”.
3.15
opto-electrical transfer function
OETF
function to map relative scene linear light to a non-linear video signal
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3.16
opto-optical transfer function
OOTF
function to map relative scene linear light to display linear light
3.17
quad-link SDI
four parallel serial digital interfaces for transporting uncompressed video signals
3.18
random access point access unit
RAPAU
access unit in a video bitstream containing an intra-coded picture with the property that all pictures
following the intra-coded picture in output order can be correctly decoded without using any
information preceding it in the bitstream
3.19
SDI
serial digital interface for transporting uncompressed video signals
3.20
SD-SDI
signal digital interface for transporting uncompressed digital SD video signals
3.21
transfer function
function among any of the following: EOTF (3.9), inverse EOTF (3.12), OETF (3.15), inverse OETF (3.13),
OOTF (3.16), or inverse OOTF
3.22
U-SDI
multilink (up to 24 links) serial digital interface with a transport capacity of 10.692 Gbit/s per link for
transporting uncompressed digital video signals
4 Abbreviated terms
2K informally used to refer to an HD resolution (1920 × 1080 for television or 2048 × 1080 for film)
4K informally used to refer a UHD resolution (3840 × 2160 for television or 4096 × 2160 for film)
8K informally used to refer to a UHD resolution (7680 × 4320 or 8192 × 4320)
AVC advanced video coding (Rec. ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10)
CICP coding-independent code points (Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2)
EOTF electro-optical transfer function
GBR green, blue and red component colour system in linear light domain; same as RGB, although
emphasizing that the green component is handled as the primary colour component by some
technical elements of the video coding technology
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, GBR represents the same component colour system as RGB.
G′B′R′ green, blue and red component colour system in a non-linear domain associated with a transfer
function which maps the linear light domain to a more perceptually uniform domain; same
as R′G′B′, although emphasizing that the green component is handled as the primary colour
component by some technical elements of the video coding technology
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ISO/IEC TR 23091-4:2021(E)
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, G′B′R′ represents the same component colour system as R′G′B′.
HD high definition
HDR high dynamic range
HEVC high efficiency video coding (Rec. ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2)
HLG hybrid log-gamma (as defined in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
HVS human visual system
IC C constant intensity signal format (as defined in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
T P
LCD liquid crystal display
LED light-emitting diode
LUT look-up table
MDCV mastering display colour volume
MXF material exchange format (as defined in SMPTE ST 377-1)
N/A not applicable
N/R not required
NCG narrow colour gamut (typically as per Rec. ITU-R BT.709)
NCL non-constant luminance
OETF opto-electrical transfer function
OOTF opto-optical transfer function
OLED organic light-emitting diode
PQ perceptual quantizer (as defined in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
QP quantization parameter
RAPAU random access point access unit
RGB red, green and blue component colour system in linear light domain
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, RGB represents the same component colour system as GBR.
R′G′B′ red, green and blue component colour system in a non-linear domain associated with a transfer
function which maps the linear light domain to a more perceptually uniform domain
NOTE The colour representation does not indicate the media component order in a coded
representation. For example, R′G′B′ represents the same component colour system as G′B′R′.
SD standard definition
SDR standard dynamic range
SEI supplemental enhancement information
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UHD ultra-high definition
UL universal label (as defined in SMPTE ST 377-1)
VUI video usability information (a sequence-level syntax structure in HEVC and AVC bitstreams)
WCG wide colour gamut (a gamut substantially wider than the gamut conveyed by Rec. ITU-R BT.709,
e.g. as per Rec. ITU-R BT.2020 or Rec. ITU-R BT.2100)
XYZ CIE 1931 colour space (wherein Y corresponds to the luminance signal)
Y′CbCr luma (Y′), chroma blue (Cb) and chroma red (Cr) colour representation defined by a matrix
transformation relationship to an R′G′B′ colour system
NOTE A Y′CbCr representation is commonly used for video/image distribution as a way of
encoding RGB information. Such a representation is also commonly expressed as YCbCr, Y′C C ,
B R
or Y′C′ C′ , and can also be known as YUV in some documents. The relationship between Y′CbCr
B R
and R′G′B′ considered in this document is defined by matrix coefficients specified in Rec. ITU-R
BT.601, Rec. ITU-R BT.709, Rec. ITU-R BT.2020 or Rec. ITU-R BT.2100. Unlike the CIE-Y com-
ponent in the linear-light XYZ representation, it is possible that the non-linear, approximately
perceptual uniform Y′ will not represent true luminance, regardless of the transfer function.
5 Overview
This document discusses video signal property description code points and their combinations that
are widely used in production and video content workflows. Video properties and values are usually
expressed in "metadata" that can exist across production and distribution workflows. Knowledge of
these properties and their combinations has value as content is processed in the end-to-end production-
to-distribution workflow chain.
The combinations of all possible expressible video properties as code point values can hypothetically
result in hundreds or thousands of permutations; but many of those combinations are rarely or never
used in practice. For example, it is highly unlikely that the perceptual quantization (PQ) transfer
characteristics function specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 would be combined with the colour primaries
specified in Rec. ITU-R BT.601. Only a small subset of the possible combinations is used in practice.
This document is written to provide information to help the producers of various content processing
tools to avoid processing mistakes that can cause video quality degradation due to having incorrect
assumptions made about video property combinations. There are only a few limited sets of video
property combinations that are widely used in present-day video production and distribution equipment
chains. This document describes these limited sets of combinations that are currently widely used
and describes how the associated signal type metadata is carried to aid in the automation of content
workflows across various domains of capture, production, and distribution. Lastly, this document aims
to help its readers, especially toolset developers, to repurpose tools to work properly across several
domains (e.g. capture, production, production distribution, and service distribution) where similar
video conversion functions (e.g. chroma subsampling or colour space conversions) can be performed.
The coding-independent code points (CICP) specification for video (Rec. ITU-T H.273 | ISO/IEC 23091-2)
defines code points and fields that identify properties of video signals. These code points are defined
independently from how these properties are carried in a coded video-layer bitstream such as an HEVC
or AVC bitstream, which can differ depending on bitstream format. The compressed representation
is sometimes considered to be a temporary, compacted state for distribution or delivery of the video
signal, while the reconstructed video signal output from a video decoder can be interpreted as having
the same meaning as a video signal immediately prior to compression in the encoder.
Subclauses 7.2 and 7.3 define system identifier tags for combinations of the described commonly used
values of such video signal property combinations that apply across signal domains. In addition, these
subclauses also identify how the video property values are carried in the signal processing workflow.
Subclause 7.3 defines system identifier tags for commonly used values for mastering display colour
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volume descriptions. Annex A defines system identifier tags used for additional combinations that
are not specified as industry standards. Annex B defines system identifier tags that are used in some
existing consumer distribution formats.
6 Workflow domains
Figure 1 illustrates workflow domains (capture, production, production distribution, and service
distribution) in which video content can exist, be edited, or be converted. Typical content workflows
across these domains are either theatrical/scripted (episodic) TV or live events. There are many similar
video processing functions that can be performed in each domain and often these functions can be
repeated in the next successive domain.
Figure 1 — Video workflows through different carriage domains
In the capture domain, content is created through sensors on cameras converting optical signals into a
digital format. Content is retained at its highest informational format, although some conversions can
be performed to reduce transport bandwidth demands.
In the interface to the production domain, content undergoes further processing transformations such
as non-linear transformations, chroma subsampling (e.g. 4:4:4 to 4:2:2), colour representation changes
(e.g. RGB to Y′CbCr NCL) and bit depth reduction (e.g. 16 bits per sample to 10 bits per sample). For
theatrical/scripted TV workflows entering in the production domain, content can be augmented with
computer-generated imagery sources, overlaid with graphics, and colour graded using a mastering
display. For live event workflows, there is always a real-time constraint, which limits content
processing to real-time operations. After the colour grading, both static and dynamic metadata can be
generated that are to be attached to the content workflow. However, for live events, it is possible that
the generation of highly customized metadata will not be practical and the metadata will need to be
generated further downstream by automated content analysis approaches.
In the production distribution domain, some additional processing is done to the content to further
reduce transport bandwidth demands. This can include some sample-wise processing transformations
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(chroma subsampling and bit depth) and compression (e.g. using HEVC or AVC) but mostly employing
spatial compression techniques.
For 4:2:0 chroma subsampling operations, it is important to make known the relative location alignment
of the initial subsampling location processing of the content to avoid unnecessary quality degradation
upon further content processing. For the purposes of this document, this property is described in
terms of the ChromaLocType variable as defined in HEVC, which further corresponds with the value
of the syntax elements chroma_sample_loc_type_top_field and chroma_sample_loc_type_bottom_field
in HEVC and AVC. For NCG material, the usual alignment corresponds to ChromaLocType equal to 0
(vertically interstitial). For wide colour gamut (WCG) material, the usual alignment corresponds to
ChromaLocType equal to 2 (co-sited).
At the service distribution domain, the content version in the workflow is in final form, though the
presentation of it can have some additional overlay graphics. Content processing at this interface
continues to reduce signal information to address transport bandwidth distribution demands while
still maximizing perceptual optimizations to retain content video quality. Operations reduce the
content to a compressed representation of 4:2:0 Y′CbCr 8 or 10 bit video using HEVC or AVC for the
compression representation. Alternatively, MPEG-2 (Rec. ITU-T H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2) can be used as
a compressed representation for 4:2:0 Y′CbCr 8 bit video content. This content workflow then finishes
with the content being distributed to the customer through broadcast, multicast, or unicast approaches
and then being presented for viewing.
Many of the content processing operations can employ multiple third-party content processing tools.
Currently most of such tools are designed and operate within a specific domain with general assumptions
of how content was handled in the preceding domain. Tools can also have further constraints depending
on the content resolutions (e.g. HD or UHD). Some applications restrict the utilized colour volume to
be smaller than what can be expressed in a Rec. ITU-R BT.2020 or Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 container, such
as the smaller P3D65 colour gamut (as specified in SMPTE ST 2113) and intensity range of common
mastering or reference displays used in content production and delivery presentations. The approved
colour volume, which can be smaller than the container volume, is often indicated with SMPTE ST 2086
metadata. Over time, it is expected that WCG or high dynamic range (HDR) applications will evolve to
use more of the available container colour volume.
7 Common video signal type combinations
7.1 General
This clause enumerates common combinations of video properties and values that are currently
used within the content industry. Common methods of conveying video property information are
also described for the capture, production, production distribution, and service distribution carriage
domains.
System identifier tags are provided in this document to succinctly identify each commonly used
combination. Such system identifier tags can be used as out of band metadata for conversion tools,
and by production/distribution teams, to identify the workflow path needed to process and distribute
content.
Content conversion tools need the locations and values of stream properties and metadata values
associated with the corresponding system identifier. In some cases, the information to identify and
locate video propertie
...
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