Owner's Manual

upsampling conversions. If the horizontal burst is muted, that shows a problem in
the 4:2:2->4:4:4 conversion.
If the vertical burst is muted, that shows a problem in
the 4:2:0->4:2:2 conversion.
Another thing that's fairly easy to tell from this pattern is the quality of the chroma
upsampling being done.
If the chroma upsampling is being done using an algorithm
called "nearest neighbor"
then each chroma pixel is just being copied four times to
make the new upscaled
chroma image. This is fast and easy, but produces blocky,
jagged diagonal colored lines instead
of smooth colored lines. Bilinear upsampling
uses a linear interpolation algorithm to create the replacement pixels when it scales
up the chroma channel, and looks much better. Bicubic upsampling uses two cubic
interpolation curves to produce a very
smooth and clean chroma channel, and is
generally considered the best commonly used algorithm.
Put a check in the row labeled "High-frequency detail" for all modes that have
clean, bright, colorful high-resolution chroma bursts.
If no modes have good
bursts,
put a check for the mode that has the best-looking ones.
Put a check in the row labeled "Upsampling bilinear or better" if the upsampling
is clearly something better than Nearest Neighbor. You might also want to look at
the diagonals
and curves in the zone plate sections nearby (the four circular colored
patterns in
the corners) as well. Sometimes it's easier to see the differences on one
or the other depending on the specific display.
Chroma Upsampling Error
For this test, just look at the diagonal chroma bursts. If the Chroma Upsampling
Error
is present when you use one or more of the modes, the diagonal lines will
look very jagged,
or sometimes will actually have small horizontal zigzags on the
edges.
It can be hard to tell the difference between nearest neighbor upsampling
and chroma upsampling error, both cause jagged diagonals and both are bad, so
if you're not sure, leave either or both boxes unchecked. In general you want the
smoothest
chroma diagonals for the best picture possible.
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