Serial Data Transport Interface is a way of transmitting data packets over a Serial Digital Interface datastream. This means that standard SDI infrastructure can be used. Developed to address the needs of the growing number of compressed video standards ( DV, DVCPRO, BetaSX,

MPEG2 MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods, w ...

) it allows lossless transfer of data to other devices which have the same codec, for example DV to DV or SX to SX. Using a standard SDI transport, the extra data is placed within normal active video, between Start of Active Video (SAV), and End of Active Video (EAV). This gives 1440 10bit words of data at 270Mbit/s (1920 words in the 8bit 360Mbit/s standard). If an SDTI stream is viewed using a standard SDI device, then the raw data can be seen as a small strip along the left hand side (usually in purple). The DVCAM SDTI has video data at the top, control data in the middle (

Timecode A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...

, etc.) and audio at the bottom just like it is organised on the tape. Because SDTI is used for compressed data the area used is less than a full screen; this allows for faster than realtime transfers. SDTI is standardized as ''

SMPTE The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the m ...

305M''. A 1.5 GBit/s version, using the high definition serial digital interface, is standardized as ''SMPTE 348M''.

External links

Interconnectivity in the DTV Era The Emergence of SDTI
Serial digital interface Film and video technology Digital television {{video-tech-stub