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Increasing cable length in precision video

applications
By brumbarchris
Created 09/12/2008 - 12:53

Technology Amplifier cable length coax cable video video driver video signal

Increasing cable length in precision video applications is a problem for you? This article will
help you!

The solution described in this article proposes as the physical environment the use of a
simple twisted pair cable; in addition to its lower price (compared to the shielded coaxial
cable) it also features a much smaller weight, which sometimes can be a critical design
criteria, especially for instance, in automotive environments, where cable weight account for
the most percentage of the mass of a car.
Usually the regular configuration of a video transmitting system consists of an output amplifier
(which either amplifies or acts as a simple repeater) mounted in the part of the system which
generates video signal, connected via a shielded coax cable to the receiver part of the
system. At the receiver, the signal is filtered, then amplified again, and fed to the display or
perhaps to a video processing unit (i.e. DSP).

Figure 1 – Usual configuration for transmitting video on coax cable

As stated above, using this configuration has a significant impact on both the price and the

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Increasing cable length in precision video applications http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51892

weight of the system. A much more advantageous solution, from these points of view, may be
achieved through the use of a differential amplifier at the transmitting side, which would thus
be able to confer a good degree of immunity to the video signal with respect to outside
influences.

The Video Driver is shown in Figure 2. It converts a single-ended input signal from a camera
or DVD player into a differential signal that drives the twisted-pair line. The input receives an
NTSC composite video signal with 1VPP amplitude, and the output drives the twisted-pair
with a 2VPP differential signal. A 50Ω source resistor is in series with the outputs of both
op-amps, matching the Video Driver output resistance to the twisted-pair characteristic
impedance.

Figure 2 – Two polarity supply differential transmitter

In the receiver circuit of Figure 3, R16 is adjusted so that the overall gain of the system is
unity (gain of the last op-amp is greater than one to compensate for signal loss). C1 and R14
provide a zero-pole function that compensates for attenuation of higher frequency signals in
the twisted pair cables.

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Increasing cable length in precision video applications http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51892

Figure 3 – Two polarity supply differential receiver

This is a fine and good solution, however, its main disadvantage is that it needs a negative
powers supply. Most digital systems do not include such a supply, as generally there is no
need for it, and introducing it only for the purpose of transmitting video cheaper might prove
to be working against this particular goal, through the additional pricing required by a negative
supply both in the video receiver and in the video
transmitter.

These disadvantages may be eliminated through the use of a single-supply configuration. We

will detail this architecture more, as it is a realistic one, and involves only common
components (discrete components and op-amps). Basically, what needs to be done, is to
generate two “differential” signals. They are differential with respect to some specific positive
voltage, which generally may be half of the supply voltage of the operational amplifier, in
order to allow full use of the linear characteristic most op-amps have at VDD/2.

As such, the video driver in Figure 4 performs both a summation and a subtraction operation.
The upper op-amp, adds the video signal to a constant voltage, called VBIAS, and the lower
op-amp subtracts the video signal from the same constant voltage, yielding two differential
signals, that will be used by the receiver to rebuild the original video signal.

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Increasing cable length in precision video applications http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51892

Figure 4 – Single supply differential transmitter

The two 50 ohm resistors are used for impedance matching with the video receiver. All other
resistors are used to implement the two arithmetic operations with the amplifiers. Generally,
for good results, these should be 1% tolerance or even lower (0.1% is preferred).

The common waveform of the NTSC video signal is shown below (roughly corresponding to a
color bar, but only with the luminance information).

Figure 5 – Luminance NTSC color bar

As stated, the purpose of the above circuit is to transform this signal in two signals which are
symmetrical with respect to the VBIAS voltage, which in this particular case is 1.65Vor exactly

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Increasing cable length in precision video applications http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51892

half of the supply voltage of the op-amps. The VBIAS voltage can be easily generated with a
simple voltage divider from the 3.3V supply voltage followed by a simple repeater op-amp.
The repeater op-amp may be skipped if small value resistors are used to generate the biasing
voltage, but this will adversely affect the current consumption of the overall circuit.

Figure 6 – Symmetrical signals transmitted over the twisted pair cables

The green trace illustrates the output of the upper op-amp, the red trace illustrates the output
of the lower op-amp, and as we can see, the 1.65V (blue trace) is exactly between them. The
“green” and “red” signals are the ones fed to the video receiver, using twisted pair cables.
Their symmetrical configuration renders them too immune to external voltage noise, as the
differential amplifier (Figure 7) which is to be found in the video transmitter makes the simple
difference by subtracting the red signal from the green signal. Thus, as in any differential
signal transmission case, the external voltage influences will be void.

Figure 7 – Single supply differential receiver

Besides making the difference, the receiving differential amplifier also needs to perform some
kind of amplification, so that the total gain will be (again) unity. This is simply achieved with a
few resistors around the op-amp, resistors which again, need to be at least 1% tolerance.

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Increasing cable length in precision video applications http://dev.emcelettronica.com/print/51892

Figure 8 illustrates the reconstructed video signal against the initial single ended video signal
which was fed to the differential structure in Figure 4.

Figure 8 – Initial video signal (above) and reconstructed video signal (below)

Conclusion

The circuits in Figure 4 and Figure 7 transmit and receive NTSC video signals over twisted
pair wire. They were designed and tested for transmitting video on inexpensive CAT-3 twisted
pair wire. Even when transmitting on 300m of wire, good quality color video was displayed on
a monitor with an NTSC input. Both transmit and receive circuits use the LMH6643 dual
op-amp which has the proper bandwidth and slew rate for this application.

Trademarks

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