An HD primer

[DSE 5]

With all the questions about HD, this entry-level primer might help clear some confusion.

[MisterCrash 0]

Thx for this enlightening post. One question: how long do you think it will take for the majority of consumers to switch to Blue-ray players? Because I really don't know anyone that has yet.

I myself am thinking about buying a Sony HighDef Camcorder (but what's the point of filming that way if you're the only one who can view it).

It's all the same like with the 4:3 standard trying to switch to 16:9. I allready switched and it's a pain in the ass when someone delivers 4:3 footage that I have to combine in my movie's.

Is it a good idea to be on the frontline and support the evolving technology and thus getting less possibilities to show the superior format's? I don't know if it's worth the investment.

All speeding past collide and crashing, I'm in paradise.

[DSE 5]

Actually, it's only in skydiving you'd be on the front line for widescreen. *most* of the production world has been there for a long time. FWIW, I have a couple tutorials on matching 4:3 to widescreen.It'll be a while til the world is switched over to whatever HD delivery format on a DVD may be, I think BD will prevail, but HD DVD isn't going anywhere either.

As far as the benefit of shooting HD now, the picture quality of a video shot in HD and downconverted is significantly better than any SD you've been shooting. Ask anyone here who is shooting HD now.

All that said....if you're not shooting HD now, don't need a camera just this second...there is nothing wrong with waiting. In my world, I don't have a single client that will accept 4:3 media, and most of our work requires HD, so it's not sensible for me to have SD in my skydiving work. But my circumstances are a bit different than most.
Having said that, there is at least one comment per week about the quality of my vids compared to the vids that others on the DZ do. Not because of my flying, just the color, sharpness, clean widescreen, etc.

[leroydb 0]

thanks DSE

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[DSE 5]

With all the new questions cropping up about HD, I figured I'd bump this thread again for a bit.
Does anyone think the article should be in the sticky? Does it help?
Are there HD questions it doesn't address for you?

[alge 0]

It's a good article, but some parts of it can be a bit confusing. And at least one part (HD-DVD) is irrelevant today. The various names could be explained the first time they're used, such explaining that AVCHD is an MPEG-4 container format for MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. MPEG-2 being both a container format and a codec doesn't help alot, of course. Mentioning AVCHD under "Compression" adds to the confusion, I think that should mention the actual codec AVCHD uses instead.

What I would like in there is a sort of pipeline diagram in the start which shows how the different terms relate to each other.

Color Sampling            Codec             Format

YCC 4:4:4            Uncompressed          MPEG

YCC 4:2:2     =>       AVC/H264      =>    MPEG2

YCC 4:2:0               MPEG2              AVCHD

Or something. Maybe throw in the XviD codec and AVI format to make it easier to understand for us piratebay kids. But I guess that's not your target audience.. just a thought.

[DSE 5]

Coupla good points, but overall...I don't think anyone here cares about color sampling schemes, which is why it isn't mentioned much.
Xvid isn't an acquisition format, never will be a standard delivery format, and you're right...pirates aren't at all my target market, unless you mean at the wrong end of whatever heavy object I happen to have at hand.

[alge 0]

Quote

I don't think anyone here cares about color sampling schemes, which is why it isn't mentioned much.

In that case I don't see why you mention it at all. (Or give it a whole paragraph.)

Quote

Xvid isn't an acquisition format, never will be a standard delivery format, and you're right...pirates aren't at all my target market, unless you mean at the wrong end of whatever heavy object I happen to have at hand.

The thought was to make it easier to understand for the consumer.

If I could edit the article as I wanted, I'd split it in three:

- Image aquisition
-- Tiny bit on optics
-- Imagers
-- Resolutions
-- Color format (if at all)

- Codecs
-- Compression
-- Bitrates

- Storage
-- AVCHD
-- MXF
-- Blu-ray

.. i.e. just rearranging the paragraphs into three sections. Just my 2 øre.

[DSE 5]

I shouldn't have asked. It's an old article, that I thought I'd write an addendum to, not interested in re-wriiting it.
Maybe someone will find it useful.

[beowulf 1]

I wouldn't worry about it. This is just standard nitpicking stuff. There is always someone out there who looks at something and wants to change it.

I think what's most interesting is how much the price of HD camcorders has dropped since you wrote this.

[mccordia 74]

I think its a good one, that would be out of place as a stickey thread on top ...

JC
FlyLikeBrick
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