Posted by Spex on 06/12/06 16:31

Ty Ford wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Jun 2006 10:26:08 -0400, Spex wrote
> (in article <448c27ff$0$69373$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader01.plus.net>):
>
>> Ty Ford wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I was on a shoot last week that was supposed to be an HD shoot on a
>>> Varicam.
>>> The camera itself was not as tall as I remembered other Varicams. It had
>>> "DVCPro HD" printed on one side and 720P on the other. The Varicam logo
>>> looked askew as if it had fallen off and had been reglued.
>>>
>>> So looking it up on the net shows me a 1280x720 camera. The 720 I'm
>>> familiar
>>> with is 720x480. What is it about this variacam that would make them put
>>> 720
>>> on the camera rather than 1280?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Ty (confused in Baltimore) Ford
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
>>> stuff are at www.tyford.com
>>>
>> Don't know where you get that frame size from???
>>
>> DVCPro HD is 960x720p or 1280x1080(i or p) or 1440x1080 (i or p).
>>
>> 960x(720)<------ this is the 720p the badge on the camera is referring to.
>>
>> I have never thought 960x720 was really HD. Do you?
>
> No, but what do I know. I thought SD was everything through 720 and HD
> started with 1080 and went up.

If only that was the case. 480p (720x480) is also bizarrely considered a
HD resolution!

This HD broadcast revolution amounts to little more than a con. In the
UK the Sky satellite broadcaster is quite content to up rez SD material
knowing that the vast majority of the public have not seen a good
quality SD source much less seen a pukka HD source. I believe the BBC
are doing the same with its HD channel.

>
> The pity is that after multi-stream broadcasting, HD really isn't HD any more
> due to compression. Even with only one HD stream, according to a TV CE here
> in Baltimore, the compression on O-T-A broadcast is something like 40:1.
> The last amazing O-T-A HD I saw was NBC's coverage of the Utah Winter
> Olympics.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ty Ford
>
>
We can dream for the day that the improvements in compression technology
actually result in better picture quality rather than freeing up
bandwidth for more poker channels.

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