Additional information – Video acquisition formats
High definition
With the introduction of high definition (HD) formats we will encounter many new questions and formats. If one disregards such high end high definition formats as 4K and 2K formats that are used in the film industry, the most common HD presentation formats are 1080i, 1080p, 720p and 720i. The number indicates vertical resolution and the letter ‘i’ indicates interlaced whereas ‘p’ means progressive. This refers to the manner in which the lines are drawn in the image. SD was always interlaced and, to simplify excessively, is most suitable for CRT based display technology whereas progressive works better for LCD based technology. Viewing situations are slowly becoming less and less CRT based. Film has always been ‘progressive’ (technically not an applicable term but lets call it that for simplicity), and if a film transfer is planned then it definitely makes more sense to film progressive. This is one reason why progressive has become so popular with independent filmmakers lately. Progressive also survives much better high compression ratios. All of these HD formats have the 16:9 aspect ratio.
The most common acquisition formats for HD today are HDV, DVCPRO HD, XDCAM HD and HDCAM. HDV is an mpeg based format and the only one that is intended for the consumer market, but is also the de facto standard for semi-professional market at this moment. Although whether it will continue as the standard, remains to be seen. It is a tape based format. DVCPRO HD is the Panasonic tapeless format for semi-professional and professional, XDCAM is also an mpeg based format that is recorded on optical discs that are based on Sony’s Blue Ray technology. It is low end professional whereas HDCAM is Sony’s high end tape based professional format. What is of most interest for us regarding documentation of video and media art are the HDV and DVCPRO HD formats.
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