High Definition
In my university days, HD stood for High Distinction but nowadays it’s come to be associated with High Definition and it is the direction is which technological devices such as digital cameras, camcorders and televisions are all heading. Below is a shot of a newly released HD Sony digital camera.
The number that can be seen on the casing, 1080, is intimately associated with High Definition images and displays and refers to a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Because the aspect ratio of HD displays and images is set at 16:9, the number 1920 can be derived by multiplying 1080 by 16/9. The images taken with this Sony camera are ideal for display on a High Definition Television (HDTV).
HDTV is defined as “a video format with 1125 lines of resolution, a picture aspect ratio of 16:9 and 5.1 independent channels of CD-quality stereo surround sound … formats include 720p (640 x 480 progressive), 1080i (1920 x 1080 pixels interlaced) and 1080p (1920 x 1080 progressive)” according to Birds-Eye.Net. Of course, the 1080p is the what you ideally want. Existing television displays have 525 (USA) or 625 (Europe) and my recently acquired Sony DCR-HC62e mini-DV camcorder manages 520 lines of horizontal resolution. HDTV boasts 6 times as many pixels as standard television displays and is capable of 60 frames per second (60p). The photo below is not my current non-HD camcorder but a Sony HDR-HCY HD camcorder.
The Blue-ray Disc (BD) players will play movies at 1080p resolution. Many of these movies have been converted from 35-mm reels where the image resolution far exceeds HD, so the quality should be good if the original reels are in good condition. The more you read about this topic the more complicated it gets but at least I’ve made a small step toward understanding the subject.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: HD Blu-ray Sony BD
pak sean, on this blog you wrote “formats include 720p (640 x 480 progressive)” 720p should be 1280×720 progressive, because 720p means it has 720 pixels vertical resolution and 1280 pixels horizontal resolution.
Yes, you’re quite right Pierre. Thanks for pointing that out. Good to see that you’re reading the fine print.