Sharon suggested I read this article in SmallFormat magazine about converting super8 film into High Definition. It gave me a lot of useful information on the basics of HD as well as some of its advantages and disadvantages. So heres a summary of the stuff I found interesting..
- HD has two resolutions, 1920x1080 and 1280x720 pixels and also 5 different frame rates- 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps.
- It has a variety of different formats because it is required to meet compatibility standards with PAL and NTSC.
- Instead of having to convert formats when playing back HD can be played as true 24 fps.
- HD is shot in 16:9 so is compatible with most modern Television screens whereas with super 8 you have to either lose a third of your image, stretch it to fit which leads to distortion or use the pillarbox view.
- Even though most HD video is compressed especially for comsumer use the difference in quality between compressed and uncompressed is hardly noticeable, this is because most Tv sets use a lower resolution which hides any compression artifacts and also a lot of compression systems are adapted to weaknesses in human perception. This compression fools the eye into thinking that the the video has more detail and sharpness.
- Blu-ray discs will become readily available and more affordable in the near future - meaning eventually the first choice for most people will be HD.
- Sharpness and resolution is greatly improved with HD.
- With HD there is no need for different worldwide formatting standards.
Disadvantages
- The cineon format, widely used in film cinema plays at a very similar resolution to HD video and it is not compressed which means you don't have to compromise on colour resolution and contrast which is often lost somewhat when watching in HD.
- HD uses up an awful lot of storage which means you have to always compress it.
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