[MacDV] HD where?

[Ronald Woodland]

Do you mean distribution on DVD?  CD-R only has a capacity of only 
650-700 MBytes.  A CD-R might hold maybe 3-5 minutes of HD video, 
depending on compression.  I think you are confused about what HDV or 
HDTV actually means...

NTSC (SDV) resolution is 720 pixels/line X 480 scan lines for a total 
of 345,600 pixels for EACH frame of the video stream ...and there are 
29.97 frames per second.  Of course, NTSC video is interlaced so the 
data arrives at slightly different times as two fields within each 
frame.  Uncompressed NTSC video is over 30 MBytes per second of data.

ATSC (HDV) resolution is 1,920 pixels/line X 1,080 scan line for a 
total of 2,073,600 pixels per frame of HDV video ...at 30 frames per 
second, non-interlaced.  Rounded off, that yields about 6X the data 
rate of NTSC video.

HDTV is a very specific resolution.  Unless you have a monitor or TV 
screen that delivers that resolution, it's not HD.  A QuickTime window 
on your computer monitor that is not 1,920 X 1080 will not be HDTV 
resolution and is not considered HD quality no matter how good the 
image looks.

Back to the data rate issue.  The current DVD venue is not sufficient 
for HDTV.  Yes, you can get DVDs that deliver "widescreen" video that 
fits the HDTV aspect ratio of 16:9, but it is not HDTV resolution or 
quality.  The current DVD format, which use MPEG-2 compression, doesn't 
have enough capacity, nor does it have the ability to deliver the data 
rate.  Two competing formats have been proposed.  Various manufacturers 
and producers of content are now aligning themselves behind one format 
or the other.  These are HD-DVD and BluRay.  It's the whole Beta vs. 
VHS thing all over again.  Both of these proposals include H.264, an 
improved derivative of MPEG-4 (layer 10, I believe), as the compression 
technology with full compliance to the MPEG standards by the way.

Look up these two keywords on Google and see what the issues are 
regarding storage capacities and data rates.  Bottom line: ATSC (HDV) 
is not your father's NTSC (SDV).  High-definition video is a very 
different thing than what we've used for the past 50-60 years.  We are 
just beginning the transition.  Most of what we think is HDV is not 
true high definition.  "A huge QuickTime Player window" that opens and 
plays beautiful HD animation is not really HD unless the resolution is 
really HD resolution.

Sorry to labor this issue.  This is a time of transition ...and of 
confusion.

-------------------------------------------------
Ronald Woodland -- St. George, Utah  84770
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This email is a natural human product.  Slight variations
in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character
and beauty and should in no way be considered flaws
or defects.



On Apr 7, 2005, at 7:08 AM, Steve Robertson wrote:

Thanks for providing that link. Just thought I would add that you can 
go back to the DIVX main page and download a free DIVX player for Mac 
OSX. It appears to be a QuickTime plug-in, because when you 
double-click on the Madagascar trailer, a huge QuickTime Player window 
opens and plays beautiful HD animation.

Does anyone know whether the new version of QuickTime will be able to 
produce similar HD QuickTime movies from HDV raw footage? This would be 
very impressive if it could be used to create HD QuickTime for 
distribution on CD-R.

Steve R.

On Wednesday, April 6, 2005, at 07:01  PM, Mark M.Florida wrote:

> Actually, the DivX website has an HD demo for the DivX codec.  Sure, 
> it's compressed, but the DivX codec is really good, and the clips look 
> AWESOME!  I downloaded the Madagascar trailer -- I think I had to use 
> VLC to play it, though -- still looks good.
>
> http://www.divx.com/hd/

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