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MillimeterTest Drive: Affordable HD Formats, Part 2
Sep 22, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
A funny thing happened on the way to the second installment of the first edition of the newly renamed Affordable HD column (see part one). I reconsidered and changed plans. That is, in the original edition, I explained that because I had a host of affordable HD cameras in my grimy little hands—including HDV, AVCHD, and DVCPRO HD—I would compare the formats, a process I started in the first installment when I identified the technical specs of each format and discussed their strengths and weaknesses.
After a little thought, however, I recognized that I had to decouple the camera from the format to assess the format, not the format/camera combination. For example, if I shot the same resolution chart with four different cameras and then compared the results, there would be two components to the quality equation: the camera and the format.
Looking at it another way, while I love my Canon XH A1, it’s getting long in the tooth by camera standards, and it might be unfair to render judgment on the HDV format on the basis of that camera. What to do, I wondered, my deadline rapidly approaching (past, actually). How to test the format exclusive of the camera?
Table 1: Formats and features.
Click here for a larger image
I glanced back at the relevant specs for each format and realized that there were two components to each spec: the maximum capture resolution and the codec and its respective parameters. For example, just looking at the numbers, you would assume that full-resolution AVCHD could capture and retain better detail than either other format because it stored the video in its native resolution, while the other formats subsample the file horizontally then zoom it back up for display. On the other hand, you’d expect DVCPRO HD to show fewer (if any) compression artifacts because it’s produced at up to four times the data rate of the other formats and uses I-frame-only DCT rather than long-GOP formats as HDV and AVCHD do.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
