What Resolution is True HD Video?

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2222/what_resolution_is' target='_blank'>http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2222/what_resolution_is</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Here's one for people to mull over while daydreaming at work: What resolution video is considered true HD? Theater at Home points out that HD blogs (HDBeat.com, HDBlog.net, HighDefinitionBlog.com) are buzzing about this "controversial" topic and are trying to determine if 720p (1280x720), XGA (1280x768), and/or 1080i/1080p (1920x1080) output resolution should carry the HD moniker. To add to the discussion, I often wondered if websites that offer 16x9 widescreen format video should be waving the HD flag as well (just because it's 16x9 doesn't make it so in my opinion). What's your take? My thought is anything digitized at 720p or above is HD, but I think the eventual standard will be 1080p once the market starts maturing."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/hd_screen_resolutions.gif" /><br /><br />Hmm, I was always under the impression that HD was 1080i/1080p. But it looks like a number of people are of the impression that 720p is high definition as well thus allowing all monitors capable of showing 1280x768 to carry the HD moniker. What do you folks think?

[Damion Chaplin]

Yep, 720p counts as High-Definition.
1080i/p is just Higher-Definition.

[jmulder]

So which one is Enhanced Definition?

[ChrisL01]

EDTV (or Enhanced Definition TV) is 480p.

Edit: According Wikipedia, it would also include 576p50, 720i50, 720i60, 720p24, 720p25, 720p30.

HD for 720p starts at 720p50 and 720p60, according at Wikipedia.

[Felix Torres]

True HD is anything above 1280 by 720, in widescreen, preferably with square pixels.
Full HD is 1920 by1080, in widescreen.
For comparison, stretched-XGA is 1024x768, widescreen; WXGA is 1280x768, widescreen, WVGA is 800x480, widescreen, etc
And lets not even get into whether widescreen is 16x9 (yes), 16x10 (no) 15x9 (in europe only).

HDTV, however, is in the eye of the beholder:
Many believe that anything in widescreen is HD.
Many believe that anything that can display 720 horizontal lines or two interlaced fields of 540 lines is HD, regardless of the horizontal resolution or aspect ratio.
Many folks believe that anything that can accept an ATSC signal is an HD. regardless of whether it can actually display it without down-scaling.

And many believe HD is whatever *they* bought. :twisted:

[Jason Dunn]

Hmm, I was always under the impression that HD was 1080i/1080p.

Dude, what have you been smoking? :lol: Xbox 360 = HD gaming = 720p.

[Suhit Gupta]

Hmm, I was always under the impression that HD was 1080i/1080p.
Dude, what have you been smoking? :lol: Xbox 360 = HD gaming = 720p.
Yeah yeah, I just called 720p the DVD quality level though. Oh well, live and learn.

Suhit

[jeffd]

I like that image. Thats a pretty cool representation of the "increase in resolution" going from one resolution to the next. I mean.. look at how miniscule NTSC is to full HD. its like comparing my computer monitor to my zen vision:m's screen.

[Jeremy Charette]

"True" HD is 720p60 or 1080i60, as defined by the ATSC in North America. 1080p is not included in the specification.

[ChrisL01]

AFAIK, ATSC does indeed define both 1080p24 and 1080p30 in the spec. I don't beleive it's defined for broadcast since there isn't the bandwidth needed to allow it.

[Jeremy Charette]

Yup.

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/what_is_ATSC.html