High Definition Formats
| So far, we've been discussing standard-definition formats, but HD is coming on strong. Here are the HD formats you're likely to encounter.
D-5 HDD-5 HD is the industry standard top-quality HD recorder, at least so far. Primary UseD-5 HD is used for high-quality studio recording and mastering. It's not a portable format. Technical DetailsD-5 HD uses ½-inch tape cassette, the same as D-5, for 4:2:2, 8-bit recording with roughly 4:1 DCT compression, or 10-bit with 5:1 compression. It handles all HDTV formats, whether 720-line or 1080-line. The format has eight channels of 24-bit audio or four of 20-bit audio, all at 48 kHz. Panasonic is the sole manufacturer. Best Interface to FCPD-5 HD offers HD-SDI with RS-422 control. DVCPROHDDVCPROHD is Panasonic's DV100 HD format, with both camcorders and studio decks. 720-line and 1080-line variants are available. The HDC-27 Varicam camcorder shoots 720p24 using a 2:3 pulldown, as well as any speed from 1 fps to 60 fps with varying pulldowns. Primary UseDVCPROHD is used for HDTV production and digital filmmaking. Technical DetailsDVCPROHD uses 6.35mm tape cassette, the same as DVCPRO. It supports all HD formats, depending on the recorder; subsampling the image spatially and then recording it as 4:2:2, 8-bit video with 6.7:1 DV compression. DVCPROHD subsamples 1920 x 1080/60 to 1280 x 1080; 1920 x 1080/50 is subsampled to 1440 x 1080; 1280 x 720/60 is subsampled to 960 x 720. DVCPROHD has eight channels of 16-bit 48 kHz audio. Most DVCPROHD decks play back DVCPRO50, DVCPRO, DV, and DVCAM tapes, upconverting them on the fly. Best Interface to FCPDVCPROHD supports FireWire transfer of compressed DV data, or HD-SDI transfer of uncompressed video, with RS-422 or FireWire control. FCP can extract the Varicam's pulldown automatically when FireWire transfer is used. HDCAMHDCAM was the first practical portable digital HD format. Camcorders shoot 1080-line video. The 24p-capable HDW-F900 CineAlta is the most common camera used for HD digital filmmaking. Primary UseHDCAM is used for HDTV production and digital filmmaking. Technical DetailsHDCAM uses ½-inch metal tape in a Betacam shell. Cameras shoot 1080i/60, 1080i/50, 1080p/25, 1080p/30, and (in the HDW-F900) 1080p/24. HDCAM subsamples the 8-bit video as 3:1:1 (1440 x 1080 luma, 480 x 1080 chroma) and records it with 4.4:1 DCT compression. HDCAM has four channels of 20-bit 48 kHz audio. Sony is the sole supplier. Best Interface to FCPHDCAM provides HD-SDI with RS-422 control. HDCAM-SRHDCAM-SR is Sony's new high-quality format based on HDCAM. It's still too new and expensive for widespread adoption, but offers both high-quality 4:2:2 YCRCB recording and 4:4:4 RGB recording. Primary UseSR is designed for top-quality HD recording and mastering, especially where full-color resolution must be preserved for postproduction purposes. (Hint: George Lucas bought a bunch of these decks.) Technical DetailsSR uses ½-inch metal tape in a Betacam shell and provides lossless MPEG-4 recording of the 4:2:2 8-bit signal in 1080- or 720-line formats with 2.7:1 compression, 4:4:4, 10-bit RGB recording using 4.2:1 compression is available with add-on boards. HDCAM-SR has 12 channels of 24-bit 48 kHz audio. Sony is the sole supplier. Best Interface to FCPSR offers HD-SDI for the 4:2:2 video, or dual-link HD-SDI for the 4:4:4 RGB option using a capture card and codec for this format. HDVHDV is HD at DV prices. It's still very new, but it may mushroom in popularity once more equipment becomes available. Primary UseHDV is a camcorder format intended to jump-start customer demand for HDTV sets and services, but like DV before it, it may wind up taking over a wide swath of the low-end HDTV production marketplace. Technical DetailsHDV provides HD recording on miniDV cassettes. It uses 4:2:0 sampling for both 720p and 1080i formats; recording 8-bit video with long-GOP MPEG-2 compression at 19 Megabits/second for 720p and 25 Megabits/second for 1080i. Current HDV cameras from JVC record 720/30p as well as 480p/60, both in 16x9, as well as 480/60i, 4x3 DV. A PAL-country version records 576p/50. The current Sony models record 1080/50i or 1080/60i, as well as 480/50i or 480/60i in DV or DVCAM. Future cameras from multiple vendors may offer 1080/50i, 1080/60i, 1080/24p, 720/60p, and 720/24p, among others. HDV records two channels of 48k, 16-bit audio with 4:1 MPEG-1 Layer 2 compression. Best Interface to FCPFCP 5 supports HDV capture and playback over FireWire, using either HDV-native editing or the Apple Intermediate Codec for timeline rendering. Earlier versions of FCP work with HDV using third-party add-ons like HDVxDV or LumièreHD to capture HDV and transcode it to DVCPROHD or other formats compatible with FCP 4. Other FormatsThe following are a few of the other high-definition formats, both digital and analog. D-VHSA data-recording "bit bucket" format created by JVC to record off-air DTV signals. It's also used for low-cost HD program distribution; its recording format and FireWire interface are comparable to HDVs, utilizing MPEG-2 transport streams at up to 28 Megabits/second. Best interface is via FireWire using a D-VHS-compatible tool such as Lumière HD. D-6A 4:2:2 uncompressed digital format with a whopping 1.5 Gigabit/second data rate and dinner-tray-sized cassettes to match. It's both expensive and rare. HD-SDI is the way to get video out of the decks, using RS-422 control. HDD-1000Now-obsolete uncompressed digital reel-to-reel tape format characterized by impressive tape speeds and staggering per-minute costs. Ask for a transfer to a more FCP-friendly format. HiVision, W-VHS, EurekaAnalog HDTV recording formats of various sorts, usually recording 1035-line video (the predecessor to the current 1080-line standards). Eureka was Europe's short-lived 1250-line, 50Hz interlaced format. Ask for a transfer to a more FCP-friendly format.
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