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"SD" video in the digital age

71.127.1.9
Posted on November 14, 2008 at 14:13:29
bshapiro


 
I'm wondering...will the look of SD broadcasts as rendered by HD sets change after the switch to digital tv channels? I was in a hotel recently where they had digital SD (480i?) signals from the local stations playing on and LCD set and it looked WAY better than SD analog as seen on HD sets. So will this be the case generally? Are the days of crappy looking upresed SD soon to be over?

 

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RE: "SD" video in the digital age, posted on November 14, 2008 at 15:47:05
Doug Otte


 
I does look better - deeper blacks, a bit sharper. However, there's only so much lipstick you can put on a pig.

Doug

 

RE: "SD" video in the digital age, posted on November 14, 2008 at 18:21:20
racerguy
 The only change that is mandated is broadcasting in digital instead of analog. The original signal can remain analog all the way up to the point of broadcast. Small production facilities with substantial investment in analog cameras, recorders, etc. will not throw out their equipment and switch to all-digital overnight.

 

RE: "SD" video in the digital age, posted on November 20, 2008 at 13:26:45
Cosmic Closet
Audiophile

Posts: 156
Location: WDC
Joined: May 28, 2006
 Standard def won't die that fast. I work in broadcast production; when I shoot news, I still shoot with a 14-yr old camera on Betacam SP stock (it's not my gear; it belongs to a bureau.) And we're talking major market stuff in Washington DC, for international clients. No one wants DigiBeta because it's too expensive, and because regular BetaSP looks quite nice. It's analog video recording.

When I shoot corporate meetings and special events, we use 66-and above-times HD zooms and (in some cases) HD cameras, but the end result usually still winds up on BetaSP, DVCAM or similar small formats. And what you call 16:9 (and which I will call 1:1.78 until I die) is also still the exception.

I think, much like some years back with the "endless death" of 3/4-inch tape, that Betacam hangs on because it looks decent enough, is rugged, has a big gear base, and is cheap. It ain't high def, but it's enough for a lot of people.

Also the sad fact is that regardless of how cheap and popular all the little HIDef cams get, very few of them qualify as 'professional' in terms of ruggedness, ultimate picture quality or user-friendliness. The compression algorithms in the cams are passable on the original tapes, but once the signal has been put through the broadcast-and-cable-provider codec mill and is run next to 'real' HiDef footage, oy veh...

So, the path for those broadcasters not into "real" high-end HiDef is either BetaSP for a while yet, shown digitally, or cheap digicams. And if I have a choice of which I'd rather see on my 58-inch 1080 Panasonic, it's BetaSP. I just ran some DVD dubs of some 10-yr. old interviews I did in Beta and they looked great. As in: clean color, good detail and pleasing to the eye. No artifacts, no compression blocking.

All of this to say: old-fashioned regular def TV can still look just fine, for what it is. All that it needs is clean broadcasting and cable relay and a good set. Now, how often you get that.....well :-)


CC

 

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