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RE: "SD" video in the digital age

Posted by Cosmic Closet on November 20, 2008 at 13:26:45:
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 :-)

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