Yes, and your last remarks would surely account for the excellent rendition of the Olympics here, as I suspected. Accordingly, I am looking forward to the time when there is a high proportion of US content received here that was shot in HD, even if by then we do not have HDTV to view it on. Barry Wilkins -----Original Message----- From: Mark Schubin [mailto:tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]=20 Sent: Saturday, 28 August 2004 10:32 a.m. To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] HD vs. 625 vs. 525 vs. 405 Having just returned from a shoot in New Zealand, I thought I'd throw my two cents in on this. Back in the early 1950s, a U.S. delegation toured UK TV facilities to=20 try to determine why UK pictures looked better. At the time, the UK was 405 lines, not 625, but it was still said to have better pictures. The=20 delegation determined it was because the UK equipment was better=20 maintained -- clean lenses, etc. I found the same in New Zealand. The equipment was in impeccable shape. Food for thought: - The resolution of human vision tops out at about 30 cycles per degree, nominally about 22. - U.S. viewers sit about 9 feet from their TV sets (the Lechner distance). - Those two facts combine to make it impossible for viewers to see more=20 than 480 lines on a 25-inch 4:3 TV at normal viewing distance. If it's=20 22 cpd and 16:9, it's no more than 480 lines on a 42-inch set. - Meanwhile, because the psychological sensation of "sharpness" is=20 proportional to the square of the area under an MTF curve and the use of HD in production leads to a higher MTF curve at all detail resolutions,=20 a viewer watching a non-HD set will nevertheless see an improvement in=20 sharpness from HD-shot programming. TTFN, Mark =20 =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org=20 - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.