[opendtv] Re: Why Europe should choose 720P for HDTV

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:22:50 -0500

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> 1280 x 720 @ 24P  with 4:4:4 color is MORE THAN
> ADEQUATE for 99.9% of ALL home theater installations.
> You can make a case for 1920 x 1080@24P for BIG
> SCREEN theatrical e-cinema displays, but 2 Mpixel
> resolution is NOT necessary until the screen size
> exceeds 100 inch diagonal.

Having seen SD in a theater, and how inadequate it
is, I'd love to see the difference between 720 and
1080 line displays on that size screen. Or even on
much smaller screens, like 50".

The reality is, only very few years ago everyone
was claiming that 480p was "plenty adequate" for
home use. But we've all seen 480p by now, and
adequate as it might be, 1080i or 720p blows it in
the weeds easily. In consumer gear.

> So we should optimize the source for 0.01% of the
> market?

To "optimize," in the context of this discussion,
is to provide the best quality for a given cost. If
the source material can be encoded, stored (and/or
transmitted) as 1080p for the same cost as 720p,
then *why not*?

For example, if a given movie will fit in an HD-DVD
either as 720 at 24p or as 1080 at 24p, why bother
with 720 at 24p? The DVD will cost no less if you
load it with 720p.

Playback devices are not constrained to displaying at
the full quality level. Therefore, in "optimizing"
the system, there's no need to scrimp on the encoding
mode.

In RF transmission, same argument holds. Unless
there's something else to transmit in a tight
channel, or to store in a DVD, "optimizing" does not
mean to reduce the quality level unnecessarily.

Bert
 
 
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