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

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 10:22:22 -0500

At 10:03 PM -0700 12/13/04, Terry Harvey wrote:
>Gentlemen,
>
>In this discussion, aren't we leaving out the issue of foreign markets? As
>earlier pointed out, I am sure 720p 50 converted to the US market will look
>a lot better than 1080i 50 converted.
>
>Also, is there anyone that answer my earlier question: has anyone tried the
>practical demonstration of what John Watkinson outlined in the Microsoft
>paper? It seems fairly straightforward to do: namely format resize from
>720p at acquisition to 480p for encoding and transmission and upon
>reception format resize to 720p. Mr. Watkinson states that the oversampling
>is only really needed at acquisition and display for reasonable 'HD'.

Yes, Microsoft did actual demonstrations based on John's paper. 
Unfortunately, these demos become rather subjective, and are only as 
good as the displays that are used to show the results.  I viewed 
some of these demos, and the advantages were clear to me. But I saw 
many contingents of people in the interlace camp who did not see the 
same thing I was seeing.  I believe that Mark Schubin has conducted 
several interlace versus progressive demos at the Tech retreats. As I 
recall, these demos proved to be less than conclusive as well.

This whole discussion has been hijacked.

What is important is how to build a digital infrastructure that 
provides maximum flexibility, using sound sampling techniques, to 
support all existing and potentially new applications.

As is the case with shoot-outs of products using the same technical 
standards (e.g. two NTSC or two 720P cameras), the results will be 
somewhat subjective, and one product may perform better than the 
other for specific types of imagery. When we start comparing two 
products using different technical standards it only get's worse. The 
results will be even more subjective.

But there is more...

The interlaced camp has had decades to perfect their HD products. 
Progressive cameras were virtually non-existent when many of the 
decisions about HDTV were made, both in Japan and later in the U.S. 
Thus early progressive scan products were compared with mature 
interlaced products.   At least the Europeans have the benefit of 
waiting to see how things have worked out in the real world.

In the REAL world of "techno-politics" the best technical solution 
may not win. Maybe it's time for the follow-up book on this subject:

The Decimated Vision...

Regards
Craig
 
 
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