Just got the new Remember That Night, David Gilmour Live at the Royal Albert Hall and... it's 1080i. What's up with that? The concert is great and 1080i looks good, but was I naive in thinking that all Blu-ray disks are 1080p? What percentage of BD's are 1080i?

Just got the new Remember That Night, David Gilmour Live at the Royal Albert Hall and... it's 1080i. What's up with that? The concert is great and 1080i looks good, but was I naive in thinking that all Blu-ray disks are 1080p? What percentage of BD's are 1080i?

On BD or HD DVD the info is not stored as 1080i 60Hz. It is 1080p 30Hz and flagged for 1080i 60Hz to make it compatible. If the source is 1080i 60Hz it is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz before the disk is mastered. So the answer is 0% of BD's or HD DVD's are interlaced.

Film source is of course stored as 1080p 24Hz.

On BD or HD DVD the info is not stored as 1080i 60Hz. It is 1080p 30Hz and flagged for 1080i 60Hz to make it compatible. If the source is 1080i 60Hz it is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz before the disk is mastered. So the answer is 0% of BD's or HD DVD's are interlaced.

Film source is of course stored as 1080p 24Hz.
I'm a bit confused by that.
If a concert was video taped at 60Hz (60 different sets of fields per second) it still plays out like that right? It doesn't get converted to only 30 unique images per second (and losing some information in the time domain)? It doesn't loose quality with this de-interlacing? 60Hz original content still output at 60hz right (even though 60p at full res isn't possible with Blu-ray or the other one)?

On BD or HD DVD the info is not stored as 1080i 60Hz. It is 1080p 30Hz and flagged for 1080i 60Hz to make it compatible. If the source is 1080i 60Hz it is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz before the disk is mastered. So the answer is 0% of BD's or HD DVD's are interlaced.

Film source is of course stored as 1080p 24Hz.

That is completely wrong.

There is plenty of 1080i material including concerts like this one since that is how they were shot. And it is 1080i60.

Tough to get useful information with conflicts like this. Someone has incorrect information and someone is wrong for posting that information with such authority.

Now what's the correct answer?

That is completely wrong.

There is plenty of 1080i material including concerts like this one since that is how they were shot. And it is 1080i60.
Ditto.

Legend of Jazz Showcase - 1920x1080i
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up - Live - 1920x1080i

Most music concerts shot with HD video cameras, not film cameras, hence 1080i.

Tough to get useful information with conflicts like this. Someone has incorrect information and someone is wrong for posting that information with such authority.

Now what's the correct answer?

1080i 60Hz source is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz (60 fields=30 frames so no info is lost) and stored on BD/HD DVD as 1080p 30Hz. There is NO way to store an interlaced picture on either format. The player just takes the 1080p 30Hz and interlaces (breaks each frame back into 2 fields) and outputs 1080i 60Hz.

So there is no 1080i 60Hz stored on BD/HD DVD.

Ditto.

Legend of Jazz Showcase - 1920x1080i
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up - Live - 1920x1080i

Most music concerts shot with HD video cameras, not film cameras, hence 1080i.

Except there are HD video cameras capable of recording 1920x1080 at 60P.
But Blu-ray/HD-DVD can't even play back it back so they have to like interlace it :D

1080i 60Hz source is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz (60 fields=30 frames so no info is lost) and stored on BD/HD DVD as 1080p 30Hz. There is NO way to store an interlaced picture on either format. The player just takes the 1080p 30Hz and interlaces (breaks each frame back into 2 fields) and outputs 1080i 60Hz.

So there is no 1080i 60Hz stored on BD/HD DVD.

That is completely wrong.

Legend of Jazz Showcase - 1920x1080i - it is written on the back cover. http://www.legendsofjazz.net/bluray
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up - Live - 1920x1080i - it is written on the back cover.

I can author my home video shot with Sony HDR-HC1 HDV (1440x1080i60) camcorder to Blu-ray disk and play on PS3.

1080i 60Hz source is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz (60 fields=30 frames so no info is lost) and stored on BD/HD DVD as 1080p 30Hz. There is NO way to store an interlaced picture on either format. The player just takes the 1080p 30Hz and interlaces (breaks each frame back into 2 fields) and outputs 1080i 60Hz.

So there is no 1080i 60Hz stored on BD/HD DVD.

What about during compression? Surely it would be easier to track objects if 60 Hz footage was kept at 60Hz? If stored at 30Hz and compressed you'd have lines from 2 very different instances in time but in the same frame (feathering) - wouldn't that be harder to compress/track objects?

1080i 60Hz source is deinterlaced to 1080p 30Hz (60 fields=30 frames so no info is lost) and stored on BD/HD DVD as 1080p 30Hz. There is NO way to store an interlaced picture on either format. The player just takes the 1080p 30Hz and interlaces (breaks each frame back into 2 fields) and outputs 1080i 60Hz.

So there is no 1080i 60Hz stored on BD/HD DVD.

Blu-ray does not support 1080p @30, only 24 and 25. HD DVD supports 1080p 24, 25, and 30.

Pretty sure 1080i 50/60 is supported on both formats, not sure about 1080i 30.

I have made homebrew HD DVD from 1080i broadcast mpeg2. People have posted screen shots of interlaced material like "Nature's Journey" directly off the disc without deinterlacing applied.

Let's not forget also that Warner just recalled T3 on Blu-ray cause they encoded it @ 1080i.

Blu-ray does not support 1080p @30, only 24 and 25. HD DVD supports 1080p 24, 25, and 30.

Pretty sure 1080i 50/60 is supported on both formats, not sure about 1080i 30.

I have made homebrew HD DVD from 1080i broadcast mpeg2. People have posted screen shots of interlaced material like "Nature's Journey" directly off the disc without deinterlacing applied.

Let's not forget also that Warner just recalled T3 on Blu-ray cause they encoded it @ 1080i.

I know 1080 50i/25p is not supported on HD-DVD. There was supposed to be a firmware update to support it this month, but we've heard nothing about it. People asked about it in the insiders forum but no insider said when we'd get the update.

50Hz playback support is optional for 60Hz players per the HD DVD spec, and I don't know Toshiba's plans in this area for their US players
So a European programme (concert/music event/other non-24p originated footage) recorded on HD-DVD may not work on USA players if they don't have this update (if it ever gets released). And the USA update would need to take into account that not all USA TVs would be capable of receiving a 50i/50p HD signal? (I don't live there so do not know for sure but that's what I've been told).

Also, UK releases like Planet Earth had to be frame rate converted from UK rates to 24p because of the unsupported frame rates (resulting in some picture quality issues).

Dr Crawn hit the nail on the head. We need not even DISCUSS this any further, we need only to look at the BD Spec itself to see that it does not even SUPPORT 1080p30. Only HD-DVD supports 1080p30 in its spec. BD is only 1080p24 or 1080i60. In the future, probably 1080p60.

Furthermore, it's arguable that one would even WANT to de-interlace the 60i material for storage on a BD-disc at 30p. I wouldn't want to. Regardless of what the TV set's resolution is that it would be shown on, if I'm shooting 60i I'm AUTHORING it as 60i. If I shoot 24p, I'm AUTHORING it at 24p.

So yes, like others have said, I can use my camcorder to author my own 1080i60 BD disc.
...and that is how Encore CS3 will store it on disc, the way I tell it to.

Dr Crawn hit the nail on the head. We need not even DISCUSS this any further, we need only to look at the BD Spec itself to see that it does not even SUPPORT 1080p30. Only HD-DVD supports 1080p30 in its spec. BD is only 1080p24 or 1080i60. In the future, probably 1080p60.

Furthermore, it's arguable that one would even WANT to de-interlace the 60i material for storage on a BD-disc at 30p. I wouldn't want to. Regardless of what the TV set's resolution is that it would be shown on, if I'm shooting 60i I'm AUTHORING it as 60i. If I shoot 24p, I'm AUTHORING it at 24p.

So yes, like others have said, I can use my camcorder to author my own 1080i60 BD disc.
...and that is how Encore CS3 will store it on disc, the way I tell it to.

You and Dr Crawn are both partially right. Blu-ray does not technically support 1080p30, but video CAN be encoded at 1080p30. The resulting encode would then need to have 1080i60 flags applied, which would allow it to fall under Blu-ray's specs. NIN: BYIT is a prime example of this. The footage was shot in 1080p30, encoded at 1080p30, but, with 1080i60 flags. Please refer to this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=812481 (specifically post #20) discussing this exact situation with this particular title.

POC:AWE Says 1080i on the back cover most of my other Disneys BR's say 1080P.

POC:AWE Says 1080i on the back cover most of my other Disneys BR's say 1080P.

It's a printing error and nothing more. Disney issued a statement about it when the disc released.

Just out of curiosity...has anybody out there compiled a list of available Blu-Ray titles with full 60hz motion? That is, discs whose main feature was shot on HD video at 1080i60 or 720p60, without being deinterlaced/decimated to 30p before authoring?

I expect that music concerts would comprise 99% of such a list, but that's not to say all concert BDs would qualify...