First of all let me apologize as this is slightly off topic but nonetheless, I need to better understand what the actual resolution of 1080p is, what is considered its theoretical maximum resolution and for the most part what is the ACTUAL resolution most of the current "HD" devices on the market, capture and display/project.
I use many 1080p HD cameras from consumer to professional ones, and for the most part when viewing them on higher-end single or 3 chip 1080p projectors, I somehow have the feeling that actual sharpness and resolutions of these cameras somehow seems to come short.
I say this is especially true as I view some of my favorite BluRay movies with what I consider better mastering and transfers, they present a level of fine detail and fidelity no video camera out of the box seems to provide their picture is for the most part more grotesque, in lack of better wording.
So, I just recently purchased a BenQ W6000 Projector in Taiwan (a great machine I have to say), and, in need for an extremely compact HD camera for a project I am doing, I purchased also a consumer grade JVC GZ-X900 Camera that records using the AVCDHD format (in its highest possible bitrate, I should add). To my surprise, when viewing its footage on my new 1080p DLP projector, I got a feeling to be watching among the sharpest and detailed images I've ever captured coming from an "HD" camera. I started doing some research and got startled by a few facts.
The first one was that indeed, this little plastic camera featuring a completely mediocre consumer grade lens, records the highest resolution of any consumer/prosumer camera on the market today, no matter the price, nearly 1000 lines:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...erformance.htm
The second thing, which is slightly more disturbing, is that I realized that basically NONE, I mean NO SINGLE ONE "HD" camera on the market actually records full HD, no matter the claims or the "Full HD" stickers I see on everything now-a-days. In fact, most cameras don't even get past 600 to 650 lines of actual recorded resolution. That's or even 720p. Actually, that just about the resolution of standard PAL signal.
Furthermore, a bit more reading quickly unveiled the disturbing fact that most of the camcorders on the market today with their fancy HDMI 1.3 interfaces, actually shoot only in 720p (and that is the "recording format because they actually don't even capture that much) and then upscale it to 1080p for actually recording onto disk.
It seems clear that camcorder manufacturer (at least) don't post their real resolution lw/ph on their products. And, though the score from the JVC GZ-X900 is encouraging, I am still not seeing projected on my wall anything NEAR true 1920x1080.
So, what am I missing here then? Actually, what are we all missing? This certainly explains first of all that I've observed that for the most part, the pictures produced by good 720p "HD" cameras look just as sharp or detailed than most of their 1080i/1080p counterparts. Plus, we already know that for the most part most (if not all) HDTV Broadcasts positively suck as far as general quality and still/motion resolution goes.
So, my question is, I assume all 1080p video projectors can display a theoretically maximum (and ideal) 1920x1080, which I assume is 1080 vertical lines. Why are most cameras called "HD" recording actually about just ½ of what the 1080p specs are? And, what is actually then the typical output of a BluRay Player? And HDTV? cough, cough
We seem to have modern HDTV broadcasts that fair in much lower quality than solid analogue used to bring, 1080p cameras that record detail equivalent to ½ their claimed theoretical maximum resolution and, I wonder really, if even 1080p projectors are indeed capable of displaying the resolution that comes spec'ed.
Thanks for the comments and advice.
I use many 1080p HD cameras from consumer to professional ones, and for the most part when viewing them on higher-end single or 3 chip 1080p projectors, I somehow have the feeling that actual sharpness and resolutions of these cameras somehow seems to come short.
I say this is especially true as I view some of my favorite BluRay movies with what I consider better mastering and transfers, they present a level of fine detail and fidelity no video camera out of the box seems to provide their picture is for the most part more grotesque, in lack of better wording.
So, I just recently purchased a BenQ W6000 Projector in Taiwan (a great machine I have to say), and, in need for an extremely compact HD camera for a project I am doing, I purchased also a consumer grade JVC GZ-X900 Camera that records using the AVCDHD format (in its highest possible bitrate, I should add). To my surprise, when viewing its footage on my new 1080p DLP projector, I got a feeling to be watching among the sharpest and detailed images I've ever captured coming from an "HD" camera. I started doing some research and got startled by a few facts.
The first one was that indeed, this little plastic camera featuring a completely mediocre consumer grade lens, records the highest resolution of any consumer/prosumer camera on the market today, no matter the price, nearly 1000 lines:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...erformance.htm
The second thing, which is slightly more disturbing, is that I realized that basically NONE, I mean NO SINGLE ONE "HD" camera on the market actually records full HD, no matter the claims or the "Full HD" stickers I see on everything now-a-days. In fact, most cameras don't even get past 600 to 650 lines of actual recorded resolution. That's or even 720p. Actually, that just about the resolution of standard PAL signal.
Furthermore, a bit more reading quickly unveiled the disturbing fact that most of the camcorders on the market today with their fancy HDMI 1.3 interfaces, actually shoot only in 720p (and that is the "recording format because they actually don't even capture that much) and then upscale it to 1080p for actually recording onto disk.
It seems clear that camcorder manufacturer (at least) don't post their real resolution lw/ph on their products. And, though the score from the JVC GZ-X900 is encouraging, I am still not seeing projected on my wall anything NEAR true 1920x1080.
So, what am I missing here then? Actually, what are we all missing? This certainly explains first of all that I've observed that for the most part, the pictures produced by good 720p "HD" cameras look just as sharp or detailed than most of their 1080i/1080p counterparts. Plus, we already know that for the most part most (if not all) HDTV Broadcasts positively suck as far as general quality and still/motion resolution goes.
So, my question is, I assume all 1080p video projectors can display a theoretically maximum (and ideal) 1920x1080, which I assume is 1080 vertical lines. Why are most cameras called "HD" recording actually about just ½ of what the 1080p specs are? And, what is actually then the typical output of a BluRay Player? And HDTV? cough, cough
We seem to have modern HDTV broadcasts that fair in much lower quality than solid analogue used to bring, 1080p cameras that record detail equivalent to ½ their claimed theoretical maximum resolution and, I wonder really, if even 1080p projectors are indeed capable of displaying the resolution that comes spec'ed.
Thanks for the comments and advice.
