1080p footage - sharp enough for you?

[Retrospective]

Ok not mine but found it on Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com/2769038

I downloaded the 1080p version and it look sharp "enough" for me.

Can the quality of HMC150's 1080p get any better than this? Unless Vimeo adds its own compression on top of whatever output you did before that.

[Nik Manning]

This isn't the sharpest it can get. You should add a little sharpness in post. It is definitely sharp enough, but maybe not sharp enough for a lot of the tv stations that buy HD content.

[Jon Casey]

footage looks really good.

[Ed Kishel]

but maybe not sharp enough for a lot of the tv stations that buy HD content.

PBS has some of the toughest HD quality standards, and the HMC meets its 2007 technical standard- see page 4 of the following spec manual for producers:

http://www.pbs.org/producers/redbook/TOS_2007_Submission_8_20_07.pdf

of course there are all kinds of other standards that must be met in a final product, but if the OP is talking about "sharpness", the HMC can hold its own against most other 720p content out there.

EDIT: I stand corrected, the spec does state HD should be captured via 1/2" chips. The HMC uses 1/3"

[Mike Harvey]

PBS has some of the toughest HD quality standards, and the HMC meets its 2007 technical standard- see page 4 of the following spec manual for producers...

Are you sure? Pg 4 states that HD cameras need to have 1/2" chips, except in extenuating circumstances.

[Ed Kishel]

that's true, I saw 1/3" but that was for SD only. Like I said- PBS is strict :)

Discovery HD Threater: http://dhd.discovery.com/guidelines/gallery/guidelines.pdf

[Cranky]

that's true, I saw 1/3" but that was for SD only. Like I said- PBS is strict
San Diego PBS affiliate, KPBS, strives to broadcast as much as they can in HD. I mean, on their HD simulcast, but this does not mean they have actual HD content for all their programming. I've seen some horrible SD content broadcast over HD channel. First they were boxing it -- full box for SD widescreen content -- which really did not make any sense to me. The quality was the same as on their SD channel, what's the point? After some whining and ranting of their viewers including myself, they started to upscale SD WS content on the station. It is watchable now, but still does not look like HD, and obviously it is a far cry even from "consumer" high def video like HDV or AVCHD.

what I wanted to say, they can stick their requirements up their butts. As long as they allow themselves to broadcast SD (upscaled SD at best) on an HD channel, they have to gladly accept HDV and AVCHD footage.

By the way, The TV series "Travels to the edge" is produced for PBS in HDV using Canon XL-H1 camcorders. And this is broadcast as legitimate HD.

[Justyn]

man.. that's some pretty vanilla looking lighting tests...

[matt s.]

yeah i didnt fnd anything special about those tests. kinda bland.

[JordyF]

and if you were to *gasp* LIE to PBS and make your footage look proper in post, who would ever know :p

[Rikki]

Sounds about right, people used to moan about using using digitial camera for mag work so you'd just save files as TIFF and say they were scans.

[Ed Kishel]

"pushing" the truth in the entertainment industry? Shirley you can't be serious!

http://www.movie-list.com/a/airplane.jpg

If someone asked me "looks great and the specs match- but did you shoot it on a 1/2 CCDs?" I would smile and say "yup" :)

[David Saraceno]

I also am wondering what was the test of? Lighting?

I didn't see variants.

[kamikaze1213]

This is some of the best footage i have seen in terms of sharpness -

http://vimeo.com/5041210