non square pixels

[CovenantPictures]

Simple question, been bothering me forever:


How to full raster HD 1080p LCDs with square pixels display non-square pixels, i.e the pixels recorded in horizontally subsampled formats liek HDV, HDCAM, and DVCPRO HD??

[trez]

Upscaling (interpolation). Displaying 720p (1280x720) footage on 1080p (1920x1080) screen is not much different.
The simplest method is to display the 'nearest neighbor' pixel (very ugly looking one with lots of aliasing, hardly ever used). More advanced algorithms calculate the output (screen) pixel value from multiple 'surrounding' input (footage) pixels by means of weighted-average or more sophisticated formulas.
Understanding interpolation (over/under sampling) is essential for any videographer - there's a lot of information on the web.