Better 1080 >720 or directly 720?

[someday]

I have to produce a showreel that i will post in my site and on DVDs for distribution to possible clients.
What is better? Shooting everything at 1080 (+20% apparent definition) then downsizing to 720p for internet and PAL for DVD, or shooting to 720p?
Thanks

[majormorgan]

I'd say shoot for 1080. Someone on the forums did a frame comparisson of the same subject shot in 1080p and 720p and when the image was processed in a certain way you could see the extra compression artifacts in 720p.

If you can shoot for 1080 and then down res in the export. That way you have options for scaling, re-positioning of frames if something wasn't perfect and also you have less compression artifacts per frame.

Also if you bear in mind that the internet delivery would be a codec like MP4 then you have two compressed codecs affecting your picture quality so for me personally I'd keep the original master at the highest possible quality - hence 1080p, which then can benefit from being downsized as it has more resolution and less compression per pixel.

Also you can then post some 1080 stills to accompany the 720 internet footage to show how it was even better looking footage.

Ready to be shot down....

Thanks,
Majormorgan.

[Barry_Green]

On an HVX200, 1080p always looks better than 720p. 720/60p looks better than 1080/60i. So it depends on whether you're shooting filmicly, or for the live look. For live, use 720. For filmic, use 1080.

[someday]

Thanks to all.
How could it be possible that 720 has more artifacts than 1080?
Shouldn't it be the contrary, as they both use 100Mb and 720 should have virtually twice the bandwidth per pixel?
What am i missing?

[Barry_Green]

Same bandwidth, 720 is half the frame size but twice as many frames so it nets out the same.

But 1080 on the HVX doesn't fully saturate the frame with detail; it delivers around 1400 x 810 of res. That leaves some room for the codec to actually reshuffle bits and apply a lower overall compression ratio. That results in cleaner images, less mosquito noise, less overall compression.

[someday]

Thank you very much!
I will always shoot at 1080 unles i need cranking and i will always shoot DVCpro50 SD

[lipslide]

Barry, does the same principle apply to PAL 1080 with it's higher initial res?

[walnutcrunch]

I had no idea about this 720p versus 1080p business. I somehow had the idea that the HVX200 had a true res of 720p and fakery to get 1080i or 1080p. That changes a lot of things about the workflow I'm establishing.

We were going to shoot everything in 720p because that's our display resolution and I thought the HVX handled 720p better. Interesting.

[Domis Entertainment]

This is very interesting! I have seen a few posts that have mentioned Shooting 1080/24pA isn't as great as 720/24pn.

so....it looks like we have the official opinion of Mr. Green....

1080/24pA = Film like look
720/24pn= good for live and cranking for film look.



I've had a lot of people tell me that 1080/24pa footage is bad for internet streaming/dvd compressing/still imaging/transfering to 35mm because it is still interlaced and not true 1080p. Is this true?....either way...thank god for people like Barry Green.

Barry..you are the man...i hope you get great pleasure out of all of your hardwork...please know that all of us HVX users owe you a debt of graditude! Thanks for everything!

[Antoine_Fabi]

Barry is right 100%.

and...

DVC Pro HD 720p is anamorphic 960X720.
DVC Pro HD 1080i (which can contain real 1080p) is 1280X1080

...so, if you shoot 1080 and downscale to native 720p square pixels, you'll approach the full horizontal res potential of non anamorphic 720p. which is 1280X720.

But for DVD, and long time recording (and over/under cranking) 720 is exellent.