720p on the big screen

M

mmm

Veteran
Does anyone know how 720p looks on a cinema (Multiplex size) screen. My last two films were only shot on SD PAL (576 lines) and suffer when shown at this size (obviously).

I also have a thing about filming trees, which digital formats in SD HATE. I am just wondering if I should hold out for the 1080p of the HVX or not :undecided

I would prefer DVCPRO-HD to HDV aswell, but if HDV is "good enough", then I'll save myself the money until P2 drops in price.

Has anyone seen 1080p against 720p on a large screen? As far as small screen goes, HDTV is still a long way off in the UK, so it is just cinema viewing that I am concerned about. I know the HD100 isn't out yet but I am trying to plan my investments. If 720p is no good I can rule out the HD100. Hope that makes sense. :)
 
For optimal results, the 1080p would be the way to go. Also the compression of DVCPROHD is much better for a film out than HDV compression. 720p should look good though, so its a matter of what you really want ...
 
Thanks for the reply mgalvan...

Have you seen 720p and 1080p compared, I had heard (through the internet grapevine) that there isn't much difference. But is there much difference between 576 lines of SD and 720p then??

:huh:
 
I'm running a test currently with different settings via digital projector at a movie theater I work at... I'll be sure to let you know how it goes
 
There's not a great deal of difference beteen 1080i and 720p. There's quite a difference between 1080p and 720p.
 
dj200423 said:
I tested 480 p, looked better than I expected. I'll let you know how the other tests go
Click to expand...

Alright, I'd like to know how the 720P footage looked so much that I've created a dvxuser login just to ask. I've seen DV in the theater (limited to the Open Water trailer) and personally thought it was terrible. I remember when I saw it, it took about 2 nanoseconds for me to say "hey, that's DV".

Philip Williams
www.philipwilliams.com
 
I've shot a few things with the VariCam's which have been projected theatrically, and they look great. Don't worry so much about the projection concerns of the various formats; focus (no pun intended) more on your story. Shitty artifacts are far more noticable when there's no story to 'distract' the viewer. :)

cheers,

harlan
 
I had the same 720p projected on a bad projector and a nice 4500k projector . . . the amount of light hitting that screen gives colur, contrast and detail . . . go after a good projector if you want a good result, the image from 720p looked great in optimum conditions, I expect a higher res to do even better!
 
harlan said:
Don't worry so much about the projection concerns of the various formats; focus (no pun intended) more on your story. Shitty artifacts are far more noticable when there's no story to 'distract' the viewer. :)
Click to expand...

I know, I'm working on that.

I am just worried because after all the work that I put into my last films, they don't stand up well on a big screen. They were shot on DV, and I want to loose that low-res distraction as soon as I can!
 
Well, here's a cheap way you could experiment to see... consider that 720p is about 4x as large as a DV frame that's been cropped to 16:9, right? Twice as wide, twice as tall = 4x.

So you could project your DV footage in the theater, and hold out a ruler at a fixed distance in front of your eyes to measure the forced-perspective width/height of the screen. Then go further back in the theater until the screen is 1/2 the width & 1/2 the height as it was. Then look at the projected image -- that'll give you a vague idea of what the clarity and sharpness level would be like, had you shot it in 720p and were still viewing it from where you were viewing the DV footage. Of course, that's not taking into account compression artifacts or color sampling, etc., but for just overall sharpness it should give you a clue.
 
Or you could take a photograph with a digital SLR, crop, and screen that. Would be an interesting test.
 
The problem with stills is that the do not always act the same as video.

I find that I get a lot of flicker on fine detail with SD, which looks horrible. This will still be an issue with 720p or 1080p, but hopefully much less so...
 
You shouldn't ever get any flicker from 720p on fine detail. That flicker is a result of interlace scanning, and 720p is never interlaced.

Might happen on 1080i, but not on 1080p (when projected as 1080p). If the 1080p is projected on a 1080i system it might still happen.

Should never happen from 720p.
 
I get it even if I deinterlace though.

I can't remember the technical name, but it is when you get sub-pixel sized details (mortar in brick walls, branches etc) and if you pan or tilt across it, you get a flicker.
 
What you're describing isn't commonly referred to as "flicker". It's the moire pattern that results when pattern details are finer than the pixels on the recording device.
 
That's the word I was looking for! Moooooire.

On branches it doesn't make much of a pattern though, just makes them "flicker," that's all I meant. I hate it.
 
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