What is High Definition?

The HDV format was developed by JVC and Sony together. The format was initially supported by three other companies (Canon Inc, Sharp Corporation and Sony Corporation). These four companies made up the HDV consortium and are all manufacturers of HDV hardware.

In HDV, the video frame has an aspect ratio of 16:9. Permitted resolutions are 720p and 1080i.

HDV 720p uses a resolution of 1280x720 square pixels. HDV 1080i uses a resolution of 1440×1080 pixels, but is still displayed with an aspect ratio of 16:9

This means it has lower horizontal resolution than true 1080 HD formats (1920x1080)
The same principle applies also to most other widely used HD formats including XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD and HDCAM, all of which have the same or lower resolution as HDV.

HDV resolution, while falling short of true 1080 HD, is still higher than that of standard DV.

Box area denotes relative perceived resolution, not the intended shape of the screen, which is why the 1080i box is not as tall as the 1080p box.

Despite this, the perceived detail of HDV is so much higher than that of a PAL or NTSC DV format.
1440 pixels is still twice the horizontal resolution of SD formats. In total, each HDV frame has 1,555,200 pixels, which is 3.75 times that of PAL DV (414,720 pixels).

HDV was deliberately designed to offer existing video production environments a cost-conscious upgrade path from standard-definition (SD) to high-definition (HD) video. Therefore HDV shares the same DV25 cassette-media and tape-transport as DV.

Recording times for HDV are the same as DV. A 60 minute MiniDV cassette can store 60 minutes of either DV or HDV footage. As of yet, no HDV cameras can record HDV at LP speed, so the maximum record time on one tape is 80 minutes, as opposed to 120 with an 80 minute tape at LP.

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