Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ:

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1:What is Storage Requirements for HD Capture?

Playing back HD content is relatively easy, but getting that content onto the computer can require large quantities of fast storage. The following section provides an overview of the storage issues for HD-sourced content and how to approach developing reliable, cost-effective storage solutions.

The Storage Numbers
How large? How fast? Let's look at some storage numbers, which are broken down into compressed and uncompressed 10-bit formats in the typical color spaces. In the following table, data rate is measured in Mbps, which is 1,000,000 bits per second. Note that many drives will measure the data rate in Megabytes (MBps) per second, which is 8 times higher than Mbps. A gigabyte (GB) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Many applications, though, assume it is 230, which is approximately 7 percent larger and is called a Gibibyte, or GiB.

Table 2. Storage requirements for compressed and uncompressed data

There are significant differences between digital formats. Uncompressed data rates are many, many times higher than the rate for a typical file compressed for HD delivery by using Windows Media 9 Series codecs. Windows Media files can also have data rates far lower than MPEG-2 based formats.

Speed
The numbers in the previous table represent the real-world throughput needed to write a single stream of video to the hard disk in real-time. If the hard disk can't keep up with the video stream, frames of video are dropped. Many editing systems have higher requirements, because they need bandwidth to read more than one video stream at the same time for real-time effects. This kind of performance is not required for capture only. To get the kind of bandwidth required for capture, use multiple hard disks as part of a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) solution. For more information about RAID, see the "RAID" topic later in this article.

via http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/UnderstandingHDFormats.aspx

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What is High-definition display resolutions?

High Definition usually refers to 720 vertical lines of video format resolution or more.

A common native resolution used in HD Ready LCD TV panels is 1366 x 768 pixels instead of the ATSC Standard 1280 x 720 pixels. This is due to maximization of manufacturing yield and resolution of VGA, VRAM that comes with a 768 pixel format. Hence, LCD manufacturers adopt the 16:9 ratio compatible for the HD Ready 1080p video standard. Nevertheless, every HDTV has an overscan processing chipset to fix resolution scaling and color rendering, eg LG XD Engine, SONY BRAVIA Engine. Only when viewing 1080i/1080p HD contents under HD Ready 1080p where there is true pixel-for-pixel reproduction, and for HD ready LCD TV, do some signals undergo a scaling process which results in a 3-5% loss of picture.

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What is HDTV?

High definition television is the highest form of digital television. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the same as a movie theater screen. This is possibly HD’s biggest selling point. The other is the resolution. High definition is the best available picture on a television. It comes in three different flavors: 720p, 1080i and 1080p.

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What is HD Accessories?

Going high definition means investing in the future of technology, like buying or leasing HD-receivers, HD software (i.e Dicosft HD Video Converter), and HD-cables. Accessory costs related to high definition can be expensive, and it's important to recognize what is facing someone ready to make the jump to HD.