Which format will give the best quality

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Hello

I'm videoing a friend's wedding soon using my Sony TRV620E camcorder - a few
years old but still giving excellent quality. I'm going to edit the results
in Pinnacle Studio 9 and drop the final video onto a DVD at maximum quality.

I'm wondering about filming in 16:9, but I have this niggling worry that
I'll be losing picture quality. My reasoning is that the camera's ccd must
have a fixed pixel resolution which (given its age) is probably going to be
something like 720x576. That being the case, the only way the camera can
record in 16:9 is by losing the top an bottom rows of pixels leaving me with
less info per frame.

Can any kind soul help me get my head around this?

thanks
Fred

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Richard Crowley" <rcrowley@xpr7t.net> wrote in message
>
> I would suspect the same thing. That "16x9" is created simply
> by "letterboxing" the image and throwing away a lot of resolution.

Thanks.
I notice that the latest Sony camcorders are 1 mega pixel+ and are described
as offering "true" widescreen mode - so I think my suspicions are well
founded

> And then you have to consider how you would distribute a 16x9
> production?
>

DVD supports 16:9 doesn't it?

Fred

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Richard Crowley" <richard.7.crowley@intel.com> wrote in message
newsdiip4$jpp$1@news01.intel.com...
> "Fred" wrote in...
>> "Richard Crowley" wrote in message
>
>>> And then you have to consider how you would distribute a 16x9
>>> production?
>>>
>>
>> DVD supports 16:9 doesn't it?
>
> Yeah, I was thinking of HD (for which they haven't agreed on
> a DVD format).
>
well they haven't agreed on a HD DVD format yet, meaning their is yet
another format war on HD storage on DVD discs
and the players needed to read the new discs, Either HD_DVD or BD (BluRay
Disc) and so on BD-ROM, BD-RE ( for rewritable, why not BD-RW? I don't know
but this is how I read it, lol) and BD-VR (hmm, would there be a BD-VR
format, why not, it can be more editable and less compatible, lol.
But back to the point, I wanted to make, HD will still be HD-Video, no
matter what storage format finally wins the war after how many years, the
video you capture in HD will not change in the fact if captured in HD format
it will have a higher resolution than SD video at 480x720 pixels.

AnthonyR

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Richard Ragon" <bsema04@hananho.com> wrote in message
news:HbnLe.778$UA1.204@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com...
> Fred wrote:
>
>> Hello
>>
>> I'm videoing a friend's wedding soon using my Sony TRV620E camcorder - a
>> few
>> years old but still giving excellent quality. I'm going to edit the
>> results
>> in Pinnacle Studio 9 and drop the final video onto a DVD at maximum
>> quality.
>>
>> I'm wondering about filming in 16:9, but I have this niggling worry that
>> I'll be losing picture quality. My reasoning is that the camera's ccd
>> must
>> have a fixed pixel resolution which (given its age) is probably going to
>> be
>> something like 720x576. That being the case, the only way the camera can
>> record in 16:9 is by losing the top an bottom rows of pixels leaving me
>> with
>> less info per frame.
>>
>> Can any kind soul help me get my head around this?
>>
>> thanks
>> Fred
>
> I'm no camera expert or anything and I might be wrong here but.. To my
> knowledge NO consumer camera on the market right now (except a few high
> end ones like the sony HDV) are actually a "real" 19:6. Instead, its
> simply just flagged as 16:9 and the picture is squeezed into 720x480. When
> you go to capture it you adjust your capture settings to basically
> unsqeeze it into a 16:9. At that point (on the editing bay) it is a real
> 16:9.
>
> I do this all the time with captures from clients using a Panasonic
> dvx1000a.
>
AFAIK even high end DV and DigiBeta cameras use the anamorphic squeeze.
I can't speak to HD and HDV though.

As far as pixel CCD count goes, there is no direct connection between the
actual on-chip resolution, and the recording format. The horizontal
resolution
of many (maybe all current cameras) is greater than 720. It seems like the
actual resolution is pretty much arbitrary and the onboard DSP in the camera
scales the image to what-ever proportions are needed for the output format.

If you look at the spec for the still images the camera can produce, you
will
get a hint at the actual resolution on the chip. Most of the chips are still
4 x 3
and are probably square pixels. Most cameras try to use most of the
available
resolution of the chip when shooting 4 x 3, but use less when doing 16 x 9
(cropping top and bottom). Chances are, there are still more than 576 rows
of
cells used when making 4 x 3 or 16 x 9 on most new cameras.

David