Sony HDR-HC1: A Quantum Leap For Video Buffs

HD Video Downloads

To help you form your own impression of the video quality that HD offers, we have provided three different video clips for download; these have the same content recorded at three different resolutions. The quantum leap in quality between standard video and HD will be immediately obvious to nearly every viewer.

There are three videos that are encoded in WMV9 format.

Download: High-resolution video with 1440x1080 pixels in WMV9 format (H.263). Playing time is 1:23, and file size is 17 MB. Play close attention to the level of detail, especially compared to the two other videos at 720x540 (PAL) and 320x240 (VHS-equivalent) resolutions.

Download: PAL video for comparison. This is the same video as the one above, but with a resolution of 720x540 pixels and a file size of 11 MB. In this clip, you'll see a noticeable reduction in the level of detail, due to its having only about one-quarter the pixel total of the HD source. This relatively low resolution is the same one used for standard TV sets in Europe.

Download: Video captured at "VHS resolution". Many TV stations don't transmit signals at much higher quality: 320x240 pixels represents only 1/20th the resolution of the original source! File size here is 6 MB.

You can download the videos from these links:

• Download HD video at 1440x1080 resolution (17 MB)
• Download PAL video at 720x540 resolution (11 MB)
• Download Video at VHS quality at 320x240 pixels (6 MB)