HD vs. SD - Is HD worth the expense for web delivery?
 

With everything else being equal, will an HD camera (most likely the HV10) give me any better results than an SD camera (Optura Pi for example)?

This camera will be used soley for capturing video for web delivery (mainly fast loading banner ads/flash movies).

Is there a size (640x480 vs. ???) where HD will be clearly superior to SD?
...uncompressed, sure...but what about highly compressed for web delivery?

Is progressive scan a factor, especially in an SD camera?



Thanks any input you might have.
Derek

Derek - Unless you will be storing your HD for possible future delivery on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray DVD, I can't imagine any need to use HD for web video. Some HD material, after down-rezzing to SD, actually looks worse than good SD recorded natively. Editing HD requires a larger computer and often longer rendering times, and storing HD takes up a lot of space. Good luck with your projects.

I shoot HDV for web delivery, but I am also looking towards DVD distro later.

One really nice thing about the HDV is that it gives you a lot room to reframe in post. You can take a medium shot and turn it in to a close-up without losing any resolution. That is the biggest benefit for me.

thanks for the information...any other thoughts?
 

thanks for the information...any other thoughts?

any thoughts on benefits of progressive scan with regards to web delivery?

I was just thinking if I want to submit clips to sites like Istockphoto/video an HD camera is almost a necessity, don't you think?

Derek

I know MacBreak aquires in 1080 for a web delivery show. The reason they do it is for many reasons. They've even discussed this in depth on their podcasts.

First is furtureproofing. They want to aquire in a format that will allow them to republish in a higher rez if they need down the the road. However, they do offer the full 1080 download as well as an iPod version.

Greenscreening info. They do greenscreen work (virtual sets) on the podcast and they higher color depth of HD (I think they aquire in 4:2:2 allows them an easier time compositing).

Warm regards,
Scott

Unfortunately the 4:2:2 is only available in the HVX200, higher end units, and HD-SDI and HDMI capture. HDV is not there.

The ability to reframe would be seem to be very useful And progressive, especially 24p progressive would seem to useful. Progressive since it matches the ubiquitous LCD monitors; and 24p because it reduces the number of frames and the resulting file size.