At 11:29 PM 6/5/2002 -0700, Tim May wrote:
On Wednesday, June 5, 2002, at 08:37 PM, Morlock Elloi wrote:
>>>I only bought one (1) VHS tape, ever (*). That was "Pulp Fiction." So
far, I don't have it on DVD.
>>DVDs are probably the first product ever rolled out exclusively for content
control purposes.
>>Quality-wise, it's somewhat better than VHS and almost the same as Hi-8 (which
I use for archiving purposes), and definitely inferior to analog laserdisc,
which had a thriving market but is now almost extinct (a nice side-effect being
that titles are now available for $5-10 and there are some which will never
make it to DVD).
>>Hype and brandheads that salivate on words like "dolby" "surroundumb sound"
aside, average consumer got only new expense with DVDs - buying a player.
>>Like CDs, audio cassetes and IP protocol, VHS will stay forever with us.
>I disagree, politely, with nearly every point you make.
>DVDs are taking off faster than I have ever seen a product take off, and I've seen
>quite a few.
>They are vastly better than VHS, in picture quality, and are mechanically superior
>to VHS in nearly every way. (No broken/stretched tapes, no complicated read heads and
>capstans to get knocked out of whack, scratched, etc.)
[The following video data snippets are from the excellent hobbyist video site
www.vcdhelp.com Many foreign contributors, some with only passable English skills.]]
The official (legal) resolutions for optical media are:
720 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by most DVD.
704 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by some DVD
480 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by SVCD
352 X 576 (480 NTSC). Used by DVD and China Video Disc (CVD). It is also the
"official" SVHS resolution.
352 X 288 (240 NTSC). Used by VCD and DVD. It is also the "official" VHS resolution
The official names for those resolutions, come from US and there are defined like
this:
720 X 576 (480 NTSC): CCIR-601, Full PAL/NTSC Studio resolution.
704 X 576 (480 NTSC) as 1/1 D1 or simply as D1(Sometimes this resolution is 702 X
576/480). It is the TV Broadcast resolution
528 X 576 (480 NTSC) as 3/4 D1. It is supposed to be the Laser Disc resolution, but
ain't. I'll explain later
480 X 576 (480 NTSC) as 2/3 D1. It is the SVCD resolution.
352 X 576 (480 NTSC) as 1/2 D1. Used by DVD and CVD
The VCD resolution is 352 X 288 (240 NTSC) and it is called CIF- 601.
In Europe and especially Far East Asia, people tend to use other names to describe the
legal DVD - Video resolutions.
704 X 576 as D1
352 X 576 as D2
352 X 288 as D4
704 X 288 as D3.
>(I also have Hi-8, but would never think of archiving _anything_ to it. Flimsy
>heads/capstans in spades. Ditto for DV, which I also have. It's resolution is the
>best of all, but it's convenience and robustness are dubious.)
>I started looking at laser disks in 1979, but never bought one. The disks were too
>large and unwieldy to be a competitive format.
Laserdisc
The official Laserdisc resolution is 528 X 576/480, but many titles in US, after 1990,
are using the 544 X 480 resolution.
That happened because the first "cheap" video projectors in US, were using the VGA
standard for video in. Of course, those machines were for professional use with PCs.
But with the use of special (and cheap) connectors/adaptors or the "famous" VGA - out
connection of specific Laserdiscs, it was possible for the very first time, for US
video enthusiast, to have big picture at there houses. It was the only true solution
for the first home theatres (the term "home cinema" came later...).
Unfortunately, VGA is not based on CCIR-601, so a picture adaption is needed (VGA is
640 X 480). In other words, the picture aspect was wrong and always a part or some
parts of the picture was not in use. Because of Laser Disc limitations, the use of pan
and scan method (like DVD - Video) wasn't possible. The only solution without
compatibility problems and no cost, was to "upgrade" the Laserdisc resolution,
unofficially, to 544 X 480.
In Europe, the success of Laserdisc was minimal, so the few released PAL titles,
continue to use the official resolution for PAL (528 X 576). In theory, there is a 544
X 576, but I never saw a PAL laserdisc using this resolution.
The DVB/ -s -t -c resolutions
The DVB transmissions became mainstream in Europe in 1996 and today are mainstream in
US too. In the last five years, the European Union (E.U.), forced all television and
radio providers of E.U. Members, to turn their services digital. So, except Germany
and partly France (where the interest for analog satellite TV still is huge),
everything today is digital.
DVB is based on mpeg 2 (like DVD) and supports resolutions from full CIRR - 601 (top
quality) to CIF (lowest quality). Any resolution between those limits can be a DVB
picture resolution, with any bitrate/size. The correct output picture aspect is
accomplished by the use of the pan and scan method, which takes place between the
Digital/Analog conversion,
