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Making DV look better on a large display
1.) How large of a display will SD DV from a camera like the XL-1 scale to
before it starts to pixelate and look really poor?2.) Is there anything that could be done during a shoot or after to make video scale better if it is viewed on a larger display, such as a 50-inch display?
Thanks.
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4 Replies
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In theory, it’s the number of pixels more than the size of the display. I have this concern often with clients watching SD DVDs on HD screens. Nothing you can do while shooting can change the fact that you have 720×480 pixels to work with, and that’s it.
Uprezing to an HD format would be the only fix I can think of, but your original footage would have to be really clean, certainly doable in an XL1, or any decent camera.
If you are using an HDV or HD camera, you’d still have this problem with a standard DVD or SD tape, so even uprezing will only help if you go to a BlueRay DVD on an HD player. With SD, you’re screwed.
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1.) What about the resolution of the display can make the video look poor? With a large display it has to strech the video beyond 720 x 480, what is it technically doing if it is displayed on a 2600 x whatever display?
2.) what is “uprezing?” I am guessing that means to somehow upconvert from SD to HD. How can you add pixels if there were never captured during the inital shoot?
Thanks for your response!
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Rick,
I quite often have to use DV footage in HD productions, and depending on the nature of the footage it can go from atrocious to really quite good. I usually use compressor to uprez the footage, and depending on your settings and time (better quality needing more render time) the results can be very satisfying. Whilst it cand *add* to the image quality in the sense that you can’t put in what isn’t there, it can definitely smooth artifacts and eliminate some of the stepping of pixels when viewed on a larger screen. The exeption to this is, I find, graphics – name supers and the like. They always look a bit pants.
For you, this would, of course, mean projecting from an HD source – so that opens up a whole new can of worms…
Jason
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Yes to all of what Jay says. You’re not adding any detail, just enhancing edges and smoothing. In the process though, you are adding pixels. There are a couple of print programs that do this if that helps your understanding. PhotoZoomPro is the one I use, it uses “smart” algorithms to blow things up without losing much.
With video though and a large screen, you still have to overcome the limitations of SD discs and tapes, because then you’re back to dealing with the same sized image you originally shot.
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