HDTV primer

[doobiwan]

I've seen a few quizzical looks about HDTV so I thought I'd just drop a quick post on it:

Here's the low down, but it's a bit verbose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDTV

but the basics, in short, the number refers to the number of lines on the screen. The letters refer to 'i'nterlaced or 'p'rogressive, which roughly translates in frames per second (see below). All HDTV standards are also suppossed to support 16:9 widescreen.

there are basically two "HD resolutions": 720 (1280x720), and 1080 (1920x1080).
Frequency wise, PAL, is a 50Hz standard so that's 25/50, and for NTSC it's 60Hz ie 30/60.

so 720p PAL = 1280x720 @ 50 frames a second.
so 1080i PAL = 1920x1080 @ 25 frames a second.

Out of interest, "natural PAL" is 768x576, as oppossed to NTSC's 720x480.

 

[useless]

please note, all next-gen consoles run @ 60hz HD frequency. So when you are buying a HDTV please be SURE it supports HD @ 60hz and NOT the PAL derivative of 50hz.

do not confuse this as PAL 60 coz thats only valid for 480i which is basic normal TV.

 

[TivoZA]

Frequency wise, PAL, is a 50Hz standard so that's 25/50, and for NTSC it's 60Hz ie 30/60.

so 720p PAL = 1280x720 @ 50 frames a second.
so 1080i PAL = 1920x1080 @ 25 frames a second.

Out of interest, "natural PAL" is 768x576, as oppossed to NTSC's 720x480.

It's also worth noting that PAL and NTSC use different colour standards. More details about HDTV and its potential local impact can be found in the "HDTV Tv Cards" thread.

 

[werner]

ntsc is well known to stand for
Never The Same Color

 

[zefram]

so 720p PAL = 1280x720 @ 50 frames a second.
so 1080i PAL = 1920x1080 @ 25 frames a second.

i could be wrong, but the way i understand it:

720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p in pal is 25 fps.
720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p in ntsc is 30 fps.

interlaced pal looks like 50 fps and interlaced ntcs looks like 60 fps because of two half res frames are put into one full res frame (see www.100fps.com for details).

 

[useless]

AFAIK

720p = Progressive thus full 50fps ( PAL ) and 60fps ( NTSC )
1080i = Interlaced this 25fps ( PAL ) and 30fps ( NTSC )

Besides, no games are made to run on HD @ 50hz for PAL anyways. The closest you get is 525i or 575p on some older Progressive Scan enabled PS2 games.