HDV 1080i
Supported by Sony/Canon/Panasonic/JVC
HDV (High Definition Video) was announced at the end of 2003 by its joint developers, Sony, Canon, JVC and Sharp.
Media Using HDV
With HDV 1080i, the benefits of high definition are now accessible to everyone.
This is the ideal entry-level choice of format for HD production in which HDV records pictures at 1080-line resolution onto a standard DV format cassette.
Not only have manufacturers reduced camcorder size and weight dramatically, use of this smaller cassette also cuts media costs.
Sony HDV 1080i offers a Tri-format HDV/DVCAM/DV recording and playback which is possible with the same camcorder or VTR deck. This reduces inventory requirements as well as storage and transportation costs .HDV recordings can easily be down converted in-camera to standard definition DV allowing easy ingestion into existing non-HD editing suites with high quality archiving of the original master recordings.
HDV 1080i makes it even more affordable for programme makers to experience the benefits of High Definition.
High Definition Technology
HDV takes HD line resolutions, either 1080i or 720P, and presents them on DV tape by means of a highly-compressed Mpeg2 transport system.
By making a signal that is small enough to be accommodated by a standard DV tape- in the region of 25Mbps for 1080i or 19Mbps for 720p - not all the data found in full HD pictures is stored in the HDV format.
The HDV equivalent of the uncompressed HD 1920 x 1080 interlaced frame format stores only a 1440x1080 interlaced video frame. The use of Mpeg2 to create a reduced frame size makes HDV a more manageable proposition while also offering a high quality picture.