About this entry
Published: May 26th, 2005 Category: Articles Tags: digital image, DV, DVCAM, DVCPro, HD, specifications
The video and film industry tend to use specific resolutions for different formats.
These are listed below.
| Format | Picture aspect ratio |
Standard pixel resolution |
Pixel aspect ratio |
| SD Video (PAL, DV) | 1.33 | 720×576 | 1.067 |
| SD Video (NTSC, DV) | 1.33 | 720×486 | 0.9 |
| SD Video (PAL, square pixels) | 1.33 | 768×576 | 1.0 |
| SD Video (NTSC, square pixels) | 1.33 | 648×486 | 1.0 |
| HD Video @720* | 1.78 | 1280×720 | 1.0 |
| HD Video @1080 (certain types**) | 1.78 | 1440×1080 | 1.33 |
| HD Video @1080 | 1.78 | 1920×1080 | 1.0 |
| DVC Pro HD @59.94i | 1.78 | 1280×1080 | 1.5 |
| 16mm | 1.37 | 1712×1240 | 1.00 |
| Super-16 | 1.65 | 2048×1240 | 1.00 |
| “Academy” aperture | 1.37 | 1828×1332 (2k) 3656×2664 (4k) |
1.00 |
| Cinemascope (Squeezed) | 2.35 | 1828×1556 (2k) 3656×2664 (4k) |
2.00 |
| Cinemascope (Unsqueezed) | 2.35 | 2048×872 (2k) 3656×1556 (4k) |
1.00 |
| Full Aperture | 1.33 | 2048×1556 (2k) 4096×3112 (4k) |
1.00 |
| 8-perf “VistaVision” | 1.5 | 3072×2048 (3k) 6144×4096 (6k) |
1.0 |
| *DVCPRO HD (at 720p60) is actually 960×720, with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.33 | |||
| **These include DVCPRO HD100 (at 50i), HDCAM, and 1080i HDV formats | |||
These are derived from the average resolving power of each format, as well as using a number that is easy for computers to work with (any number that is a power of two: 256, 2048, 4096, etc.)
October 4th, 2005 at 3:38 am
What is 21k (background plates) in pxels?
October 11th, 2005 at 11:08 am
it’s not an “official” format per se, but an image of around 21,000 pixels by some other number, e.g. 21,000 by 21,000 (which means the image contains around 450 million pixels in total). Thankfully, images of this size are very rare, and the example you’re quoting was a satellite image of the Earth
October 14th, 2005 at 7:32 am
Hi,
Great resource. But I must point out, for SD (NTSC) you give its correct aspect ratio 1.33 (4/3), but the pixel counts you list as 720×486 must be non-square to produce a 4×3 image. As you did above for PAL, you need to differentiate between the DV 720-pixel format and the square-pixeled 648×486. The pixel aspect ratio for your SD (NTSC-DV) 720×484 entry should be 1.11… Wouldn’t want anyone to be misled or confused.
Thanks,
RL
October 14th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
The name of this posting is “Standard Data Resolutions”????
I thought SD meant Standard Definition.
What gives?
xp
October 27th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
Robert, thanks for the correction, I will update the table.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
Xavier, sorry about the confusing overlapping terminology. SD does mean Standard Definition. The title refers to the typical pixel resolutions for different formats, which in turn encompasses Standard Definition (video). Hope this clears things up.
October 27th, 2005 at 9:52 pm
Thanks for indicating a distinction. However, there is still a discrepancy.
Look at PAL - image size is 768×576 for square-pixels (pixel aspect ratio = 1); PAL DV image size is 720×576 (fewer samples/line, wider pixels, pixel aspect ratio = 1.067 = 768/720).
NTSC image size for square pixels is 648×486 (not shown!?); NTSC has MORE pixels/line, 720×486, so pixels are narrower than their height - so pixel aspect ratio is 648/720 = 0.9.
October 30th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
Yes, that is correct. I will also include the square pixel dimensions to avoid further confusion.
February 17th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
The resolution for Super 16 should be 2048×1240 and is a 1.65:1 aspect ratio.
2.35:1 = 2048×871 (most people round it to 872), 1828×778, 3656×1556
Keep in mind that 2.35 is not what you have on your negative. The scope image is actually 1.174:1 aspect ratio usually 1828×1556.
February 18th, 2006 at 12:01 am
1440×1080, PAR 1.33 is also the dimension for Sony and Canon’s 1080i HDV formats.
DVCPRO HD is 1440×1080 at 50i, but actually 1280×1080 at 59.94i. Its 720p60 resolution is 960×720.
–Mike Jennings
–Adobe Systems
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Mike, thanks for the additions. I’ve corrected the table
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:06 pm
David, I’ve corrected the Super 16mm entry. The C-Scope values assumed a digital squeeze. I’ve added separate values for the resolutions of images with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.0
March 22nd, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Hello!
A question: How can be the pixel aspect 1:1 and the image 1:1.33333 with the resolution 2048 by 1556. Either pixel is not square or image has 1:1.3162 aspect. An other thing for PAL: The true 4:3 contains only 702×576 pixel, and the pixel aspect is 1.094. The 720×576 image has 1.367521 aspect. See: http://www.uwasa.fi/~f76998/video/conversion/
March 22nd, 2006 at 6:27 pm
An interesting point. The aspect ratios quoted are the effective image aspect ratio
I’ll quote the BBC on this:
This means, in practice, 720×576 (or 2048×1556) have an assumed mask of several pixels on the horizontal. The values presented in the table above are industry standards. If you use them, you won’t go wrong (unless you use a pseudo-digital DVE). Someone else may be able to correct me on this, but I believe that systems such as Fire compensate internally for this discrepancy.
Thanks for the link by the way.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Standard def DV-NTSC is 720×480, not720×486 (that, I believe, is digibeta. Thanks for the HD info, it was very helpful in trying to troubleshoot a downconversion issue I had today.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
You forgot IMAX, which has a resolution of 10,000 x 7,000 (7k)!