I have had number questions in the last couple months asking if I will be producing videos in High Definition.  My answer is no.  Although consumer HD cameras are now readily available and affordable for the general public distribution methods and output formats are not.  In order to fully output HD on a digital video disk, one requires a blue laser to burn the format and a blue laser reader to display it on a true high definition television or computer monitor.

For people who say that they want it available for the web in HD are not considering the full implications.  The majority of screen sizes are 1280 pixels wide by 960 pixels in height.  HD video size is 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high.  That is much bigger than average users screen.  The file size for this format is huge and would take too long to download.  Even with the modern compressors, maintaining that viewing size is still too big.

It is recommended that on top of compressing the video that the size is viewable video is changed to limit file size so viewers can download the file quickly enough to watch it before getting frustrated and abandoning the video all together.

"But wait, what if I put it on a DVD for distribution?  I have a DVD burner!"  DVD are limited to standard definition television. A lot of them are limited by their connections to their TV with analogue cables which are limited to just under 500 horizontal lines of resolutions which means roughly 480-520 pixels high (depending on North America format, NTSC, or European, PAL).  To maintain the aspect ratios of 4 by 3 that means the frame size is 720 by 480 pixels.  That is all a DVD will provide to an end user.

A standard definition camera offers the user a frame size of 720 x 480 pixels, which is the limit to most standards of distribution. If the user preserves the original quality of the captured video to output, it is going to look just as good as if they captured HD, edited HD and then compressed for output, Web or DVD.

To see an example, take a look at the video section of my portfolio.  The Veer Union was shot and edited in HD, 4 times the file size, 4 times the render time, 4 times the compression time and 4 times the effort to end up in a widescreen standard definition video.

Until prices come down on blue laser burners and burnable Blue Ray disks.  Standard definition will be the best option for consumer video.