1080p

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1080p is the shorthand name for a category of HDTV video modes. The number "1080" represents 1,080 lines of vertical resolution (1080 horizontal scan lines),^[1] while the letter p stands for progressive scan (meaning the image is not interlaced). 1080p can be referred to as full HD or full high definition although 1080i is also "Full HD" (1920x1080 pixels). The term usually assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels. This creates a frame resolution of 1920×1080, or 2,073,600 pixels in total. The frame rate in hertz can be either implied by the context or specified after the letter p (or i), such as 1080p30, meaning 30 Hz.^[2]

1080p is sometimes referred to in marketing materials as "Complete High-Definition". However, 2K/4K digital cinema technology is commercially available, and ultra-high definition video is in the research phase.

The meaning of 1080p as a display resolution is not correct because in fact 1920x1200/1920x1080 displays may or may not be able to display 1080p (Full HD) video. Use of 1080p and the closely related 1080i labels in consumer products may refer to a range of capabilities. For example, video equipment that upscales to 1080p takes lower resolution material and reformats it for a higher resolution display. The image that results is different from the display of original 1080p source material on a native 1080p capable-display. Similarly, equipment capable of displaying both 720p and 1080i may in fact not have the capability to display 1080p or 1080i material at full resolution. It is common for this material to be downscaled to the native capability of the equipment. The term "native 1080p-capable" is sometimes used to refer to equipment capable of rendering 1080p fully.

Contents 1 Production standards 2 Broadcasting standards 3 Availability 3.1 Broadcasts 3.2 Blu-ray Movies 3.3 Internet content 3.4 Consumer televisions and projectors 3.5 Computer monitors 3.6 Video game consoles 4 Ability of the eye to see 1080p 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Production standards

The movie industry has embraced 1080p24 as a digital mastering format in both native 24p form and in 24PsF form. 1080p24 has become an established production standard for digital cinematography and there are plenty of equipment capable of capturing and processing 1080p24 signals. This may be the first universal video standard which transcends continental boundaries, an area previously reserved for 24-frame film.^[3]

For live broadcast applications, a high-definition progressive scan format operating at 1080p at 50 or 60 frames per second is currently being evaluated as a future standard for moving picture acquisition.^[4][5] This format will require a whole new range of studio equipment including cameras, storage, edit and contribution links (such as Dual-link HD-SDI and 3G-SDI) as it has doubled the data rate of current 50 or 60 fields interlaced 1920 × 1080 from 1.485 Gbit/s to nominally 3 Gbit/s. It will improve final pictures because of the benefits of "oversampling" and removal of interlacing artifacts.

[edit] Broadcasting standards

In the United States, ATSC support 1080p video, but only at the frame rates of 24, 25, and 30 frames per second (1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30). The ATSC is considering amending its standard to allow the incorporation of the newer codecs for optional usage as the DVB Project consortium already has done with DVB-S2.^[6] However, doing so is not expected to result in widespread availability of 1080p60 programming, since most of the existing digital receivers in use would only be capable of decoding the older, less-efficient MPEG-2 codec, and bandwidth limitations do not allow for broadcasting two simultaneous streams on the same broadcast channel (e.g. both a 1080i MPEG-2 stream alongside a 1080p MPEG-4 stream).

In Europe, 1080p25 signals have been supported by the DVB suite of broadcasting standards; higher frame rates, such as 1080p50 and 1080p60, have been foreseen as the future broadcasting standard, ^[4] though they require more bandwidth and/or advanced codec such as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. Starting Fall 2009, ETSI and EBU, the maintainers of DVB, will require that DVB-compatible digital receivers feature support for 1080p signals at 50/60 Hz and MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level 4.2 with Scalable Video Coding extensions. ^{[7] [8]} SVC enables forward compatibility with 1080p50 broadcasting for older MPEG-4 AVC receivers, so they will only recognize baseline SVC stream coded at a lower resolution/frame rate and gracefully ignore additional frames, while newer hardware will be able to decode full-resolution 1080p50 signal. EBU recommends that legacy hardware should at least not crash in presence of SVC or 1080p50 (and higher resolution) signals.^[7]

[edit] Availability

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[edit] Broadcasts

In the United States, the ATSC standard allows 1080p24 and 1080p30 video. In practice, 1080p is extremely rare in broadcasting, as all major networks use a 60 Hz format in the MPEG-2 header – either 720p60 or 1080i60, and the consumer televisions do not support codecs needed to support 1080p50 or 1080p60 as of yet.

For material that originated from a 24 frame/s source (such as film), MPEG-2 allows the video to be coded as 1080p24, irrespective of the final output format. The progressively-coded frames are then tagged with metadata (literally, fields of the PICTURE header) instructing a decoder how to perform a 3:2 pulldown to interlace them. While the formal output of the MPEG-2 decoding process from such stations is 1080i60, the actual content is coded as 1080p24 and can be viewed as such. That is to say, twenty-four progressively-coded frames per second are present in the bitstream; it is the decoder that turns them into 60 interlaced fields per second. NBC is known to use this method with some stations.^{[citation needed]}

Even for content that has not been encoded in this fashion, it is still usually possible to extract the original 24 source frames from a 1080i60 broadcast of 24 frame/s material using a process known as inverse telecine, since no information is lost even when the broadcaster (as opposed to the receiver) performs the 3:2 pulldown.^[9]

[edit] Blu-ray Movies

All Blu-ray Discs are able to hold 1080p HD content such as movies. All movies released on Blu-ray can produce a Full 1080p High Definition picture when the Blu-ray Disc Player is connected to a 1080p HDTV with a HDMI cable. However, current specification for BD-video only allows encoding of up to 1080p24 signal.

[edit] Internet content

There has been some content released in the 1080p format on the Internet. Some notable examples include the Apple QuickTime Trailers in the QuickTime HD 720p/1080p format, and the Microsoft WMV HD Content Showcase which offers clips in both 720p and 1080p formats. Another example of 1080p content is the MacBreak 1080p podcast created by Leo Laporte and Alex Lindsay. This podcast is distributed via the BitTorrent method of distribution because of the large file sizes resulting from the high bit-rates. BitTorrent and Newsgroups also contain many 1080p movies which have been copied from Blu-ray Disc or broadcast sources. Often the Internet is the only source for many high definition movies. These are frequently in MKV/WMV format and are difficult for older computers to render smoothly. highdefnow provides examples of the ability to encode in 720p and stream at just 1-2Mbps. Current versions of Adobe Flash player (ver.10) have a poor video buffering display pipeline and are therefore unable to take maximum advantage of this content.

[edit] Consumer televisions and projectors

There is a growing selection of consumer televisions with support for both 1080p inputs and outputs such as HDMI. Several televisions in 2005 offered 1080p, including sets from JVC (using a technology called D-ILA which is a variation of LCoS), Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi, Sony, Panasonic, etc. The 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) introduced 1080p displays from most manufacturers, available in various display technologies. The manufacturers of 1080p TFT LCD screens include Sharp, Samsung, LG and a few others in Asia. Also, 3:2 pulldown reversal (reverse telecine) for film-based 1080i60 signals is beginning to appear in some newer 1080p displays, which can produce a true 1080p quality image from film-based 1080i60 programs. Most companies do not make 1080p TVs smaller than 32 inches, but Vizio has made two 22 inch models sporting the resolution.

The AV equipment manufacturing industry has adopted the term Full HD as the consumer friendly marketing term to mean the set is a safe purchase, and can display all available HD resolutions up to 1080p. The term is misleading, however, since it does not guarantee the set is capable of all available variants of the frame rates for the supported resolutions. Most notably, a Full HD set is not guaranteed to support the 1080p24 format, leading to consumer confusion.

The EICTA (European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations) maintains the HD ready 1080p logo program that requires the certified TV sets to support 1080p24, 1080p50 and 1080p60, without overscan/underscan and picture distortion.

[edit] Computer monitors

Some modern widescreen liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors can natively display 1080p content. Widescreen WUXGA monitors for example support 1920×1200 resolution, which can display a pixel for pixel reproduction of the 1080p (1920×1080) format. The resolution is rare but increasing in popularity amongst laptops in 2009; some laptops have a 15" or a 17" display that run 1920×1200 or 1920x1080. Additionally, many 23, 24 and 27-inch (690 mm) widescreen LCD monitors use 1920×1200 as their native resolution, 30 inch displays can display beyond 1080p at up to 2560x1600 or 1600p. Other 1080p-compatible LCDs, on the other hand, have lower than 1920×1080 native resolution and cannot display 1080p pixel for pixel. The output is resized; and although it may not be noticeable to the viewer, what is seen is a slightly degraded version of the original image.

[edit] Video game consoles

Latest generation video game consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 are able to display 1080p through HDMI ports (HDMI 1.2 and HDMI 1.3a respectively), and through VGA and component connections on Xbox 360. On the Xbox 360, the games that aren't rendered natively at 1080p are upscaled using a built in upscaler, while on the PS3 the developers must ensure upscaling support. On both systems, 1080p games are automatically downscaled to 480i/576i to work on SDTVs, or downscaled to 480p/576p to remain compatible with EDTV screens.

[edit] Ability of the eye to see 1080p

A person's ability to distinguish small details is described by visual acuity. When individual pixels are barely resolvable, increased resolution brings little benefit for the viewer unless the viewing distance can be shortened or the display enlarged. Thus for 1080p television viewing, there is a minimum size to distance ratio to see a significant benefit. The ability of the eye to resolve 1080p content also depends on the amount of contrast in the picture. For optimum viewing, it is recommended to sit at a distance of approximately three times the diagonal measurement of the screen.^[10][11][12]

[edit] See also

• 1080PsF
• High-definition television
• HD Ready 1080p
• Display resolution
• Blu-ray Disc

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 1080p and the Acuity of Human Vision Audioholics Home Theater Magazine. April 2, 2007.
• High Definition 1080p TV: Why You Should Be Concerned. Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. February 28, 2007.
• The Facts and Fiction of 1080p. April 17, 2006.
• High Definition (HD) Image Formats for Television Production (EBU technical publication). December 2004.
• 1080p LCD HDTV Reviews
• OmniBus Systems

v • d • e Digital Video Resolutions Designation Usage Examples Definition (lines) Rate (Hz) Interlaced (fields) Progressive (frames) Low; MP@LL LDTV, VCD 240; 288 (SIF)   24, 30; 25 Standard; MP@ML SDTV, SVCD, DVD, DV 480 (NTSC, PAL-M) 60 24, 30 576 (PAL, SECAM) 50 25 Enhanced EDTV 480; 576   60; 50 High; MP@HL HDTV, BD, HD DVD, HDV 720   24, 30, 60; 25, 50 1080 50, 60 24, 30; 25 This table illustrates total horizontal and vertical pixel resolution via box size. It does not accurately reflect the screen or pixel shape (aspect ratio) of these formats, which is either 4:3, or 16:9.

v • d • e Broadcast video formats   Television Analog 525 lines NTSC · NTSC-J · PAL-M 625 lines PAL · PAL-N/NC · PALplus · SECAM Audio BTSC (MTS) · NICAM-728 · Zweiton (A2 / IGR) · EIAJ · SAP Hidden signals Captioning · Teletext · CGMS-A · GCR · PDC · VBI · VEIL · VITC · WSS · XDS · EPG Defunct systems Pre-1940 · Baird-Nipkow · 180 lines · 405 lines · 441 lines · 819 lines · MAC · MUSE Digital Interlaced SDTV (480i · 576i) · HDTV (1080i) Progressive LDTV (240p · 288p · 1seg) · EDTV (480p · 576p) · HDTV (720p · 1080p) MPEG-2 standards ATSC · DVB · ISDB · DMB-T/H MPEG-4 AVC standards ATSC 2.0 (A/72)  · DMB · DMB-T/H · DVB · SBTVD · 1seg Audio AC-3 (5.1) · MPEG Multichannel · PCM · LPCM · AAC Hidden signals Captioning · Teletext · CPCM · Broadcast flag · AFD · EPG   Digital cinema Super Hi-Vision (2540p · 4320p) · DCI   Technical issues 14:9 compromise · Moving image formats · MPEG transport · Reverse Standards Conversion · Standards conversion · Video processing · Video on demand · HDTV blur