Resolution / High Definition

[saladonyourlincoln]

Pardon my ignorance...trying to pick this up but it does not come easily.

Have been thinking all this time that my maximum resolution I encode my DVDs is 720 x 480 and that first figure (720) is where the 720P comes from when one talks about High Definition.
Is that true or am I full of it. I am assuming that is true which makes me wonder what my resolution would be if I encoded a double-layer DVD...that is if TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0.4.24 can even do that...not sure about that. At any rate, what would be the resolution for double-layer?
Furthermore, is Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD the two formats competing for the 1080P market? I can't even imagine how huge an AVI would have to be to encode a true high-definition movie.
Guess someone in the know could give me a little education on this subject if someone would be so kind.

Thanks

[edDV]

Pardon my ignorance...trying to pick this up but it does not come easily.

Have been thinking all this time that my maximum resolution I encode my DVDs is 720 x 480 and that first figure (720) is where the 720P comes from when one talks about High Definition.
Is that true or am I full of it. I am assuming that is true which makes me wonder what my resolution would be if I encoded a double-layer DVD...that is if TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0.4.24 can even do that...not sure about that. At any rate, what would be the resolution for double-layer?
Furthermore, is Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD the two formats competing for the 1080P market? I can't even imagine how huge an AVI would have to be to encode a true high-definition movie.
Guess someone in the know could give me a little education on this subject if someone would be so kind.

Thanks

DVD, DV and standard def digital broadcasting are 704x480 or 720x480 in NTSC lands or 704/720x576 in PAL areas.

The major supported consumer formats are:

DVD:
see https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

DV Camcorder:
720x480i 29.97fps (720x576i 25fps PAL)

ATSC (DTV) Broadcast:
704x480i 29.97fps
704x480p 29.97fps or 59.94fps
1280x720p 59.94fps (aka 720p)
1920x1080i 29.97fps (aka 1080i)

HDV camcorder:
1280x720p 29.97fps
1440x1080i 29.97fps (playout at 1920x1080i)

HD/BD DVD Movie releases (other formats supported in future)
1920x1080p 24fps (frame repeated in player to 59.94fps)

[saladonyourlincoln]

Thanks...appreciate the response. Can TMPGEnc Xpress do "dual-layer" or higher???

[jagabo]

Can TMPGEnc Xpress do "dual-layer" or higher???

What do you mean? You have more than dual layer DVDs?

[Cornucopia]

You use TMPGEnc Xpress to ENCODE, not author/burn.

You encode to MPEG based on the resolution that is expected, with the (hopefully highest) bitrate available for the medium depending upon the length of the program.

Example:

1 Hour of SD DVD MPEG2 material:

upto 9.8Mbps (might as well max out the disc with best bitrate possible), but could be less.
If you used a DL disc, it would still be 1/2 full (cuz you aren't supposed to go any higher than 9.8Mbps.
Being SD, that's 704x480 or 720x480 (NTSC land) resolutions (for the best resolution quality).

4 Hours of SD DVD MPEG2 material:

~2.48Mbps to fit on a SL (4.37GB) disc.
~4.52Mbps to fit on a DL (7.95GB) disc.

You could fit more time (and/or higher bitrate) SD material if burned to a HD-DVD/BD, but why right now when they're still so expensive?

What about HD material?

1 Hour of HD 720p would probably need to be ~4x the bitrate to be equal in quality for that increased resolution (given the same codec--MPEG2).

So it might be possible to squeeze 15 minutes of BR HD (40Mbps) material on a SL DVD disc (at the same high quality bitrate).
Or 27 minutes on a DL DVD disc.
Now, BR doesn't specifically state that you are even allow to do such a thing.

HD-DVD does seem to allow this, so:

You could squeeze ~20 minutes of HD-DVD (29.4Mbps) material on an SL DVD disc.
Or ~37 minutes on a DL DVD disc.
(Lower bitrates and/or with the other more effecient codecs would allow more time).

BR/HDDVD will most likely use 1080p24 for most of their Hollywood movie releases, but you can user other (lesser) resolutions and other framerates.

More confusing?...

Scott

[jman98]

Pardon my ignorance...trying to pick this up but it does not come easily.

Have been thinking all this time that my maximum resolution I encode my DVDs is 720 x 480 and that first figure (720) is where the 720P comes from when one talks about High Definition.
Is that true or am I full of it.

No one explicitly answered this. It was answered, but perhaps not clearly enough for an unexperienced person to understand. Actually it's the SECOND number, not the first, in a resolution that is referred to when discussing 720p and so on. DVD resolution is 480i or 480p. High definition resolutions are 720p (1280x720) and 1080i/1080p (1920x1080). "i" means interlaced, "p" means progressive.

[saladonyourlincoln]

Thanks jman98...that absolutely cleared up the ambiguity of my question. It's the second number...cool...kinda also gives me the impression that we are trailing far behind in our ability to "make" high-definition DVDs for our own personal use. Again, thanks for the clarification.