New cartoon resolution

[CaZeek]

I've been going with the commonly accepted "cartoons were produced in less than 352x480, so half D1 is fine for resolution" idea. How about cartoons produced in 2010? Most digital cable / satellite broadcast SD in 720x480. Are new cartoons being produced with that resolution then, and should I really be capping in 720x480? Thoughts appreciated!

[jagabo]

It doesn't matter what resolution they were produced in. What matters is what resolution they're broadcast to you at. Many new cartoons are produced at HD resolutions (South Park for example). If you're receiving a standard definition satellite or cable feed you're getting much less. And of course, many older cartoons were produced on film so the originals are high resolution too.

[CaZeek]

So (in an extreme example), a show was made up of 4 pixels (2x2), if it is broadcast @ 720x480, it will look worse if I cap @ 352x480 vs 720x480?

[jagabo]

Will a HD source downscaled to 720x480 for broadcast look worse when captured at 352x480? Yes, assuming you use enough bitrate to accomodate the 720x480 frame.

[2Bdecided]

I've been going with the commonly accepted "cartoons were produced in less than 352x480, so half D1 is fine for resolution" idea.

This doesn't sound right. What part of a cartoon's production process could cause the resolution to be less than 352 pixels across?

VHS, maybe.
Low quality digital cable with 352 or fewer pixels horizontally, yes.
But all cartoons, properly broadcast or issued on DVD? No way.

In the days of film, the negative was almost always 35mm, which most people will tell you has higher resolution than HD. Whether this is realised is another question (camera focus, film noise, etc etc), but usually there's more details on film than can be reproduced by SD.

I suppose people mean that a simple cartoon, drawn with broad strokes (or however you want to say it) probably has no more information in it than can be represented by 352 pixels - so if you downscaled to 352, and then upscaled with some fancy line-joining artefact-suppressing upscaler, the result would look the same as the original. I suppose this is true quite often, but not always. Depends a lot on the content of the cartoon (1995 Simpsons vs 1940 Tom + Jerry), and the quality of the upscaling.

Cheers,
David.

[jagabo]

I've been going with the commonly accepted "cartoons were produced in less than 352x480, so half D1 is fine for resolution" idea.

This doesn't sound right. What part of a cartoon's production process could cause the resolution to be less than 352 pixels across?

In another thread he mentioned capturing via FIOS. I suggested the digital transmission was likely lower than 720x480.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/326791-Bitrate-720x480-vs-352x480-concept-question?p=2023672