Digital Video Formats

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EBU Recommendation Video Formats / TV Formats

The EBU (European Broadcast Union) recommends the following syntax for video formats, used in Europe:

1) vertical resolution (active lines)
2) indication interlaced / progresive (i or p)
3) frame rate

Here a discrepancy in the frame rate exists: if one follows the EBU recommendation, the format 1080i/50 would be called 1080i/25 !

Format	EBU Term	HD / SD	Active Lines	Interlaced / Progressive	Active Image Format	Number of Frames	Number of 'Half' Frames
576i/50	576i/25	SD	576	interlaced	720 x 576	25 full frames	50 interlaced 'half' frames
1080i/50	1080i/25	HD	1080	interlaced	1920 x 1080	25 full frames	50 interlaced 'half' frames
720p/50	720p/50	HD	720	progressive	1280 x 720	50 full frames	-
1080p/24	1080p/24	HD	1080	progressive	1920 x 1080	24 full frames ('movie' format)	-
1080p/25	1080p/25	HD	1080	progressive	1920 x 1080	25 full frames)	-
1080p/50	1080p/50	HD	1080	progressive	1920 x 1080	50 full frames)	-

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HD Video Formats

HDV
Developed from Sony and JVC, tape based format on standard DV cassette, entry level, low cost operation, MPEG-2 compression, data rates 19Mbps (720p), 25Mbps (1080i), 4:2:0
HDV1: 1280 x 720p, frame rates 25p, 50p, 30p, 60p, 24p
HDV2: 1440 x 1080i, frame rates 25i, 50i, 30i, 60i

XDCAM EX
Developed by Sony, tapeless format, MPEG-2 data compression, entry level for tapeless recording, media: SxS PRO memory card,1080 or 720. Recording medium: professional optical disc recording media is a 12cm (5 inch) single-sided, rewritable optical disc with a capacity of 50GB or SxS memory card. A 16GB SxS records approximately one hour of video in the format XDCAM EX, card data transfer up to 800 Mbps.

XDCAM HD mpeg HD
Developed by Sony, tapeless format, MPEG-2 data compression, 1080, recording rates: 18Mbps, 25Mbps, 35Mbps, up to 50Gb dual layer professional disk, all-digital, file-based workflow from video acquisition through editing. Recording medium: professional optical disc recording media is a 12cm (5 inch) single-sided, rewritable optical disc with a capacity of 50GB or SxS memory card.

XDCAM HD mpeg HD422
Developed by Sony, tapeless format, MPEG-2 data compression, top range of XDCAM, up to 50Mbps, 1920x1080 resolution, 14 bit AD conversion, 4:2:2 recording

DVCPRO HD
Format developed by Panasonic, tape based, also called D7-HD, same tape as used for DVCAM and DVCPRO, formats: 720/60p, 1080/60i, 1080/24p in development, compression rate 6.7:1, 10-bit, 8 audio channels

D5 HD
Format developed by Panasonic, tape based, 720/60p, 1080/24p, 1080/60i and 1080/30p, compression rates 4:1 in 8-bit mode and 5:1 in 10-bit mode, 8 audio channels

AVCHD
'Advanced Video Codec High Definition', developed by Panasonic and Sony for consumer camcorders using highly efficient codec technologies, formats 1080i and 720p, recording on SD Memory Card or Harddisk, MPEG4-AVC (H.264) video compression at a maximum of 24 Mbps, audio stream as AC-3, no uncompressed linear PCM audio is supported, video, audio, subtitles and ancillary streams are multiplexed together into an MPEG-2 transport stream that is stored as binary files.
pixel formats: 1920x1080i, 1440x1080i, 1280x720p, 720x480i, 720x576i, compression format: MPAG-4 AVC / H.264. The recorded format of 1440×1080 is upsampled to 1920×1080.

HDCAM
Developed by Sony and introduced in 1997, tape based format, high quality professional broadcast recording format, HDCAM is the HD version of Digital Betacam, 24PsF, 25PsF, 50i and 60i. The recorded format of 1440×1080 is upsampled to 1920×1080. The bit rate is 144 Mbps

HDCAM SR
Developed by Sony and introduced in 2003, tape based format, top professional broadcast recording format used by most top broadcast facilities, defined in the standard SMPTE 409M-2005, 4:4:4 recording, bit rate of up to 880Mbps, 12 uncompressed audio tracks uncompressed at 24bit 48kHz,