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The
TV Camera > Operating Characteristics > Resolution
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High-Medium-Low:
Try to get all three images on your
screen at the same time. Notice the
difference between high resolution
(top); medium resolution (middle);
and low resolution (bottom).
This
illustration sort of approximates
the resolution differences between
DVDs (top); broadcast TV (middle):
and VHS (bottom).
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Next,
we'll look at a number of television camera operating
characteristics. Understanding this stuff will help
you better understand the differences between a good
television picture and a bad one.
RESOLUTION:
The term "resolution" refers to the clarity
or crispness of an image—it is a measure of the
amount of detail that is displayed.
For
example, you know that photos in a magazine are much
sharper (that is, they have more resolution) than photos
in a newspaper.
Television's
resolution is limited by the 525 scan lines inherent
in the system. 525 lines isn't much. American television
is inherently a poor-quality, low-resolution medium.
Every day, we watch television with technology that
was locked into place 50 years ago—and not fundamentally
improved since.
(High
Definition Television--HDTV--increases the number of
scan lines and thus the resolution of the picture, but
very few people gave HDTV sets. And it could be argued
that it will never become mainstream, despite all that
you've heard.)
Even
though today's TVs can potentially display 525 "lines
of resolution," what actually ends up in your home
is much less. This gets kind of technical, but suffice
to say television programs broadcast over-the-air offer
less resolution than your TV is capable of displaying.
VHS videos reproduce even less than that. DVDs come
much closer to the 525 line theoretical limit--which
is why they've become popular.
What
does all this have to do with cameras? Every video camera
has a different ability to capture and reproduce picture
resolution. Typically, professional cameras with larger
chips (CCDs) can capture more detail than consumer cameras
with smaller chips.
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