STATS: HDTV RESOLUTION EXPLAINED

HDTV RESOLUTION EXPLAINED

By David Katzmaier
(September 12, 2006)

Resolution is the main reason why HDTV looks so much better than standard television. On a high-def TV displaying a high-def source, a million or more pixels combine to create images that appear sharper and more realistic than TV ever has before. Resolution isn't the be-all and end-all of picture quality, however, and its numerous, well, numbers, can be incredibly intimidating at first. In this article we'll try to demystify HDTV resolution and help you cut through the hype that surrounds all of those numbers.

YouTube Tests Higher Resolution Videos

Following the announcement from November, YouTube started to test higher quality videos. If you append &fmt=6 to the URL of a YouTube video, you should get better quality videos. Note that this only works for a small number of videos.

Here's an example of video that's available both in the regular version (320x240) and in a higher quality encoding (448x336). The audio is now encoded at a sample rate of 44100 Hz, up from 22050 Hz. As you can see in the screenshots below, the right image is clearer and more detailed.


While this increase of resolution might seem minor, for the example above YouTube's re-encoded FLV file is more than twice bigger than the old one (from 9 MB to 22 MB), so it will load much slower.

If you append &fmt=18, YouTube downloads the video as a MP4 (H264 with AAC audio), encoded at 480x360. Here's the same video encoded as MP4.

Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines

For a complete copy of the guidelines, please click here.

Guideline Overview

Guideline	Recommendation
Ad Counting	Client/Browser-initiated
Buffering & Caching	Measurement Standard = Opportunity to see
Measurable Activity	Includes, but is not limited to: Delivery of a beacon, defined as any piece of content designated as a tracking asset Deliver of a 302 Redirect or html/javascript Delivery of broadband ad content
Reporting	Include disaggregated detail for placement, or range of ad types
Filtration	Strongest possible combination of both specific identification and activity-based filtration
Auditing	Counting methods Processes/controls

Panel Size:

The recommended minimum video panel size should be 300x225, which will allow Broadband Video Commercials to fit into the IAB’s 300x250 standard ad unit (with room for a 25 pixel tall control bar). In terms of other sizes, we recommend either a 4:3 aspect ratio (400x300) or 16:9 aspect ratio (720x480), which follows NCTA guidelines.

Rich Media Guidelines

The Guideline:

For a complete copy of the guidelines, please click this link. 

[PDF] 

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