HD and What It Means To You

There is a revolution going on within the broadcast and video industry. As of this writing congress just signed into law that in 2009 all analog broadcast stations will be required to switch off their analog equipment and use only new digital standard. With the lack b coming of all digital broadcasts an option will be available to the average television viewer, high definition images or HD. For decades television images have been defined by 480 lines of horizontal resolution or SD (standard definition). With the advent broadcasters have the option of broadcasting 1080 lines of resolution or HD also known as 1080i. HD images are also distinguished from traditional SD images by the fact they usually are framed to a 16x9 aspect ratio otherwise known as widescreen. SD has long had a 4x3 aspect ratio. This ultimately requires a viewing area that is wider than the traditional television or bars on the top or bottom of the screen to compensate for a rectangular image being shown in a nearly square box.

What this means to your wedding film: More options to choose from. The first thing to be aware of when it comes to HD video is that it offers a higher quality of detail along with the wider aspect ratio. HD images can be very crisp, clear with a large amount of detail. Increased detail can be a two edge sword, images are more vibrant, more life-like but with more detail the flaws come out. Actors and newscasters can spend hours in makeup hiding blemishes and flaws, the average bride and groom aren't blessed with this opportunity and many grooms we are sure wouldn't wear makeup at their wedding. So be aware, the improved clarity of the HD image may lead you to seeing yourself in an unflattering light.

HD is an improved picture, but garbage in still means garbage out. Video production is so much more than just point and shoot, it is a skill level that is only attained after years of practice and experience. The increased picture quality can accent a videographers lack of experience even worse than the lower quality SD cameras. In the hands of an experienced video professional the standard SD camera can produce a video that is every bit as beautifully produced and treasured as a HD camera. An HD camera in the hands of an inexperienced or incompetent videographers can be the worse thing you have every seen. Don't allow the deciding factor of who you hire for to produce your wedding film.

Many new videographers are entering the market with the latest HD cameras, and marketing not their skill but their equipment, while long time, experienced professionals are holding off for the initial shakeout of the new technology. We at bridal films believe that skill is a far more important factor in the quality of your video production than equipment. Be aware of such tactics.

Your ability to view your wedding film in HD is presently up in the air. As of this writing there is no consumer viable format available to easily view a wedding video in high definition. In April 2006 the first format of a 2 format war will bow to the consumer, HD-DVD. Based on the popular DVD format, HD-DVD will be the first HD product that will be able to store a wedding film. Sometime after the introduction of HD-DVD another disc based format will ship, but it is unclear exactly where, Blue-Ray. In pre-release it appears that Blue-Ray though last to market has the best odds of being a success. But that is far from clear, and it is expected that the consumer is facing a format war not seen since the early 1980's when Beta and VHS faced off for dominance in the market. HD-DVD is said to be bowing at $500 per player while the initial Blue-Ray units will be priced at the $1000 mark. Far higher price points than today's $25 to $200 DVD players. So who will win this format war, is anyone's guess. You may run out and buy one format to be able to view your wedding video on only to find out 5 years from now it's the loosing format, thus leading to another expenditure of having your videographer encode the wedding to fit the victorious format.

There is also the issue of if the present HD formats, available to wedding and event videographers is all it's really cut up to be. Presently the majority of manufacturers are promoting a format called HDV to wedding and event videographers. This is a highly compressed format that actually drops the HD line resolution of 1080 down to somewhere around 800 in order to store it on small cartridges, so while it has a higher resolution than existing SD, it is not quite up to what the HD resolution is considered. This high compression level is causing in the first generation of HD cameras image problems, especially when the camera moves on a horizontal axis, a common move in wedding film production. If the videographer is not a skilled one who is experienced in compensating for this deficiency in the format, your wedding film may not be all you want it to be.

Finally on the negative side of HD is that the present generation of HD cameras require more light than their SD cousins. For years the one major complaint about wedding film production has been the bright lights required for decades by the cameras in order to produce a quality pictures. Over the past decade the technology for SD cameras has advanced to the point where light requirement is no longer a major factor. Brides and grooms have come to expect dim lights that aren't intrusive on their event. The first generation of HD cameras take a step back from this are are much more light hungry than existing SD cameras, so brighter lights are required to produce images that are of the same quality of the modern traditional cameras.

On the positive side HD wedding and event video production will produce for you a more vibrant, detailed image than has been available before. And it may just be the future of video production. But presently we are recommending that you be educated to the options out there, standard definition video production is far from dead and it is not known if HD will be as successful as some are predicting. The government is not requiring broadcasters to deliver content in HD, they are only required to deliver content in digital format, HD is an option only. Expect to pay more for HD production than you would a traditional wedding film.