Video Production Editing: What You Need To Know About Your HD Camera

In this article, you will wait for an explanation about the following characteristics of an HD camera:

• What is interlaced / progressive?
• What are SD, HD, PAL, NTSC?
• What are DV, DVCAM, HDV, DVCPRO?
• What is Y: Cb: Cr for?
• What is the difference between CCD and CMOS?
• What is 4: 3/16: 9?
• What is there to know about lenses?
• What are the audio inputs?
• What are the inputs / outputs?

It seems like we have a lot to cover, we should start now!

When you start your own video production, one of the most critical equipment you will have to invest in is an HD (high definition) camera. This article looks at the things you will want to consider before buying or if you have already purchased one this should guide you to learn more about your equipment. While you’re in post-production, it’s quite frustrating to find that your recordings don’t turn out as well as expected. Sometimes the frames are bigger, the color is not that intense, the color key is not that smooth, and many different things that you have no idea about. Finally, after arguing and blaming your video editor, you came to the conclusion that the camera was the culprit! It just overlooked some of the critical features of your camera. Let’s discuss them here one by one.

Interlaced or progressive

Interlaced and Progressive simply tells you how the image is updated on the screen. Progressive is easier to understand, one frame follows another, that’s it! But with interlacing, the frame comes in parts. Imagine the cathode ray scanning the screen line by line. In progressive, the lines are made sequentially without jumps. It’s not a lot of hard work, but a Russian inventor discovered a way to skip the odd and even lines without much loss of quality, thereby cutting bandwidth in half. The downside, of course, is the flickering you see on your standard TV. Go ahead, look closely at your TV screens and you will notice two bands. This is how interlacing works.

So you will see 1080p, 720p, 576i on your HD camera. But you might ask what the numbers mean. 1080, 720 and much more variation in different cameras, represent the vertical scan lines. So if you see 1080p, it means the camera will record in progressive mode with 1080 vertical scan lines. And the higher the scan lines, the higher quality you can capture for editing purposes.

Many HD cameras have different modes. So when buying one, consider which mode would go well with your projects.

SD, HD, NTSC, PAL

SD stands for Standard Definition, an old video display, storage and transmission system when color television was introduced. It has a 4: 3 aspect ratio and 480 interlaced scan lines. This is pretty much the lowest you can go in terms of quality, anything lower than this would probably be better on a computer screen than a TV.

HD stands for high definition, any video that is higher resolution than SD is considered HD, but the most common you will see are 1280x720px (720i) or 1920x1080px (1080i / 1080p) in a 16: 9 aspect ratio. they use in film making and also makes a difference in editing. You will most likely notice, just by looking at the quality, whether the footage was shot on an SD or HD camera.

NTSC stands for National Television System Committee which runs at a frame rate of 30 fps (frames per second) or 29.97 fps to be exact. This is widely used in Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Burma, and some Pacific islands.

PAL stands for Phase Alternating Line which runs at a frame rate of 25 fps and is more widely used worldwide than NTSC.

SD and HD are more concerned with single frame quality, as HD has more pixels to store compared to SD, while NTSC and PAL are more concerned with frame fluency, as the more frames there are, the more fluent is the video would look like. But in NTSC and PAL, you only have to worry about the country in which it is used and not about the other details. There is not much difference in frame rate anyway, so no one will see the difference. However, PAL is more superior as it answers most of the problems that NTSC has.

DV, HDV, DVCAM, DVCPRO

DV stands for Digital Video, a type of video recording system that works using digital video signal instead of analog. This has become the standard for home and semi-professional users, as well as independent filmmakers due to its quality compared to analog.

HDV stands for High-Definition Video, a type of video recording and playback. It is much higher than DV which is at 480i, making it acceptable for professional editing production. The two main versions of HDV are HDV 720p and HDV 1080i.

DVCAM stands for Digital Video Camera, a professional variation of DV that is 50% faster with a 50% wider track, reducing the chances of dropout errors. One of the characteristics of this format is its ability to block audio. You will notice that recording DV in multiple generations will cause the audio to be out of sync, in DVCAM this does not happen.

DVCPRO stands for Digital Video Cassette Professional, developed by Panasonic specifically for Electronic News Gathering. It has a larger track compared to DVCAM and uses a different type of tape.

All of these are video recording system formats. From DV, it evolved into a more sophisticated system that provides higher quality. If you are considering covering parties or making an independent film on a budget, you can go for DV. It is acceptable in terms of quality and price range. But for professional production, the format starts in HDV up to DVCPRO. You will need it for broadcast quality output such as television, commercials, and probably to cover large events that have high quality standard requirements.

Y: Cb: Cr

Sometimes you will see numbers that look something like 4: 2: 2, 4: 1: 1, or 4: 2: 0 in specifications. This tells us how much color information is stored during recording. Y is for luminance (brightness), Cb is for blue minus luma (BY) and Cr is for red minus luma (RY)

• 4: 2: 0 sampling is for DV and DVCAM (PAL)
• 4: 1.1 sampling is for DVCPRO25 and DVCAM (NTSC)
• 4: 2: 2 sampling is for DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO HD

Consider 4: 2: 2 sampling if you are composing, making realistic graphics and effects. It has the highest color information compared to the others. This also explains why DV formats are more difficult to remove on green / blue screens. It is because there is not enough color information to work.

CCD and CMOS

CCD stands for Charged Coupled Devices, it converts light into electrical signals. Most consumer cameras have a single chip or 1CCD. But professional cameras have 3CCDs, one chip for each color: red, green, and blue. And when it comes to CCDs, the bigger the better, there are 1/4-inch, 1/3-inch and 2/3-inch CCDs. Even with the same number of pixels, larger CCDs always result in better images.

CMOS stands for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, it is an alternative to CCD. They allow for more individual light sensors, offer a wider dynamic light range, and are less susceptible to vertical smudging (it is the vertical lines that appear when a camera is pointed at a light source).

Basically, the above determine the richness of the light that enters. You may want to consider purchasing a 3CCD or CMOS camera for a more professional look.

4: 3 or 16: 9

These are the most commonly used pixel aspect ratios. Although there are other ratios as well in the early days of video production, these two almost became the standards.

4: 3 gold Academy ratio is used in SD and standard televisions, while 16: 9 or Wide screen it is the international standard format for HDTV.

When choosing an aspect ratio, consider which screen the video will play on. Professional cameras have these two modes, so you can switch between the two, but widescreen has been mainly used today as LCD screens and televisions have also switched to widescreen.

Lens

There is no one-size-fits-all lens. Most professional videographers use a telephoto lens and a very wide lens. However, consumer cameras do not have this option as their lenses are built in so they do not zoom wide enough, although there are wide angle adapters available.

To be safe, check how your lenses perform at the extremes. As you zoom out, you may notice a sweep (verticals become curved at the sides) or vignettes (corners become darker). You can tell the lens is good if you minimize these characteristics.

Audio input

Let me guide you first on the types of audio inputs on video cameras. First we have the “minis”, the ones you see on your iPods. These are also called TRS (Tip, Ring and Sleeve), derived from their conductive parts. They come in mono and stereo with sizes like 2.5mm, 3.5mm, and 6.3mm. All video cameras must have at least this type of audio input. Second, we have the RCA (Radio Corporation of America) audio inputs, the ones you see on the back of your TV, and the VCR in red, white, or black most of the time. Third, the XLR plugs, these are the ones you see when you have a handheld microphone disconnecting from its cable. Do you see the bottom of the mic after unplugging it? This is how it looks on your camera. These are the ones used by professionals.

When you buy a camera, you always have a built-in microphone. But it’s omni-directional, or it can pick up all the surrounding sounds, even the ones you don’t like, like background noises. Therefore, you may want to buy professional microphones. And these mics have either stereo TRS connectors (that is, lapels or lapels) or XLR plugs (that is, shotgun type microphones). So it is better to have an HD camera that is capable of handling this audio equipment because you will need it.

Input and output

We have Component, RCA Phono, S-Video or FireWire. When editing, you will most likely need FireWire, but today most HD cameras have it so you don’t need to worry. Other inputs and outputs are analog, so don’t worry about this unless you want to show all of your raw footage directly to a TV or while covering an event. FireWire becomes really useful when editing on the spot, as it can be plugged directly into your laptop, assuming you have a FireWire input. You can also save your edited video to DV tape using FireWire.

And there you have it. I hope the next time you walk into a store looking for an HD camera, you will not be confused by the specifications and have more confidence in the purchase. Come visit me on my blog to learn more about video production editing as I discuss these things in detail.