Standard Definition video is the old 20th century standard of 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high, which means it divides the picture into 480 horizontal lines. High Definition video divides the picture into either 720 lines or 1080 lines, and therefore offers up to twice the resolution, or detail in the picture. NOTE: ALL examples below are shown at HALF of their ACTUAL size for your convenience. |
| Currently there are two kinds of consumer-level High Definition. The most common is 1280x720 pixels which is used by many Hi-Def cameras and newer devices such as the iPhone 4. |
| The highest current consumer resolution is 1920x1080 pixels, which is the new Blu-Ray Disc standard. |
| Below is the Standard 640x480 image blown up to the same vertical size. Note that Standard Definition picture is 4 units wide by 3 units high, but High Definition is 16 by 9, which makes it Widescreen. This is not a true representation however as this image was originally shot at 1080, not 480, so it looks much better than it actually would. Still, you can see the obvious loss in detail and screen width. |
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