Television resolution?

[The Mad Monk]

What is the equivalent resolution of standard 4:3 American broadcast television?

I just set up my computer for recording tv, and while I want to have the best resolution possible, I don't want to waste space on non-existant detail.

My current setting is 720 x 480, which easily burns three gigs an hour.

[FrostyBoy]

Standard is 340x480 if I can recall correctly.

but digital T.Vs are a different story.

[The Mad Monk]

Okay, thanks!

[VetLegion]

Nope, standard is somwhere around ~700 x 500, so your first figure is more likely to be correct.

[DanS]

640x480
29.97 frames per second

[Edan]

From my understanding, "resolution" isn't exactly the appropriate measure for TV, but broadcast quality is approximately ~640x480. However, what you end up recording will be slightl less than that because of signal degradation.

For the sake of comparison, the resolution of VHS video is about half of broadcast quality.

[Nostromo]

Talk about consensus...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution

According to Wikipedia:

The display resolution of a digital television or computer display is the number of pixels (or maximal image resolution) that can be displayed on the screen, usually given as a product of the number of columns (horizontal, "X") is always stated first and the number or rows (vertical, "Y") make up the aspect ratio.

For analog TV sets, the horizontal resolution is related to the bandwidth of the luminance signal, and is stated in "lines", as the largest number of alternating vertical black and white stripes that can be displayed across the width of the picture without them merging together. Sometimes, the lines are counted across a width equal to the height of the picture, rather than across the full width of the picture. This gives rise to two different measures of horizontal resolution, which can lead to confusion. The vertical resolution, as with digital displays, is the number of horizontal lines in the picture.

To answer your question:

NTSC: 720×480 (3:2, though non-square pixels mean image dimensions are the usual 4:3)

NTSC VHS: 320×482 (approx.)

[DanS]

I don't think that Wikipedia article is correct, or at least doesn't tell the whole story. The NTSC that a DVD player uses is indeed 720x480. However, the resolution broadcast is 640x480.

[Kaak]

yeah, dan is right, 640x480

[SpencerH]

DanS is correct for NTSC. PAL is more like 720 X 480, which is why european TV's look so much better.

[Paul]

PAL is 720x576 and NTSC is 720x480 for DVD and also for most standard defintion digital television channels although some channels use lower horizontal resolution. HDTV of course has a higher resolution: 1920x1080 or 1280x720.

[SpencerH]

We're not discussing a DVD signal. We're discussing an analog TV signal in the USA. That signal is not 720x480 (or 525 lines, the NTSC "standard") and thats why it looks pixilated after being digitized by some PVR's (such as the MOXI box) at higher resolutions than it is transmitted while digital signals look perfect.

[FrostyBoy]

Yeah, thats what I was thinking too SpencerH.

Mad Monk said standard, so I instantly thought of that lower resolution (TV resolution IS lower than a monitors lowest resolution (640x480).

[DanS]

and NTSC is 720x480 for DVD and also for most standard defintion digital television channels although some channels use lower horizontal resolution

The resolution for broadcast is 640x480 no matter whether it's standard definition digital (ATSC SDTV) or analog (NTSC).

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by DanS


The resolution for broadcast is 640x480 no matter whether it's standard definition digital (ATSC SDTV) or analog (NTSC).

Again correct. You are my TV god.

With further research, the moxi pixilation problem has to do with how the box (poorly) converts analog signals to digital itself and is not a resolution difference comparing standard analog to standard digital.