HD and SD compatibility

[theafrican]

Hey guys. I'm from a PAL country (50i is the broadcast standard). I am very interested in HD filming. My question regards HD and SD compatability. If I shot on HD, would it be possible to transmit my material on SD? Also, If I shot with 24p, would it be possible to transmit my material in 50i.
In other words, does a 50i release copy loose the initial, shooting quality?
I would appreciate any reply. Thanks

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, if the primary market is PAL broadcast, then why not shoot 25P HD instead of 24P?

But even if you did shoot 24P HD, it would just be handled like 24 fps film when transferred to PAL -- most likely just sped-up to 25 fps for conversion to 50i. So the problems are more audio-related than picture quality related.

It's called a "downconversion" when you take HD and make SD from it. The only question if you shoot HD (let's say 25P HD), is if you are going to edit in HD first and THEN downconvert a final edited 25P HD master to PAL, or downconvert the camera tapes to PAL and then edit.

In terms of quality, does releasing in PAL 50i make film material look less like film? If you shoot in HD, you retain the film-look of 24 or 25P motion even if you downconvert to PAL; what you're losing is just the HD resolution.