Choosing Between HD and SD Video Mixers

By Peter Cervieri in Strategy.

I’ve been working with John Stapsy, Managing Director of Datavideo Americas, to help small to mid-size production teams decide whether they should buy a Standard Definition video switcher or make the move to High Definition.

Video Switchers – What to buy in an uncertain economy

In planning equipment purchases for your company’s future, it is worth understanding how today’s uncertain economy is influencing your company’s budget. We suggest that you are cognizant of your company’s financial situation and take the initiative to open a dialog with the gatekeepers of your budget.

Inform them of your current and future needs as well as the factors that go into your decision making process. With the best interests of the company in mind, define for them the current essential and future costs that invariably come with needed upgrades and replacements.

THE CASE FOR BUYING HD NOW

There’s no doubt that HD is appealing. Pick up any production magazine and people are talking about the future of HD and beyond. Remember, though, you should focus on what you need to do the job today and tomorrow. HD adds cost and complexity, and if you’re not going to take advantage of the benefits today, why incur the cost today?

Alternatively, buy equipment that allows you to make the transition over time. For example, the Datavideo SE-1000 video mixer allows for both HD and SD production. So you can buy the mixer now, even with your current SD infrastructure, and then upgrade the cameras, cables, and storage when you do finally need to shoot in HD.

This would be a good hedge if you are not sure whether you may or may not have your first HD production in the near future. The HS-1000 Mobile Studio helps production companies transition from SD to HD as it can handle both environments.

Every production has to balance time, cost and available resources. So if considering new HD equipment, weigh the additional production costs you will incur for the current production with your company’s longer-term goals.

So what are the advantages of HD?

HD is captured at a higher resolution (larger image size-more data) than SD and therefore can be projected on HD televisions and HD projectors with more clarity. If you are, for example, projecting your live multi-camera production in a conference hall, using a high-resolution projector, an HD image will be sharper than an SD image.

Shooting in HD also provides flexibility, even when your initial output may be SD.

Producing in HD maximizes your delivery options. You can always down-convert. It’s much harder to up-convert. And in the future, the material you archive today will be the highest format available today.

Image quality depends on more than just HD or SD format.

Many consider an HD image as better quality than an SD image. This is not necessarily true. It really depends on the quality of the equipment and crew.

Image quality (exposure, color, image sharpness) depends on the mechanics of the individual piece of equipment (lenses, chips, connectors and recording formats), the proficiency of the personnel, and the conditions when capturing the image. An HD image is not always better than an SD alternative. There are SD cameras with great chips and lenses that produce, in the hands of a skilled shooter and lighting team, beautiful images in competition with many HD cameras operated by a less skilled shooter and lighting team.

Mixing SD and HD in the same production

An HD camera and an SD camera in the same production will look even more different than two SD cameras that can not be matched. The SD must be scaled up or given borders. Or, the HD must be cropped or scaled down and given borders.

HD Cost

The most significant downside to HD is the cost, and the cost is more than money. With HD, there is more required storage space than SD. For example, 1 hour of SD content will take up 12 Gigs of your 1 Terabyte hard drive, whereas 1 hour of 1080i HD content can consume up to 30 Gigs of capacity. That additional data also translates into additional capture, processing, edit, render and output time.

HD is changing - 1080i or 1080p

Today (Jan, 2009) most live event HD switchers are 1080i. We’re starting to see 1080p cameras and 1080p NLE’s. 1080p switchers require twice the processing power of 1080i switchers. This means that at today’s prices, the 1080p internal processers are twice as expensive for the same features. However, in 12 months it should be about the same price as the one for 1080i today. Do you need 1080p, will you use 1080p, should you wait, should you buy HD now and have both 1080i and 1080p?

How solid is your budget?

We’ve also spoken to quite a few people from government, corporate and church AV teams who have budgets to spend now and are concerned that those budgets may not be available in the future.

Making premature HD purchases in reaction to potential budget cuts may not serve you well in the long run, especially when the money could be better spent elsewhere in the company. If you are in this position, discuss your concerns with the gatekeepers of your budget. Propose not spending this year’s budget in full, thereby saving the company money in the short term and delaying your HD purchases until the equipment costs have come down.

In overall cost considerations, take into account the amount of time it takes your team to master the HD workflow (a positive in learning new information and negative in taking more time to complete the project), as well as the marketing value of having HD capabilities (a major positive, as many prospective customers perceive HD as a high-end level of production).

THE CASE FOR BUYING SD NOW

SD is common and the cost/value ratio is high.

Most current methods of distribution result in compressing HD video down to SD (web, SD TV, DVD). Rarely is distribution HD. Home DVD players, which enjoy wide distribution, can only play SD. Blu-Ray players can play HD but they are in few homes AND the cost to produce them for anyone but a big production studio is more expensive than producing DVDs.

In web delivery, compression is often more significant. While HD can be displayed on the web, common aspect ratios of online video are 640×480 or lower to expedite download and facilitate smooth playback. Online video platform companies such as Vimeo, Brightcove, Blip and Youtube are only now starting to offer HD streaming to customers, typically as a pay for service. In-house corporate intranets face the same speed / data volume issues.

Many HD cameras also have SD shooting capabilities. If you already have an HD camera, you may use the SD settings in the camera to speed the production process. You can shoot in HD for the NLE edit situations.

The argument for SD: Cost

Standard definition video prices are becoming market driven rather than technology driven. Many SD cameras shoot at 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen), such as the Canon XL-2 or the Panasonic DVX-100B, while offering high quality images very sufficient for webcast, SD broadcast, or DVD.

Hands down, SD production equipment is less expensive and will continue to be an even better value until HD production equipment, distribution and viewing solutions (such as Blu-Ray players) come down in price and enjoy wider adoption.

The Datavideo SE-900 switcher or MS-900 mobile studio is an affordable and very productive answer for those not quite ready for HD. It has eight SD inputs configurable to use any of the SD formats DV, Composite, Component, S video or SDI. It has multi view output, a multiple input chromakey and it works with Datavideo’s Character generators and intercom/ tally light combinations. The Mobile Studio version is compact and very portable.

How does Datavideo fit in all of this?

Datavideo makes SD and HD switchers and related hardware. Its product development and marketing philosophy takes into account that technology continues to improve and the cost of technology continues to decrease over time.

Each new product is packed with the maximum value Datavideo can give, knowing what chips and components are in the marketplace and what’s coming. Its definition of value is more quality, more reliability and more features than you would expect for the price.

Datavideo manufactures its own products. Product designs are the result of collaboration between our engineers, marketing sales people and video producers from different countries and different market segments. A church producer needs different things from the NASA engineer who tracks astronaut training sessions, school children need something else and so do corporate producers and university producers. Every Datavideo product is optimized for user needs with the best blend of technology and features at an affordable price.

Peter Cervieri is a ScribeLabs Co-Founder and Director of Business Development for all things ScribeHQ.

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