What is the resolution of HDTV?
HD has about 5 times the picture information of regular NTSC video, produced on 3 CCD chips with 2.2 million pixels each. The pixel array is 1920 by 1080. This provides an image with such fine detail that many production elements that would be “good enough” for regular video stand out as glaring problems in HD. But this high resolution along with other attributes of HD allows electronic image making of a caliber that could heretofore only be achieved with film. This resolution is better than that with 16mm film, and can surpass 35mm film. Kodak’s own literature contends that an enlargement from a 35mm still image, 24mm x 36mm, 864mm2 or 0.94 x 1.42 inches, is equivalent to an enlargement from a 2048 x 3072 or 6 million pixel Photo CD scan (digital image). However, the 35mm motion picture negative, because it is rotated 90 degrees is about half the size of the still image negative. And on top of that the area of the negative that is scanned for TV transmission is only .594 x .792 inches
