Choosing between Standard or High Definition

What you should consider:

There are advantages to both standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD). If you want increased contrast range and higher resolution then HD is the answer. This leads to better detail and a more natural appearance. Even though it is smaller, interlaced SD televisions are quickly being phased out in favor of larger, progressive HD flat screens. You will still find SD television sets in most of your parents' homes to watch TV on. They are cheaper, still easy to find new or used, and can have a great picture under the right circumstances. HD sets are more expensive and, generally, do only a poor-to-marginal job of up-converting Standard Definition material.

So which do I choose for my home movies?

One answer would be "whatever you currently have." A better answer would be for you to consider what you may have in the next few years or, in some cases, the next few months. Look in the electronics sections of most stores. You will find that the digital future is hard to ignore. The selection of HD flat screens generally outnumbers tube-type SD sets by a factor of 20:1. On top of that, digital is now mandated by the FCC for all broadcast stations in the United States. If you have your footage scanned to SD, it will be lower resolution and interlaced and will only look correct on an interlaced display, such as an older, SD television set. But if your footage is scanned to High Definition, then you have a choice of progressive HD or interlaced SD because HD footage can always be down-converted to SD in the computer much better than SD can be up-converted to HD during playback on an HD monitor.

The shape of things to come.....

But whether you transfer to either High Definition or Standard Definition, there are some other things to consider. The aspect ratio, that is the "shape", of HD and SD is totally different. SD is 4:3, while HD is 16:9 in proportion. But home movies have a totally different "shape" and it fits neither SD nor HD ideally. And here's the bigger surprise: Even if you project the original film in your living room using Grandpa's old Brownie projector, you STILL don't have a perfect "match" for the original film frame! As seen in example "A", there is considerable cut-off due to the undersized gate on the movie projector. This made production of the projector easier but at the sacrifice of much detail that exists on the outer edges which are never seen. Example "B" shows how much more is revealed in an enlarged gate 4:3 transfer to Standard Definition video.

Example "B" looks pretty good and, if you are going to watch your movies on an older, Standard Definition television, then you certainly want to employ a transfer with an enlarged gate. But guess what? Even example "B" doesn't tell the whole story! As seen in example "C", an HD transfer reveals even more of the image that is lost because of the limited 4:3 aspect ratio inherent in all SD transfers!

Of course, if you do transfer to HD, then you end up with black bars on the left and right sides of the image but the advantage is that you see 100% of the film frame with no information loss. When you consider the added bonus of greater detail and a smoother, more natural image, the advantages of an HD transfer becomes obvious. If the black bars on the left and right bother you, then you can have the 16:9 frame filled by zooming in during transfer as seen in example "D". If so, then remember it is better to cut off people's feet rather than their heads! But the black bars are really the better option due to zero information loss.