With all the news today from Apple, I think one of the most overlooked announcements was that TV shows are available now in HD. HD is sort of a vague term though and just really means higher resolution (more pixels) than a standard NTSC broadcast. They failed to tell us what resolution the new TV shows are actually provided in. Because the target delivery device for the HD content is the Apple TV and it has been documented to have a hard limit of 1280 x 720, we can assume that the resolution is at least less than or equal to this for the new content. The standard resolutions which are used by broadcasters are:
1080p or 1920 x 1080 (progressive)
1080i or 1920 x 1080 (interlaced, which means only have the picture is displayed at a time)
720p or 1280 x 720
480i/p or 640 x 480 in 4:3 mode or 854 x 480 in 16:9
Anything less than 720p and you really can’t call it HD, it is just “enhanced definition” TV.
Here is a handy chart showing the various resolutions in comparison (taken from Wikipedia).
I pulled some screenshots from my iMac playing back an episode of the office. Here is a comparison between the standard definition and the high definition versions of the same scene. The first shot is the standard definition, and the second is the high definition. Click the thumbnail to view the full-size image.
If you look in iTunes at the info for “The Office” video files, it is reporting that the resolution of the “Standard Definition” version is 853 x 480 (or 480p) and that the resolution of the “High Definition” version is 1280 x 720 (or 720p). You can see some improvement, specifically around the text on the milk carton, but I don’t really see enough to justify the extra $1.00 per episode.
I’d really have liked to see Apple step up and offer content in 1080p. If they are going to lure me away from my DirecTV service and my DVR, they need to offer me something more compelling. I already get my shows in 1080i and will be getting them soon in 1080p form DirecTV. If they had come out and started offering 1080p content I would be buying all my TV shows from iTunes. As it is I can get higher resolution content for an arguably cheaper price from DirecTV service. Until they can get the massive amount of content, all available in 1080i or greater, I think I’ll stick to my current solution.
