Modern Post

Chapter 2.4Digital Video

When digital cameras emerged in the early 1990s, they still recorded to tape in standard definition – as did their analog predecessors – but with no generational loss. While the gauge of tape had narrowed over the years and sensor sizes increased (allowing for greater definition), there was a general lack of interest among mainstream filmmakers due to the limitations of video. A principal drawback was that digital video still produced interlaced images, whereas traditional film was, in the vernacular of digital filmmaking, progressive. Another drawback was that NTSC had inferior chroma sub-sampling as it was developed much earlier than its European counterpart PAL.⁵⁴ Phase Alternating Line is a legacy broadcast standard ...