I read the upgrades to iLife with interest because at that price, I'm happy to buy once a year! (ah if the same pricing related to the OS...)
The HD capability is obviously North American and I am finding it difficult to translate in Eurospeak. Can someone help out? Here is the current situation:
- In ye olde worlde, 16x9 (widescreen) TVs are now probably 90% of sales. roughly half the broadcast are in analogue and half in digital, but in both cases the picture is as per the old TV standard (i.e. PAL/SECAM as opposed to US/CAN NTSC). This gives a definition of 625 lines. Pretty good, which explains why HD is not seen as urgent here.
- Most camcorders have the option to shoot in 16x9 although it is usually via cropping the picture, therefore quality loss. Native 16x9 camcorders are starting to be released. As far as I know there is no such thing as a HD camcorder in Europe.
- The current iMovie can deal with 16x9 (I think), but iDVD can't
SO:
Will the new iLife suite be completely compatible with 16x9 in PAL/SECAM/NTSC or will this be reserved for the HD format?
Is there anything else I should know?
Couldn't find anything on Apple site or discussions...
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From what I've read the new iMovie HD and iDVD 5 both support 16:9 Ratio natively now. Also, currently there are only 2 Prosumer HD DV Video Cams on th market. One by Sony and one by Panasonic but more are due this year. Not sure what's available in Europe though.
From what I've read the new iMovie HD and iDVD 5 both support 16:9 Ratio natively now.
That's right. And anyway, standard DVD (regardless of region coding) is MPEG2 and is at 480p resolution. HD is 720i or 1080i, so until you have a DVD player that plays in HD resolution, it will be upconverted to match the resolution of your screen.
I have a Panasonic 3CCD camcorder that shoots 480p in native widescreen and I will definitely benefit from this software upgrade.
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iMovie, iDVD, FCE, FCPro and DVD Studio Pro all support PAL and NTSC. There is also some support for SECAM.
PAL/SECAM and NTSC are essentially just a result of the AC power frequency (50Hz or 60Hz) which affected the amount of signal that could be broadcast per scan when TV first came out. It's not really related to which is older or newer; you can send more information 25 times a second than you can 30 times a second.
So, a very quick way to determine which format is required is to look at the local power frequency. SECAM is found where France was a colonial power 50 years ago if the local grid was also 50Hz; and the USSR adopted it as well (probably they licensed the technology for manufacture in Russia, a pretty common practice. Ever notice how a Lada looks like a 1974 Fiat 128? Well, that's what it is; the Russians bought a Fiat factory).
Last edited by gordguide; Jan 21st, 2005 at 12:42 PM.
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