# 720P or 1080p? which gives better resolution output?



## brai (Jun 11, 2013)

hi, i just bought an EOS 600D which according to Canon friends does well with video. i'd like to know the real difference between a 720p and 1080p output via Adobe Premiere for editing?

the video is planned for a student classroom viewing on a wide 40-inch plasma tv. i like to create a clear 10-minute documentary. 

please advise. thanks!


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## joema (Jun 11, 2013)

1080p is 1920 x 1080 at 30 frames per sec (rounded off), 720p is 1280 x 720 @ 60 frames/sec.

The TV networks ABC, FOX, ESPN and A&E use only 720p/60. Most others use 1080/30. So both 1080/30 and 720p/60 are truly HD and both part of the ATSC HD standard.

1080p/30 gives higher static resolution but lower temporal resolution. At certain rates of camera or subject motion, the effective resolution of 1080p/30 will drop below 720p/60.

In general I'd suggest using 1080p/30, and create the Premiere Project for that resolution and frame rate. For brief slow motion sequences use 720p/60, which plays smoothly at 1/2 speed. You can drop 720p material into a Premiere 1080p project. You can intercut between the two types although each 720p clip will require upscaling, else it will look slightly window boxed.

On many DSLR cameras aliasing (the stair-step jaggy effect on straight lines) is worse at 720p, so that's another reason to prefer 1080p unless otherwise needed.

Once the project is finished you can render the output at whatever resolution you want. E.g, for Youtube H.264 at 720p/30 is much more time and space efficient than 1080p/30.

For playing the video in a classroom you can render an MP4 file at 1080p/30 and play from a laptop or other device. However at the typical classroom viewing distance it's unlikely they could see the difference between 720p and 1080p, or maybe not even DVD at 480p.

If you have Premiere Pro and ability to burn a Blu-Ray and the classroom has a player you can burn a Blu-Ray disc.


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## brai (Jun 11, 2013)

Very informative! Thank you so much for the info, Joema! 




joema said:


> 1080p is 1920 x 1080 at 30 frames per sec (rounded off), 720p is 1280 x 720 @ 60 frames/sec.
> 
> The TV networks ABC, FOX, ESPN and A&E use only 720p/60. Most others use 1080/30. So both 1080/30 and 720p/60 are truly HD and both part of the ATSC HD standard.
> 
> ...


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## thepancakeman (Jun 11, 2013)

joema said:


> 1080p/30 gives higher static resolution but lower temporal resolution. At certain rates of camera or subject motion, the effective resolution of 1080p/30 will drop below 720p/60.



Is this due to rolling shutter, or something else?


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## jeff92k7 (Jun 11, 2013)

joema said:


> The TV networks ABC, FOX, ESPN and A&E use only 720p/60. Most others use 1080/30. So both 1080/30 and 720p/60 are truly HD and both part of the ATSC HD standard.



Correction: 1080i60 and 720p60 are both part of the ATSC standard. There is no 1080p format in the ATSC standard.

If outputting to 1080i60 (blu-ray or ATSC broadcast), then film in 1080p30. That will perfectly interlace into 1080i60 which will then be later deinterlaced on the display back into 1080p30. Your net result is the same. Its really just semantics at that point.

However, many TV shows and nearly all films are shot at 24p (24 full frames per second) and then converted to 720p60 or 1080i60 for ATSC broadcast. If you want the final result to have identical cadence to most top TV shows and hollywood films, then film it at 1080p24 and output to 1080p24 on a Blu-ray disc (1080p24 is part of the Bu-ray spec). Even if the final TV doesn't show true 24p content, it will still have the same cadence of the TV shows/movies on the same TV.

All acronyms aside, shoot in whatever works best for your intended viewing experience. I tend to shoot almost all my videos in 1080p30 since they will either be output to web or shown on other computer devices. It also will interlace to 1080i60 just fine, as I mentioned above, in case of the need to show in an ATSC compatible format. If my videos were intended for theatrical release, then I would shoot in 24p. The goal is to avoid as many frame rate and resolution conversions as possible from start to finish. If you can shoot, edit, and render all in the frame rate and resolution of your final display device, then that is ideal.


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## jeff92k7 (Jun 11, 2013)

thepancakeman said:


> joema said:
> 
> 
> > 1080p/30 gives higher static resolution but lower temporal resolution. At certain rates of camera or subject motion, the effective resolution of 1080p/30 will drop below 720p/60.
> ...



Fast motion. Rolling shutter becomes visible with fast motion, but the temporal resolution doesn't really have anything to do with rolling shutters.

For typical results, you shoot with a shutter speed of double your frame rate. For 30p, you use a 1/60 shutter speed. For 60p, you would use a 1/120 (1/125 is close enough with DSLRs) shutter speed. The faster shutter speed gives a clearer image with fast moving subjects and thus provides a higher perceived resolution.

1080i60 (1080p30) still has higher resolution, but you lose details in fast moving content due to the motion blur of the slower shutter speed.


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## brai (Jun 11, 2013)

By the way, I'm just using a normal 55mm lens for my video. While I pan in the forest, it's blurry. Is it the lens or shutter speed that I should use/change? Does that have to do anything with my setting of 720p?


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## jeff92k7 (Jun 11, 2013)

brai said:


> By the way, I'm just using a normal 55mm lens for my video. While I pan in the forest, it's blurry. Is it the lens or shutter speed that I should use/change? Does that have to do anything with my setting of 720p?



Depends on a lot of things: Is your aperture narrow enough to keep a deep depth of field? Is your shutter speed 1/125 or higher? Is the lens focused properly? Is the lens a good quality lens? And perhaps most importantly... How fast are you panning?

With settings of say, f16, 1/125, properly set focus, and a slow pan speed, the shot should come out pretty sharp. Of course, this all assumes bright sunlight or adequate light. If you're in a dark forest, then jacking up the ISO too high can introduce softness.

Also, what picture style are you using? If using Neutral (recommended), then there is no in-camera sharpening being applied. You need to add sharpening in post production.

720p really has almost nothing to do with a blurry shot.


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## brai (Jun 11, 2013)

Oh i see no wonder! Yes, it was it neutral. Thanks so much again for the tips! I will now try the f16, 1/125 settings! 





jeff92k7 said:


> brai said:
> 
> 
> > By the way, I'm just using a normal 55mm lens for my video. While I pan in the forest, it's blurry. Is it the lens or shutter speed that I should use/change? Does that have to do anything with my setting of 720p?
> ...


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## LetTheRightLensIn (Jun 11, 2013)

brai said:


> hi, i just bought an EOS 600D which according to Canon friends does well with video. i'd like to know the real difference between a 720p and 1080p output via Adobe Premiere for editing?
> 
> the video is planned for a student classroom viewing on a wide 40-inch plasma tv. i like to create a clear 10-minute documentary.
> 
> please advise. thanks!



1920x1080 IF the TV handles it, some 40" plasma sets are likely only 1280x720 though. See what the sets specs are. Maybe it is full 1080 but it very well might be 720. I know a lot of makers had been pumping out the sub 46" sets mostly as lower end models and many only had 1280x720 pixels on them.

Even though ATSC's TrueHD 1080 is 1080i not 1080p many of the sets can actually handle signals as much as 1920x1080p60 so while TV broadcasts are limited to 1920x1080i60 if you just hook a computer up to the set to play back the video you might be able to get 1920x1080p60. As I said many of the sub 46" sets were made cheaply though and are not as capable of various things though.

Even for 1080i, if you just compare 720p to 1080i channels, despite all of the talk of lower motion resolution for 1080i, to most people the 1080i channels generally end up looking noticeably sharper overall. Then again LCD have such bad motion handling that might be a fair test. Plasma handles motion better so maybe on plasma or CRT sets it becomes a tougher call depending upon the footage (I'd still think that most footage has enough static stuff going on that 1080i would look sharper overall unless you footage is all major motion non-stop).


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## brai (Jun 13, 2013)

Thankie! Very informative! 



LetTheRightLensIn said:


> brai said:
> 
> 
> > hi, i just bought an EOS 600D which according to Canon friends does well with video. i'd like to know the real difference between a 720p and 1080p output via Adobe Premiere for editing?
> ...


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