I'm unicast encoding using an old Sony DV which is giving an output to the encoder of 720 x 576. I couldn't actually find the output spec on the literature but would like a higher resolution if I change cameras soon

Can someone please advise me what to look for - ie, the terms used to describe this and possible suggest another camcorder (not too expensive) which would output around 1000 x 800

Thanks, Stephen

Welcome to DVinfo Stephen! I'm afraid that 720x576 is the only resolution (other than NTSC 720x480) which DV supports. Of course there's a whole range of quality in terms of actual cameras though. Are you shooting 16:9? If so then be sure to get a camera which supports it properly (like the XL2) or you'll lose resolution there. However 16:9 is also 720x576 with wider pixels.

But it sounds like you'll really want to get one of the newer HDV cameras which output either 1920x1080 or 1280x720. See our Affordable 3-chip HD camera forums for lots of info: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=61

Yep, the other thing you can do is get a PAL camcorder. PAL (european spec for TV for those who dont know) is 25 fps and 720 x 546.. that's about the best you can get in DV...

PAL (european spec for TV for those who dont know) is 25 fps and 720 x 546

If you read the original question you'll see that Stephen already has a PAL camera, with resolution of 720 x 576. :-)

Hi guys, thanks for the response and apologies that I wasn't aware of them as I hadn't set my 'Default Thread Subscription Mode' to recieve notifications <Doh!>

Thanks in particular to Boyd for confirming a newer HDV cameras which output either 1920x1080 or 1280x720' is what I need and that '720x576 is the only resolution' is the only other resolution Im going to be able to get on any DV camera which is indeed dissapointing

However, the HDV cameras look interesting with the resolution suggested. I'm about to start a trial project in unicast encoding but could really do with a better quality / higher resolution to give bigger and better clarification to the stream. My bandwidth is 1 Meg both up and down. I imagine thats not nearly enough to run even the lower end HDV at even 12.5 fps which I'm currently using

Is it just DV which has the limits on the resolution? Would another camera do my job? (although I really need the digital connection provided by the DV. Any other suggestions appreciated

Thanks, Stephen

Stephen, SD resolution is plenty for broadcasting/unicasting. I don't think today's technology can support an HD transmission on your 1 MB/sec internet line. If you increase your resolution, you will have to also increase your compression rate, so at the end of the day you will have a picture that's worse than what a good DV camera can offer you today.

Unless you're doing something special (slow scan TV type thing), get a better, preferably professional of semi-professional DV camcorder and live with it until the internet gets up to at least 4-5 MB/sec.

If it were me, I'd be more interested in raising the temporal resolution (up from 12.5fps).