(
High
Definition
Video) The high-definition (HD) version of the DV magnetic tape format. HDV uses the same DV and MiniDV tape cassettes as DV and MiniDV camcorders, which are standard definition (SD) cameras. HDV camcorders may also be capable of recording and playing the DV format, and Sony machines often support Sony's own DVCAM format as well (see
DVCAM).
Compression and Specifications
Introduced in 2003, HDV supports 1280x720p, 1920x1080i and 1920x1080p resolutions, MPEG-2 (H.262) video compression and MPEG-1 audio compression (16-bit stereo) and 4:2:0 color sampling. Unlike DV, which treats each frame independently (intraframe compression), HDV uses interframe compression to reduce file size. See
DV,
DTV,
HD formats and
interframe compression.