On this page ...

On this page I briefly show you a list of available formats for video. Video formats in the table below are both for analog and digital video - the analog part might not be very acurate so please mail me additional formats and/or improvements on that list. Some DVD players are highly compatible with the digital formats, for example the Yamakawa 715/713 and the Mustek 520 do play VCD, SVCD, XVCD, MPEG files and DVD's. They can even read CD-recordables and CD-rewriteables. Other players - usually the more "expensive" brands like Sony and Yamaha, do not support these formats. Sometimes these players show trouble when using your own recorded CD's. Tip: Some DVD players do not like CD-recordables, try a CD-rewriteable instead some players (like some models of Toshiba) do read CDRW discs but refuse to use CDRs. See also the DVD Compatibility Database. Tip: Make some CD's of your own and test them in the store before buying a player! You also might take a look at the DVD Compatibility Database. Update: Added the DVB, KVCD, KSVCD and KDVD formats. For more information see the KVCD website or our KVCD Intro. Note: The numbers presented for Mb/Min, Min/CDR and HRS/DVD are calculated estimations! Your milage may vary! Tip: See also Glen's article on recording types!

Overview

Framerates indicate the amount of frames (exposures or images) per second are displayed.

For common television and analog video, the framerate times two indicates the refreshrate of the display. So for example PAL has a framerate of 25 fps, this means that a television will refresh it's display 50 times a second (50Hz) using 50 half images. In the first cycle the even lines are redrawn, in the second cycle the odd lines, in the third cycle the even lines, and so on ...

Note: Most modern DVD players are capable of switching between PAL and NTSC. Most modern TV-sets accept the so called pseudo formats (Pseudo PAL and Pseudo NTSC) as well so you can do playback of an NTSC movie on a PAL TV-set for example.

Tip: On the "DivX rip intro" page, you can find more info on the commonly used screen resolutions for DivX.

Note: I did not mention the SECAM format in these tables.

Note: Keep in mind, when converting one format to another, that it's not usefull to render a lower resolution to a higher resolution. For example: it's not very usefull to convert a VideoCD movie to a Super VideoCD format. You will only add static to your movie - the movie will NOT enhance in quality.

HDTV - High Definition TV

HDTV - High Definition digital TV comes in several flavors, even (here we go again) a difference between the European and American standard.

HDTV mainly uses the MPEG2 encoding - the European standard also support MPEG4 (wish the US standard would support this).
Note that the SDTV standard covers mainly what our old TV set is doing (although the resolution of a regular TV can be lower). The 720p standard is more geared towards DVD use and we do see a weird 576p standard being used in Australia.

For those considering HDTV; regular TV looks fairly poor on a HDTV, and HDTV cannot (unless one has a converter) be veiwed on a regular (old) TV.
Also the connectors used for HDTV is different. Instead of S-Video or Compsite Video, DVI connectors are being used - commonly including a DRM (copyright protection mechanism). Quite a few things that would keep me away from HDTV for a while ...

Commonly used DivX resolutions

DivX users use the weirdest formats for creating their movie files. Below you will find some commonly used formats. The reason why these formats differ, is due to the fact that a full DVD resolution not always generates additional quality value over for example 640x480 (which is the most commonly used format). It does however add additional bandwidth (ie. disk-space) load.

Most DivX users do not make a difference between PAL and NTSC. What's the use anyway, since playback is mostly done on a PC anyway (I dare to differe on that statement - since I usually use my TV for playback).

Keep this in mind: when resizing a resolution, make sure the aspect ratio remains.

Countries using NTSC

Countries using PAL

DVB (Digital Satellite) Resolutions and Bitrates

DVB is a digital format, used for TV broadcasts used with Satellite and cable solutions. In 1996 some European stations started broadcasting using the DVB specifications. Currently U.S. some stations use DVB as well. In Europe, the E.U., is "forcing" television and radio stations, targeting the E.U. population, to broadcast in the DVB format.

DVB is a MPEG2 video stream, as seen with Super VideoCD and DVD, with bitrates up to 15 Mbps (!!!).

Some DVB examples:

Canal+ (Netherlands, France, etc.) uses VBR bitrates up to 15 Mbps, keep in mind that this is BETTER than a standard DVD video.

Some stations in Belgium and Italy (like TMF and MTV Italy) use bitrates up to 7,5 Mbps.

To show you it can be done in poor quality as well: CNES transmits with a resolution of 352 X 288 with CBR bitrate of 700kb/s (this is even worse van VideoCD!).

Known DVB resolutions in Europe are: 720 X 576, 704 X 576, 544 X 576, 528 X 576, 480 X 576, 352 X 576 and 352 X 288.

PC Screen resolutions

Maybe not relevant, or maybe it is,... screen resolutions used by your computer (please feel free to email me other format definitions):