“Revolutions
are not made; they come.”
Wendell Phillips. 1811-1884.
Look out, everybody! There’s a revolution underfoot. HDTV is here, and there’s lots of new technology making it possible to move high definition digital video data onto a hard disk and back without too much trouble. Because of great strides on the part of companies like SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.) and Intergraph, the fact that there's six times the data in an HDTV signal compared to garden-variety NTSC isn't quite so daunting as it once was.
Besides the input/output rates of this prodigious amount of data, there's not really that much technology here that's all that new. In fact, for years companies like Quantel have been editing and compositing segments whose resolutions are far greater than HDTV. Discreet’s Inferno and Flame are entirely capable of editing HDTV footage, aren’t they? Sure.
Until very recently, the problem involved getting the video into these boxes. No matter how you look at it, there’s just no easy way to do this yet. It can be done, though, by using one of the new input cards like the high definition video input/output card for Unix-based machines SGI introduced at last spring's NAB, or Intergraph's upcoming HDTV I/O card for Windows NT machines. These technologies sure beat the hell out of the method we used just a few months ago -- a roundabout procedure involving transcoding and file conversion. Well, regardless of how the footage was digitally fed onto the computer disk, you’re still left with data that is six times bigger than its NTSC 601 video counterpart.
HDTV represents a huge step forward, but it’s going to mean taking a couple of steps backward in the edit suite to get there. It’s going to be a while before HD production reaches the current level of speed and convenience we now enjoy in the high-end world of standard-resolution digital video editing. For short form productions, this probably won't represent a big problem, but in long-form TV series, for example, the amount of data to be moved, mixed and stored may be impractical at first.
Is it worth it to make the switch now? What if people don’t even want HDTV? Don’t bet on it. Remember what happened to vinyl records? People flocked to the digital quality of the audio CD, and they’ll do the same for digital TV, and in particular, HDTV. Isn’t the US government mandating a conversion to this in the next few years? Not necessarily. Keep in mind here that government-mandated digital TV and beautiful HDTV aren’t the same thing. In fact, there are 18 different varieties of digital TV, only 10 to 14 of which could be reasonably called high definition. But I’m convinced that high definition will make significant inroads into American homes very soon, and will soon thereafter prevail. That’s because people will pay for quality.
We’re getting close to that critical mass of price and performance where the American public will reach deep into its pockets and pay up. Think of it this way: In 1966, considered to be the year of critical mass for the acceptance of color TV, the average color TV cost $600. I took a look at the cost-of-living figures for each year between 1966 and 1999, and arrived at an inflation figure of five. That’s right: What cost $600 in 1966 dollars costs $3,000 today. So, when the cost of an HDTV set reaches the $3,000 mark, the dam will burst. People will buy these new devices and they’ll be hungry for programs to be produced in the new medium.
Enter Hollywood. Just as color films filled many a TV hour before the industry was ready to mass produce color video, thus shall the past once again be prologue. As you read this, theatrical films by the truckload are being transferred to HDTV. Here’s where the bulk of high-definition television will originate, at least at first. But before long, the industry will catch up, and we’ll be able to produce video using HDTV as easily as we do NTSC and PAL video today.
So what’s the problem? So far, even though sales have just now started to pick up, there’s a lack of demand for HDTV equipment. And no one wants to be the first to jump onto this expensive Rolls-Royce bandwagon that is HDTV editing. As the old saying goes, “You can tell who the pioneers are—they’re the ones with all those arrows in their backs!” Understandably, no one wants to be the chump who finances this revolution for the rest of us.
In closing, allow me to make one more prediction: There will be a stampede of customers for high-definition editing equipment in the very near future. And one of those customers may be you.
Charlie
White has been writing about digital video editing since it was
the laughingstock of the post-production industry. He's an Emmy award-winning
producer and director for PBS, and Producer of this Web channel. Reach
him at cwhite@digitalmedianet.com.
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