Question regarding HDTV cameras

[no. 5]

How is content that is in progressive or interlaced filmed?

For example, is a 1080i HDTV broadcast filmed in 1080i60 and transmitted as such? Or is it filmed in 1080p30, then converted to 1080i60 for broadcast?

I'm wondering because, as I understand it, a digital TV camera would have to use a CCD image sensor(s), and CCDs are inherently progressive, so wouldn’t that mean that a HD program that is in 1080i would have been filmed in 1080p, and then converted to interlaced for broadcast?

 

[tbewick]

I've found these papers useful:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/whp/whp-pdf-files/WHP053.pdf
http://www.ebu.ch/en/technical/trev/trev_308-hdtv.pdf

There's a difference between content that originates on film and video. The first paper deals with that. Film always starts off as progressive but may be converted to interlaced at the telecine stage or following the telecine stage. If the HD master is based on a progressive telecine master, then even if the broadcast is interlaced, the deinterlacer of the receiver may be able to restore the full progressive frames.

The second paper gave me the impression that HD cameras operate in progressive mode but can be set up to give an interlaced output. Alternatively the progressive output of the camera can be converted at a later stage to interlaced. In progressive mode, the camera may have several different output formats, e.g. 720p/25, 720p/50, 1080p/50 etc. Presumably there are also 60 frame per second cameras available as well.

 

[no. 5]

Mmm… pure information.

Thank you, tbewick!
I haven’t read through all of these two papers yet, but they have been quite interesting so far, and it would seem that there are deferent frame rates used for HD in Europe then for HD in north America.