The HD Conspiracy: Apple, Microsoft, YouTube Make False Video Quality Claims

Apple, Microsoft, and YouTube all make claims of HD video offerings through the iTunes movie service, the Xbox 360, and YouTube.com respectively. We've talked about YouTube's claims before and the company later said they were misconstrued and they offer near HD-quality video on a designated part of their web video platform. We've never really looked into Apple's and Microsoft's claims, but George Ou of Real World IT blows the truth out of the water and exposes the HD conspiracy.

It all comes down to bit rates. Here's a good example. HD DVD has a bit rate of 28 mbps. Uncompressed 1080p video at 60 frames per second registers at 3000 mbps meaning that HD DVD needs to be compressed at 107 to 1 with the H.264 or VC-1 codec. Therefore, Ou argues that 28 mbps is the minimum bit rate to be considered high-def after loss of quality from compression.

Now consider these numbers:

1. Standard definition DVD's are usually 5 to 8 mbps MPEG-2
2. Apple's new HD movies service is 4 mbps-not even close to HD
3. Xbox 360 downloads are 6.8 mbps 720p VC-1-borderline HD
4. The only time 4 mbps 720p video will look better than 8 mbps MPEG-2 is if the screen is completely stationary or low-complexity video

Ou's conclusion: None of these service offer HD video by any definition, pardon the pun. The best these services offer is video that is slightly lower quality than an upscaled standard DVD.

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