1920×1080 pixels at 16:9 aspect ratio — broadcast standard since early 2000s. Now baseline requirement, not premium specs.
1920×1080 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio – for a long time, this was the holy grail for TV production and streaming. Today, HD has become the minimum requirement, almost embarrassing if you shoot below it. Those still working with HD justify it: budget constraints, legacy projects, conscious aesthetic choices. Otherwise, you're quickly out of favor with broadcasters and platforms.
On set, HD fundamentally changes the requirements for optics and lighting. With Full HD, every scratch on the glass, every cheap lens becomes visible – that's what made the jump from SD to HD so painful for many productions back then. You need better lenses, the optical bench must be precise. Flares, banding in gradients, chromatic aberration in inexpensive zooms – everything stands out. However, unlike 4K, HD is still forgiving enough for semi-professional or low-budget work. You can still work with cheaper lenses if you know what you're doing.
Depth-of-field characteristics also change: at the same aperture and focal length, HD requires less light than 4K or 6K because less image information is needed. This still makes HD attractive for location shoots with difficult lighting conditions. Some DoPs consciously use this – not out of necessity, but because they want the flat, smooth look of HD for certain subjects, especially in documentaries.
In editing, HD is the last format that still runs smoothly on consumer hardware. 4K projects devour CPU resources like crazy; HD material still edits smoothly on a mid-range Apple Mac or Windows PC. This is often the practical reason why smaller studios and agencies still stick with it – not because they are backward, but because the workflow is more stable. The proxy overhead for 4K is considerable.
Broadcasting platforms like ARD/ZDF have long accepted HD as a minimum, but some now explicitly demand 4K for premium content. Those who only deliver HD today are quickly rejected – unless it's a deliberate stylistic choice or it's historical material. The camera industry has long since abandoned HD: new consumer cameras start at 4K. HD is dead in a professional sense, but not entirely gone – it lives on in archives, in older workflows, and in deliberate retro aesthetics.