Field (video)

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In video, a field is one of the many still images which comprise a moving picture. They are similar to frames, but they have half the vertical resolution and are displayed twice as fast. The method of converting from frames to fields is called interlacing, and the method of converting fields to frames is called deinterlacing. A video composed of fields is interlaced, and a video composed of frames is progressive.

Video shot with a standard video camera format such as S-VHS or Mini-DV is almost always interlaced when created, whereas video shot with a film-based camera is almost always progressive. Free-to-air analog TV was mostly broadcast as interlaced material because the trade-off of spatial resolution for frame-rate reduced flickering on CRTs. High-definition digital television (see: HDTV) today can be broadcast terrestrially or distributed through cable system in either interlaced (1080i) or progressive formats (720p or 1080p). There are now some prosumer HDV camcorders that can shoot in progressive (720p) formats.