Standard Resolutions
Apart from some exotic display formats, most of the displays within consumer electronic devices, handheld devices or computer monitors match to a (more or less) standard display resolution.
The following tables contain a list of commonly used standard resolutions, used for computer graphics equipment, TV and video applications or mobile devices.
Resolutions of Computer Graphics Equipment
The following table contains a list of all popular computer display formats.
| Name | Dimension (w x h) | Aspect Ratio | Pixels (*) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CGA | 320 x 200 | 16:10 | 62.5 k | Color Graphics Adapter - first display standard for PCs with color displays. |
| QVGA | 320 x 240 | 4:3 | 75.0 k | Quarter VGA - Popular format for mobile devices. |
| VGA | 640 x 480 | 4:3 | 300 k | Video Graphics Array - Standard resolution for PC monitors in the 1990s, nowadays popular display resolution for PDAs. |
| SVGA | 800 x 600 | 4:3 | 469 k | Super VGA - introduced by VESA group. |
| WVGA | 854 x 480 | 16:9 | 400 k | Widescreen VGA - more or less unimportant format. |
| XGA | 1024 x 768 | 4:3 | 768 k | Extended Graphics Array |
| XGA+ | 1152 x 768 | 3:2 | 864 k | XGA Plus |
| WXGA | 1280 x 800 | 16:10 | 1000 k | Widescreen XGA (see also 1440 x 900) |
| 1280 x 854 | 3:2 | 1.04 M | ||
| 1280 x 960 | 4:3 | 1.17 M | ||
| SXGA | 1280 x 1024 | 5:4 | 1.25 M | Super XGA |
| SXGA+ | 1400 x 1050 | 4:3 | 1.40 M | Super XGA Plus |
| WXGA | 1440 x 900 | 16:10 | 1.24 M | Widescreen XGA (see also 1280 x 800) |
| 1440 x 960 | 3:2 | 1.32 M | ||
| UXGA | 1600 x 1200 | 4:3 | 1.83 M | Ultra XGA |
| WSXGA+ | 1680 x 1050 | 16:10 | 1.68 M | Widescreen Super XGA Plus |
| WUXGA | 1920 x 1200 | 16:10 | 2.20 M | Widescreen Ultra XGA |
| QXGA | 2048 x 1536 | 4:3 | 3.00 M | Quad XGA |
| WQXGA | 2560 x 1600 | 16:10 | 3.91 M | Widescreen Quad XGA |
| QSXGA | 2560 x 2048 | 5:4 | 5.00 M | Quad Super XGA |
* number of pixels: 1 k = 1024 and 1 M = 1024 k = 1048576
Resolutions of TV and Video Applications
The following table contains a list of all relevant resolutions defined by digital video standards and used within TV or video equipment. See also the video format page for additional information.
| Name | Dimension (w x h) | Aspect Ratio | Pixels (*) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QCIF | 176 x 144 | 4:3 (**) | 24.8 k | Quarter Common Intermediate Format - Standard for video conferencing systems. |
| CIF | 352 x 288 | 4:3 (**) | 99.0 k | Common Intermediate Format - Standard resolution for video conferencing systems to convert from PAL to NTSC or vice versa. Width and Height is a multiple of 16 to simplify the MPEG encoding (full image can be divided into 16x16 MPEG macroblocks). |
| NTSC (DV) | 720 x 480 | 4:3 (**) 16:9 (**) |
338 k | NTSC is a composite video standard, mainly used in US, Canada, Japan and South Korea. DV is a standard resolution for digital video recording in consumer products according NTSC standard. The DV resolution uses a multiple of 16 for width and height to simplify the MPEG encoding. Thus the number of lines is reduced from 486 to 480 compared with D1. |
| NTSC (D1) | 720 x 486 | 4:3 (**) 16:9 (**) |
342 k | NTSC is a composite video standard, mainly used in US, Canada, Japan and South Korea. D1 is a standard resolution (defined by SMPTE group) for professional video recording with NTSC standard. |
| NTSC (4:3) | 720 x 540 | 4:3 | 380 k | Necessary resolution to display NTSC (D1/DV) video in 4:3 format by using square pixel. Alternatively, 640 x 480 are used to display NTSC video. |
| PAL (D1/DV) | 720 x 576 | 4:3 (**) 16:9 (**) |
405 k | PAL is a composite video standard similar to NTSC, mainly used in Europe, Asia and Australia. Since the width and the height of the PAL resolution is a multiple of 16, there is no difference between D1 and DV format. |
| PAL (4:3) | 768 x 576 | 4:3 | 432 k | Necessary resolution to display PAL (D1/DV) video in 4:3 format by using square pixel. |
| NTSC Widescreen | 864 x 486 | 16:9 | 410 k | Necessary resolution to display anamorphic NTSC (D1/DV) video in 16:9 format by using square pixel. |
| DVCPRO HD 720 |
960 x 720 | 16:9 (**) | 675 k | Digital Video Cassette PROfessional - SMPTE Standard D12 in 720 p with up to 100 MBit/s. |
| PAL Widescreen | 1024 x 576 | 16:9 | 576 k | Necessary resolution to display anamorphic PAL (D1/DV) video in 16:9 format by using square pixel. |
| HDTV 720 | 1280 x 720 | 16:9 | 900 k | High Definition Television with 1 M Pixel. |
| 1366 x 768 | 16:9 | 1.00 M | Popular resolution for LCD TVs with 1 M Pixel. | |
| DVCPRO HD 1080 |
1280 x 1080 | 16:9 (**) | 1.32 M | Digital Video Cassette PROfessional - SMPTE Standard D12 in 1080i with up to 100 MBit/s. |
| HDV | 1440 x 1080 | 16:9 (**) | 1.48 M | High Definition Video - standard format for consumer HD digital video with pixel aspect ratio of 1.33. The video is stored by using MPEG-2 compression. |
| AVCHD | 1440 x 1080 | 16:9 (**) | 1.48 M | Advanced Video Codec High Definition - standard format for consumer HD digital video with pixel aspect ratio of 1.33. The video is stored by using MPEG-4 (H.264) compression. |
| D4 | 1440 x 1024 | 4:3 (**) 16:9 (**) |
1.41 M | Unimportant format for non-realtime recording of high-resolution digital video as four D1 frames. |
| HDTV 1080 | 1920 x 1080 | 16:9 | 1.98 M | High Definition Television with 2 M Pixel. |
| D16 | 2880 x 2048 | 4:3 (**) 16:9 (**) |
5.63 M | Format for non-realtime recording of high-resolution digital video as sixteen D1 frames. |
* number of pixels: 1 k = 1024 and 1 M = 1024 k = 1048576
** using non-square pixels (see aspect ratio for additional information).
Resolutions of Mobile Devices
The following table contains a list of display resolutions commonly used within mobile devices, like cell phones, PDAs, portable DVD players, digital cameras or navigation systems. Even many displays are mounted in portrait format, the dimension is written here in landscape format (width >= height).
| Dimension (w x h) | Aspect Ratio | Pixels (*) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 128 x 128 | 1:1 | 16.0 k | Square display format, used in MP3 players (some with JPEG viewer) and in a few mobile phones. |
| 160 x 128 | 5:4 | 20.0 k | Used in MP3 players (with JPEG viewer), mobile phones and mobile navigation systems. |
| 160 x 160 | 1:1 | 25.0 k | Square display format, used in a few mobile navigation systems. |
| 208 x 176 | 35.8 k | Used in a few mobile phone models and portable multimedia players. | |
| 208 x 208 | 1:1 | 42.3 k | Used in a some mobile phone models. |
| 220 x 176 | 5:4 | 37.8 k | Popular display format, used in several mobile phones and mobile navigation systems. |
| 240 x 180 | 4:3 | 42.2 k | Used in some mobile navigation systems. |
| 256 x 256 | 1:1 | 64.0 k | Unimportant resolution of a few mobile devices. |
| 280 x 220 | 60.2 k | Used in digital cameras. | |
| 288 x 160 | 45.0 k | Used in some mobile navigation systems. | |
| 320 x 240 | 4:3 | 75.0 k | QVGA standard resolution - very popular display format, used in many mobile phone models, mobile navigation systems and digital cameras. |
| 320 x 256 | 5:4 | 80.0 k | Used in mobile phones. |
| 320 x 320 | 1:1 | 100 k | Standard resolution for the first generation of PDAs. |
| 345 x 240 | 80.9 k | Used in a few mobile phone models. | |
| 384 x 234 | 87.8 k | Unimportant resolution, used in some small digital photo frames. | |
| 400 x 240 | 93.8 k | Used in mobile phones. | |
| 416 x 352 | 143 k | Used in a few mobile phone models. | |
| 480 x 234 | 110 k | Used in mobile navigation systems, small digital photo frames and portable DVD players or DVB-T receivers. | |
| 480 x 272 | 128 k | Popular display format, used in mobile navigation systems, portable multimedia players or camcorders. | |
| 480 x 320 | 3:2 | 150 k | Standard display format, used in many PDA models. |
| 640 x 480 | 4:3 | 300 k | VGA resolution - standard display resolution of many PDAs and digital photo frames. |
| 800 x 480 | 375 k | Used in several portable multimedia/video players. | |
| 800 x 600 | 4:3 | 469 k | SVGA resolution - used in several PDA models. |
| 960 x 540 | 16:9 | 506 k | New format for mobile devices with quarter HD resolution - easy to scale down from HD format with 1920 x 1080 resolution. |
* number of pixels: 1 k = 1024
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