For the time being it’s all compressed.

HD size video requires a lot of room on tape or in NLEs. Compression is a necessary evil. At this time all high definition tape formats use some sort of compression. Higher compression ratio results in less quality.

There are more factors that determine tape format quality than compression ratios so this list should be taken only as a rough guide.

HDCAM SR 2.7:1

D5 4:1

DVCPRO HD 6.7:1

HDCAM 7:1

HDV 47:1

Higher end NLEs can handle uncompressed video but can also use compression in order to manage high disc storage requirements of HD video.