Anything that is broadcast is considered "broadcast quality."

Back in the old "analog" days of broadcasting, there were FCC mandated rules about the quality of the signal that broadcasters could put out, the rules were primarily about the timing of the sync signals, the frequency and level of the color burst reference and other "under the hood" parts of the video signal. There was not, nor has there ever been, any rules about the "look" of the video. As long as the sync signals were correctly timed and the video level is somewhere between 7.5 IRE and 100 IRE, you can broadcast anything.

John

I was asking about this last year....a fairly informative thread developed that might help you out:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=398839

Some good "tech" in that one....

Keith

>>>What exactly is considered Broadcast quality?<<<

It truley depends on many things. One station or network might require something different than another one. IMO you just aim for the best quality you can get and get the specs from whatever station/network you are looking at.

Also I would add on that it depends on the material. In some other thread here I made a comment that we have seemingly taken a huge step backwards when it comes to video and "qulaity". And I mean in a few ways. One is that as the current Bush led war started almost every station had their "embedded" reporter sending out "pixel-vision" footage. By most standards had you or I sent in a product to any netowork that looked as if it was shot on, say, a cell phone it would be rejected because it would not be "broadcast quality". However many many news outlets are now asking viewers to send them any "news" shot with their cell phone, and when the London tube attacks happened it was cell phone footage that gave us that inisde look. I have no doubt that someone is shooting a feature with their cell phone as we speak.

"I have no doubt that someone is shooting a feature with their cell phone as we speak.

It's already been done, I'll see if I can find the link.

I was looking at doing some short thing like that - I think it woiuld be pretty cool - like, what a cell phone sees during the day or something.

anyway

Dave

I don't think any of the answer so far really addresses the original poster's question. Unfortunately, since I don't have a background in broadcasting, I am not qualified to give an exact answer. However, I do know that a broadcast engineer has certain standards that he or she must maintain, usually defined in terms of various levels measured on a scope, and lines of resolution measured on a test pattern, that define the quality of what goes over the air.

I do know that if you give a broadcast station a tape that contains video that has video that is out of legal limits, you may find that it will be rejected. News organizations, of course, will take anything. This has been covered in several threads, a few years back, where various people gave anecdotes of their experience with having video rejected for broadcast. If the original poster wants his question answered, check out, for instance, the following threads:

Legal Video

Broadcast Delivery

Questions about broadcast delivery

Any rules for submitting footage for a commercial