Broadcast specs

marcel-vossen wrote on 3/27/2012, 2:23 AM

Hi everyone,

Until now I mostly made movies for online use or blueray , but I'm working on a music video that I got some footage for that other people (TV professionals) have worked on.
They used MOV format at 1024x576 25 fps but when I load it into Vegas it also has narrow black bars (without footage) on top and bottom.

Are these bars for broadcast use and should I use that too when I want to send the final clip to TV stations?

Does anybody know how to get this result?

Thanks for your help!

Comments

Duncan H wrote on 3/27/2012, 4:16 AM

I'm assuming that your project is H.D, 1920x1080 pixels & your mov files are therefore letterboxed. If your final output is H.D you can right click the letterboxed clips & under properties match media, recognizing that you'll have some substantial loss of resolution as you increase the supplied 1024x576 mov to HD dimensions. Any chance of getting the original clips from the station, as I think that is your best option. If not, then I'm thinking you might want to use some substantial filters , such as colorizing/grain etc to make a feature of these clips so reduced image resolution is not noticeable. Obviously depends on your reliance on these clips & artistic fit with the project.

Duncan

marcel-vossen wrote on 3/28/2012, 2:10 AM

Thanks Duncan,

Actually its supposed to look like 'old 8mm footage' so its not a big deal if it looks grainy, thats the whole idea of it. But I was assuming that a TV station would want 1024x576 , but I understand from your story that thats not true?

What would be the prefered file format and resolution to deliver something officially for TV broadcast, suppose I'd have to send it to MTV or something?

Is XDCAM MP4 okay? HQ1920x1080 50i 35 Mbps VBR preset for example?
My own footage is Canon 5D mark II and it matches this setting.

However I did a testrender in WMV HD 1080-25p for youtube, and my Canon 5D footage looked great but the 'old footage' they gave me showed horizontal (interlacing?) lines across the scenes in movement shots, how can I get rid of these?

Thanks a lot for your help!

rs170a wrote on 3/28/2012, 5:31 AM

Every station has different requirements so you really need to ask them what their specific requirements are.
Here's an article that explains this conundrum :(
Lack of Standards Gives Advertisers HD Headache

Mike

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/28/2012, 10:31 AM

> "But I was assuming that a TV station would want 1024x576 , but I understand from your story that thats not true?"

Is it possible that the footage is PAL DV Widescreen? (and that's what the station expects back)

QuickTime is notorious for not supporting any Pixel Aspect Ratio other than 1.0. This would cause QuickTime to convert the footage to PAR 1.0. PAL DV Widescreen is 720x576 PAR 1.45. If you do the conversion and multiply 720 x 1.45 you get 1044x576. I realize that does quite match 1024x576 but it's close.

> "What would be the prefered file format and resolution to deliver something officially for TV broadcast, suppose I'd have to send it to MTV or something?"

As Mike said, I would ask the station what format they expect the footage back as. That's the only thing you need to be concerned about since every station is different.

> "Is XDCAM MP4 okay? HQ1920x1080 50i 35 Mbps VBR preset for example? "

Not likely. The footage is clearly SD not HD (576 not 1080). I would send them back SD Widescreen.

~jr

larry-peter wrote on 3/28/2012, 11:22 AM

As Johnny said, Windows implementation of reading QT aspect ratios is sketchy at best , and Vegas has never been able to do it at all for me. If forced to use QT files in Vegas, I have always set the project properties to the delivery format aspect ratio (unless I know from the provider the aspect ratio of the QT is different than delivery format ratio) and then unchecked "Maintain aspect ratio" in the QT clip properties. That almost always gives me what I need.

Larry

marcel-vossen wrote on 3/28/2012, 11:23 AM

Well actually I don't need to match their footage, I want to make a final videoclip thats meets the expectations of the usual channels , independent from this footage that was 1024x576

My own footage is 1920x1080 and the externalfootage is supposed to look like old 8mm footage, so its no problem to render the final clip to 1920x1080 if that is a format they can handle at HD TV stations.

Does anybody know what MTV would like to receive the footage in?