Preparing Video for Broadcast

gnevius wrote on 5/7/2003, 9:14 AM
Hello folks!
I just created a commercial that will air on the local news broadcast. I am providing the video on CD-ROM since it will fit. To ensure the highest quality, how should I prepare this final video? Should it be compressed? Is avi the best format? What else should I keep in mind? The facility will be taking my file and duplicating it to 3/4 Beta. Since this is my first broadcast project, I want to make sure that it looks good so it's not my last!!!
Thank you for your time and consideration!
Kind regards,
Greg

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 5/7/2003, 9:23 AM
Contact the TV station and ask them what they accept. NTSC DV AVI would be good, but if they can't read it, it's a waste. Just call 'em and ask to speed with the production mngr or video editor, or whoever makes their commercials.
I know kuz this is what I do. :)
SonyEPM wrote on 5/7/2003, 11:38 AM
Delivering a DV or DVcam tape is better than delivering on CD. If you deliver on CD, some other app might be used to output to tape, and that means a different DV codec for DV decompression...which could easily mean an unacceptable mangling of the image quality. Bring your camera or deck to the station and output from DV to 3/4 if they don't have DV decks.
gnevius wrote on 5/7/2003, 12:22 PM
Thanks for the suggestion and that's what I have prepared for them. I didn't know what to do about the whole interlacing issue-let the defaults ride, or disable that since I am providing an avi. I didn't know if there would be a conflict with their production software/hardware. I will contact the station to see what specifically they need from me.
Thanks again!
Greg
gnevius wrote on 5/7/2003, 12:28 PM
Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately, I do not have a DV Cam, but hope to get one soon. My main concern was with interlacing. I have prepared the video using the NTSC DV defaults and didn't know if that was the way to go since they would be dumping the video into their system to ouptput to tape. When previewing my video on a television monitor, the quality isn't as high as what I am seeing elsewhere. My media is size at D1 specs, but everything looks a little soft in comparison to other spots that I am seeing. I was hoping to provide an uncompressed avi with de-interlaced video in hopes that the station would encode it with the right codec and use the correct interlacing setup. Am I thinking the wrong way?
Thanks so much!
Kind regards,
Greg