Video codecs for production, submission standards, and the nightmares that follow

Mar 13, 2011 by Kevin Cease

Codecs are a nightmare at first, but once you get your hands dirty it becomes really simple (at least I’d like to think.) There are basic codecs that are generally used and some updated ones come out from time to time. If you know what your medium is or where your final project is going, you should be able to figure it out. But to a beginner, there are many questions that come to mind at first, or worse, there are many questions that are overlooked that can result in a lot of problems in the future. So how do you know what to shoot your project with, and what the final result should be?

KNOW YOUR FINAL MEDIUM and GOAL.

Most people I know who shoot, they do it for web purposes. But their actual final goal is to get it on TV or in a film festival, even if they don’t realize it for the time being. The problem with this is that they shoot their video, and then export it (through premiere, final cut, etc.) and compress the hell out of it to save disk space. They then delete their native files, and lose future access to them and they are stuck with a compressed video that is unacceptable for television and theater. This is why disk space isn’t worth saving to a professional. By sacrificing disk space, you then allow yourself access to the native footage and project. This is why having several INTERNAL hard drives are a good idea. If you use external drives, plan on using them for transferring files for backup ONLY, not for live editing. USB and the likes are going to cause you difficulties while in editing stages, since they are just not fast enough to be able to stream your video content to the computer while working on them. Just skip it! Another note: DO NOT DOWNCONVERT or COMPRESS while editing to save space! I learned this on my first project (a full length documentary) a long time ago the hard way.

CODECS FOR EXPORTING TO WEB

Web: Really up to you, since it will be on the likes of Youtube or Vimeo, but I have most luck using the .mov with the h.264 compression. It really can provide good quality without taking up massive space. In the past I used the MP4 codec (since apple promoted it as the latest and greatest) but I had a lot of issues with getting clients to be able to play the file, plus youtube seemed to have some conversion issues where the upload looked somewhat like a smeared oil painting.

DVD

MPEG-2 DVD compression settings when exporting work the best for me. Whatever software you use, there is generally a setting to export into DVD. You can then take that file and use software like Encore to create a playable disk with a simple menu (like a “press play” button and an image.)

Remember, it is always a good idea to plan on using your final product in a submission for TV of some sort. This will allow you to plan ahead and always have an uncompressed version of your product on hand

When submitting to a production company for TV or Theater, they will ask for a MASTER COPY. I suggest the following rules of thumb:

1. Video Tape:

For standard definition (SD) productions, many prefer delivery on Digibeta Tape. It must be adjusted for use within NTSC color space, 4:3 frame size, non-square pixel aspect ratio (0.9) and 30 frames per second (60 interlaced fields). So get your settings right, and hook up your machine to your computer and use the hardware and software guidelines to create the recording.

There are also a million general rules here, like if you shoot widescreen 16×9, you need to keep in mind that it will be cut down to 4×3. That means all your titles and action need to be within that frame so you have to plan ahead during production. Also audio, color levels, and luminance are all within a general gamut you have to keep within. They also want a title slate, color bars and all this other crap that has to be pretty much perfectly laid out with the appropriate amount of seconds of black space. It’s much easier to submit a file instead, which most places are now doing to my knowledge. Here is an example of this for TV:

TIME CODE
Time code must be continuous DROP FRAME (NTSC 30fps – 29.97) throughout, beginning with color bars and
ending at least 20 seconds after last frame of video and audio.

COLOR LEVELS
Waveform & Vectorscope measurements should meet the following levels:
Luminance level should not exceed 100 IRE units
Chrominance level should not exceed 100 IRE units in bars and 110 IRE units in program
Black level should not exceed zero IRE units (digital) or 7.5ire (analog)

AUDIO
Audio acquisition and mixing should utilize 24 bit 48 kHz PCM audio files
NOC house reference Test Tone is –20Dbfs (+4dBM) @ 1 KHZ
In program, audio should average –15dBfs and not exceed –10dBfs
Program audio shall be delivered without static, dropouts, distortion, heavy dynamic compression or heavy limiting
Audio Channels
Channel 1: Program Left
Channel 2: Program Right
Channel 3: Music & Effects Left
Channel 4: Music & Effects Right

FOOTPRINT SEQUENCE
00:59:00 – 00:59:30 SMPTE color bars with Audio at 1000 Hertz tone, -20Dbfs
00:59:30 – 00:59:40 Black and silence
00:59:40 – 00:59:50 Title slate (see TITLE SLATE below for contents)
00:59:50 – 01:00:00 Black and silence
01:00:00 First program video and audio
Between Videos Thirty seconds (:30) of black and silence should separate episodes.
End of Sequence Black and silence (:20) after last program video and audio (i.e. end credits)

TITLE SLATE
The slate should contain the following information: show title, episode title, episode number, the Production
Company, date and master or edited master.

VIDEO TAPE BOX
Labels or stickers should contain the following information: show title, episode number, episode title, total run time,
audio version, record date, revision number (if any), and revision date (if any).

2. Standard definition (or downcoverting HD)

Optimally the delivered file will conform to the following specs
Codec: QuickTime, Uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2
Dimension: 720×486, 0.9 pixel aspect ratio
Frame Rate: NTSC 30fps (29.97 drop frame)
Audio: Uncompressed Linear PCM, 16-bit @ 48 kHz, stereo

3. HD and HDV:

Again, Recording on widescreen (16:9) formats require the use of a 4:3 frame
reference in production and use of action and title safe guides.

Codec: Keep native to your project. ProRes HQ, DVCPRO HD, h.264 conversion is typically acceptable
Dimension: Keep native to your project
Frame Rate: Keep native to your project (many can handle pulldown)
Audio: Uncompressed stereo audio

notes: Native frame-rate – should be kept consistent, pulldown and other frame rate re-sampling techniques are strongly discouraged – if you shoot 24p, edit and deliver 24p unless they ask for 29.97 for TV. Then you have to do the conversion.

4. Vector Based Animation – Digital File

Media created with vector-based animation software (Flash, Toon Boom Studio, Maya, etc.), is resolution
independent.

ONE EXAMPLE OF REQUIRED SPECS FOR BROADCAST

Again this isn’t necessarily universal, but this is required for a few TV production companies I know:

Deliver Flash movie (.swf – NOT an .flv flash video) & the Flash source file (.fla)
Publish as a Flash 9 or 10 .swf file
Keep your Flash .swf files under 10 Mbytes
Put a pre-loader on your Flash file
Please provide only self-contained Flash .swf files. Please don’t call another .swf movie or assets from
another site
Place a rectangle with your background color in a layer as many companies default all Flash movie
backgrounds to white
Do not insert actions or auto-redirects that call URLS or pop-ups

When I am done with a project (video) I ALWAYS keep a NATIVE UNCOMPRESSED VERSION on my hard drive, or at least a backup. You never know when you will need it. Someone may ask for it and if you can’t provide it, you will be very mad at yourself. It takes up a lot of space, but you can at least put it in a .zip or .rar file for safekeeping. Get it on a backup as well. It’s very valuable and you may need or want access to it some day to make changes or submit or whatever. It is especially good to have on hand for film festivals. I even try to keep all my raw footage so I can make edits and blur out products later. This is another reason to do this. I have had to get access to many projects and make changes for legal reasons that were unexpected.

Also remember, ALL HARD DRIVES EVENTUALLY CRASH AND BURN. So keeping 2 copies of your hard work is a good idea. Once it’s gone, its gone forever.

If you have any questions, fell free to ask as I can get even more specific with this. These are general guides I have had to adhere to in the past, some may ask for something else so you just have to give them what they ask for. It will help to know this though, and keep you from not only going through ABSOLUTE HELL (I remember staying up nights at a time trying to get a documentary to conform due to not planning while in editing stages) but you will look more professional and knowledgeable. In any case, you will learn. I believe the term is “baptism by fire!”

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