• Avid Media Composer

  Exporting 16 bit audio in Op1a

  Posted by Chris Coote on June 11, 2018 at 3:12 pm

  Hi there

  I am on a Mac running Symphony 8.6.3.
  Trying to deliver a 1080i HD XDCAMOp1a MXF file with 16 bit audio (that is the spec for the deliverable).
  There is a drop-down menu for audio bit depth, but the only option is 24 bit.
  I have tried changing my project to 16 bit audio and re-importing my files, but that doesn’t work.
  AMA file export doesn’t give the option for the XDCAM codec – only DNXHD and J2k.
  How do I get 16 bit audio in my MXF export?

  Thanks
  Chris

  Bouke Vahl replied 7 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Brent Marginet

  June 11, 2018 at 8:31 pm

  What Bit Rate are they asking for, for the Video.

  The OP-1a’s that Avid exports are identical to the Sony OP-1a Specs which are 50mb Video with 8 channels of 24 Bit Audio.
  There’s also the Sony 35mb Spec which allows 16 Bit Audio but that’s usually with a maximum of 4 channels of Audio.

  What I have found in the past when I received a spec sheet like you did is that by contacting the (in my case broadcaster) was that there specs were incorrect and had to be revised. They actually did require 24 bit Audio.

  If they insist on an Op-1a with 50mb Video and 16 Bit Audio then you would have to re-encode it in something like Adobe Media Encoder.

  \”MY MEDIA/PROJECT MOTTO: If you think three copies of your Media or Projects are enough. Take a moment to place a value on them and then maybe add two more. Hard Drives are now stupidly cheap. A RE-SHOOT AND YOUR TIME AREN\’T.\”
• 

  Chris Coote

  June 11, 2018 at 8:34 pm

  Thanks. Yes, we contacted the broadcaster and they are ok with 24 bit audio…woot…!
• 

  Bouke Vahl

  June 11, 2018 at 9:46 pm

  Good you figured that one out.
  This is a known flaw (and not the only one) in the specs over here.
  All broadcast here (SD as well as HD) is XDcam style, but to annoy as many people as possible, some geek wrote specs as difficult (and as it turned out flawed) as possible, without simply stating ‘make XDcam and all is fine’.

  Watch out for burned in subs as well, they are specced to have illegal (super) black outlines, that might get your work rejected for being conform specs.

  (I recently had a huge fight with a broadcaster who send me wrong leader / trailer material. Parially wrong field dominance (so, not fixable), beserk audio levels, fade out where there was none intended, out of spec video levels.)

  If you need to do commercials, contact me as I’ve got some nice tools for that.

  Bouke
  http://www.videotoolshed.com

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