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Anyone using Prores422 (HQ) to deliver a master to PBS?
I have to online 13 30-minute shows for PBS delivery. Show is shot in HDCam 1080i.
Did the test run at 10 Bit uncompressed 1080 Kona. Looked great but file sizes were understandably HUGE!
Does anyone have any experience delivering a HD show to PBS using Prores422(HQ)?
Is the quality acceptable to them?
Thanks!
McGee Digital Media Inc.
24P HD Production and Post
https://www.mcgeedigitalmedia.com -
12 Replies
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Hi Matt,
https://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProRes_WP.pdf
“ProRes is an intermediate or “off line” codec , which means it is intended for use during video editing, and not intended or practical for end user viewing. The benefit of an intermediate codec is that it retains higher quality than end user codecs while still requiring much less expensive disk systems compared to uncompressed video.”
PBS standards are notoriously very strict, I would contact them directly and inquire as to what exactly they need. I imagine they will want an uncompressed online.
Cheers,
Chris -
[chris rogers] ”
https://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProR…“ProRes is an intermediate or “off line” codec , which means it is intended for use during video editing, and not intended or practical for end user viewing. The benefit of an intermediate codec is that it retains higher quality than end user codecs while still requiring much less expensive disk systems compared to uncompressed video.”
“Where is that quote from? I can’t find it in the white paper you are linking to. I wouldn’t consider ProRes an offline codec (although it could of course be used as such). The ProRes bitrate is equal to or higher (ProRes HQ) than the HDCAM bitrate which I doubt you would call an offline codec.
If you could deliver a ProRes quicktime file to PBS or if they require the material on some form of “uncompressed” tape is another question. (And I have no clue…)
Stephan
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[Matt Gottshalk] “Does anyone have any experience delivering a HD show to PBS using Prores422(HQ)? “
Actually, we delivered 5 episodes of our HD series in DVCPro HD. That’s even “lower quality” than ProRes and all 5 were accepted just fine. In fact we delivered about 80 episodes or so of “Good Eats” to the Food Network all cut in DVCPro HD from start to finish. All we got from them were thanks for some of the best looking HD Masters they received.
Keep in mind you’re not delivering to “PBS” per se, you delivering to the presenting station or to APT and that’s where you get quality checked. Sometimes at the satellite uplink too, but most times it’s at the stations.
We’re launching a new PBS or APT series this coming January and we plan to deliver from a ProRes final timeline. Either by cutting through the entire series in ProRes or simply by rendering our final color grade from Color in ProRes HQ.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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How do you plan to deliver a program in ProRes to them? Hard Drive?
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Hi Stephan,
Actually, that’s a quote from the wikipedia.. And I swear I remembered the same appearing in Apples White Pages a while back.. Guess they’re changing the rules. : ) sorry bout that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prores_422
As far as Online/Offline.. I guess it just depends on the source. IMHO, a final delivery online should be as good as the original source as possible, unless your doing cable TV where anything goes as long as it “looks good enough”, even if was shot on a phone camera.
But, for example…
If you were working on a large budget historical documentary for PBS, and your final Master is going to be used for Archival & Duplication purposes.. And your original source is 35mm film, telecined to HDSR 4:4:4 (or even scanned at 2K) and someone is expecting to be delivered a HDSR 4:4:4 Master. I personally would not try to pass off picture in a ProRes codec laid off to HDCAM tape as MY final delivery and “Online Archival Master”.Yes, I realize that Matt stated that his show was shot in HDCam 1080i.. However, he did not say what PBS is asking for as far as final delivery tape format. Maybe they want a DVCPro HD Tape.. who knows? Maybe Matt will tell us..?
But again, I say… one should have the client check directly with the people they are delivering to, and ask for detailed guideline of exactly what they are expecting. Of which, I bet PBS probably has one that’s “book-sized”.
thx,
Chris -
[Devin Crane] “How do you plan to deliver a program in ProRes to them? Hard Drive? “
He’s talking about the ingest / editing workflow. You have to deliver an HDCAM master to PBS stations, but he’s asking about editing in that codec vs. Uncompressed.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Their deliverables are HDcam and Dbeta.
Thanks.
McGee Digital Media Inc.
24P HD Production and Post
https://www.mcgeedigitalmedia.com -
[chris rogers] “However, he did not say what PBS is asking for as far as final delivery tape format. Maybe they want a DVCPro HD Tape.. who knows? Maybe Matt will tell us..? “
HDCAM is what is required. There are not requirements as far as what codec you edit to in your NLE. ProRes HQ is just fine for editing.
But if you really want to know everything you ever wanted to know about PBS and want to kill a bunch of trees printing everything out, here you go.
https://www.pbs.org/producers/redbook/
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Nice to know. Thanks Walter!
BTW.. I’m no tree killer. : ) -
Gotcha, it sounded like he wanted to deliver in that format.
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