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AE broadcast quality not good enough…
So far I have this> A wonderful AE project full of animations, rendered (720×486, premultiplied, millions of colors, best quality) to Quicktime, then imported into Final Cut to be put to DVcam tape…..off to our editor (Sony BVE-600 linear editor), then broadcasted….which equals one crappy looking graphic. The sharpness is gone, the colors are no longer broadcast safe and yours truly is getting dirty looks from the producers! Please help me get back on their good side. Where did I go wrong? We checked bars on both editors and everything was fine. Aaron Kautz
Graphics Designer
Broadcast Specialist (hmmmm?) -
6 Replies
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DVCAM uses the DV codec, which doesn’t like graphics as much as it likes real-life footage. In particular, it doesn’t like saturated red.
So I believe the mistake was in going to DVCAM tape. If you want better quality, you should render to a 10-(or 8-)bit-per-channel codec, then send it to a transfer house to have it transferred to Digital Betacam (DigiBeta).
Now if the broadcaster requires DVCAM, you have to go back to your design and reduce saturation, doing some tests to the DV codec to get the optimum settings. If you have to convince them that DVCAM is the culprit, you have to show them your design before and after compression to DV.
But as a designer, you need to know how your design will appear in a given codec, and adjust your settings to make it look as good as the process will allow.
… unless somebody else screwed up in the process. Do you know exactly what the design wnet through in the process?
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I’ve never heard of stuff being delivered for broadcast on DVCAM tape. To avoid codec-specific problems just deliver your graphics as an uncompressed file, zip it up if you need to reduce file size and then deliver to the editor on a disc as a file. To be honest he should have the finished commercial going through a legaliser before going to tape anyway. If a file-based delivery is not an option, then like Steve said – take it to a facility/post house and get them to put it through an online suite out to digibeta. It’s best if you broadcast safe the colours in your original file, but most dubs should go through a legaliser like I said anyway.
Good luck.
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What codec did you render to ..?
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Wooooweeeee you guys both hit it on the head. The saturation (especially the reds) were way off. I’m gonna run a few tests right now and try to find out what works best. Thanks Aaron
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Out of AE or Final Cut Mike…I’m not sure which one you mean. A
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also, when you import into fcp… if you rendered out of ae without adjusting for broadcast levels, you should be able to tell fcp that it is an rgb file at import so fcp can make the adjustment.
you can do it in ae, by using an adjustment layer, applying levels and setting the black output to 16 and the white output to 235. if your still concerned about color saturation, you can apply the broadcast colors effect after the levels effect.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
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