Best video format for exporting video for display on large screens?

[Neil Orman]

Wonderful to know, thanks so much Rob.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Neil,

“need to export a video to share with our AV vendor, to play at a conference.”

As Rob suggested above, nothing matters until you know what your AV Vendor is doing.

No point in exporting out a 4K ProRes, if vendor is MPeg2 with a HD projector.
They will find a way to ruin the look and feel of your project.
And no, they won’t do that on purpose, but if they are managing stage, PA/Audio, microphones, PowerPoint, nervous end-client, celebrity presenters and so forth, you are the least of their worries, until rehearsels (if any)…

Also, the definition of a “large” screen, can mean a lot of different things:
Is it a large OLED TV (maybe multiple TVs spread across several rooms), Video wall, projection (front or back)?
In other words, you have no chance of controlling that unless the vendor was working directly for you.

Get specs ASAP for delivery format(s).
That includes a Master-Spec for your clients’ library (if agreed – could be ProRes master), and the file format for play-out on the night.
Do not be surprised if the AV vendor takes your file, and (down) converts it to something they like the file name of, but will look horrible on the night (think 4K interlaced, to 720P – potential worst case, but if you don’t ask…).

Sorry, sounds harsh, but not intended to be.
I’ve worked both as a projectionist, at large events employed by the AV vendor, and delivered Post-Production for large scale projections.

In short: AV Vendor will tell you what they need – if they can’t, your client is either indecisive, or they have found a supplier that was “to good to be true” 🙂

Atb
Mads

[Mark Grance]

I’ve delivered to “AV” companies for years… my two cents.

My suggestion is to let them tell you what they want. Ideally, this conversation should have happened before you started. Assuming they are experienced (and know what they are doing) they will know what they need. They’ll know what frame rate they will be running for playback, what resolution, what aspect ratio (yup, their idea of HD and yours might be different) and what bit rate their players can handle.

(This conversation will also give you a clue as to how competent they are)

Oh, and don’t forget about the squeaky part of the picture — audio.

It is tempting to urge them one way or another, but if something goes wrong, or looks off or hiccups, and you have suggested the specs of the deliverables then they can point fingers at you. Since you aren’t on site, you won’t know what happened.

They also might have specific needs like (x) frames of black before show start and (x) frames of black at show end or freeze on last frame for (x) frames.

I’ve had to deliver DCPs, ProRes 4444HQ, mpeg 2, MXF, AVI, WMV and a few more.

The most successful playback has been when the show company drives the conversation. If they know what they are doing. If they don’t, they can take a ProRes file and make it look like a 500kbps h.264@12fps.

[Neil Orman]

I really appreciate those insights, Mads and Mark! It’s really good to know all those nuances borne of your experiences. I’m working on getting connected to our AV vendor as we speak, with my colleagues on the ground at the event, and will work on getting all that info. (I work at a large nonprofit, where internal communication amongst departments is definitely one of our weak points. But in future years, I will work on getting this video-specs dialogue going much earlier. 😀)

Great points, thanks again!

Neil