broadcast safe

[Scott Davis]

Rob, the broadcast safe filter in FCP makes sure your luminance levels are below 100 IRE. As to why, I’m not really sure. Maybe someone here on the cow can answer that. Good luck.

PS-the FCP manual is an excellent source of not only FCP specific info but film/video info as well.

Scott Davis

[Rob Grauert]

so basically, if im color correcting and want to keep everything broadcast safe, i just make sure my blacks aren’t below 0 IRE and my whites aren’t above 100 IRE? That’s what i’ve been doing, i just wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing it wrong.

[Scott Davis]

Yes, pretty much. The broadcast safe filter is a a failsafe. If you use levels to keep it withing specs you are good.

Scott Davis

[Mark Raudonis]

Think of it this way: Broadcast safe = $$$$.

If you are delivering videotapes for broadcast, then the broadcaster will give you a document outlining their “delivery specifications”. Amongst the many requirements will be something like, “Must conform to SMPTE 259”. This spec essentially outlines what a digital signal is and therefore, if you have to conform to this definition, anything “out of spec” is “out of broadcast safe”. How does this translate to $$$$? Well, most networks maintain large “QC” departments that pore over every submission very carefully. If your program varies outside of the specs, they will reject it, and ask that you resubmit a corrected master. This will cost you money to fix. So, if it’s your butt on the line guaranteeing network acceptance, then you’ll pay careful attention to things like Chroma, Luma, and blanking. Don’t forget VITC, closed captioning, and audio considerations.

A broadcast safe filter is essentially an “easy” button that supposedly guarantees that your output will pass muster. Don’t count on it. There have been numerous posts about sequences getting kicked back EVEN THOUGH the broadcast safe filter was applied.

Bottom line, if you’re distributing to any major broadcast or cable network, you will need to know about the technical aspects of the video signal you’re delivering.

Good luck.

Mark

[Patricio Veloso]

Try using first the 3-way color correction filter.
Adjust de whites, then the blacks and if you really need to adjust gamma, usually you got to move the saturation slide in the same way.

Then apply the broadcast safe filter over all that.

Finally Render.

Tip: Dont leave any white over 100 IRE and depending the “look” you want to obtain, you can go around 90 IRE in whites to recover some details and crush the blacks to 0 IRE to cine like blacks.