Need to add 100/0 Color Bars for HD TV

[Mike Kelland]

Download the Blackmagic Desktop video software from their website – it has a folder in the package with bars. There’s a 100% bars file in there that is what you’re after. The bars go from top to bottom of screen, just 8 lines of color – will appear very bright on your video output monitor as all colors are at 100 percent. Think FCP7 has a 100% bar generator too.

Hope that’s what you’re after. I use the Blackmagic one to meet Channel 4 specs for sending to the UK.

[F. David robbins iv]

Thanks for the response! I’ve installed the software, but looking through the programs, and in the package contents (on a Mac), I see no color bar files. Is the one in the Blackmagic program you’re referring to similar to the last of the 4 examples above?

Not sure if it makes any difference though, but I’m delivering to a US station, not UK.

[Mike Kelland]

Open the installer and on the first window you’ll see a folder called ‘test clips’. They’re in there 🙂

[F. David robbins iv]

I don’t see anything like that on my Mac when installing. Maybe they removed that from new installs? Either way, I was able to get on a copy of FCP and grab it from there. Hopefully it’s correct. Thanks!!

[Matt Quinn]

Just for the record, I have downloaded the installer onto a windows machine, and can confirm that there is not folder of sample files… I even went as far as installing the application on one machine; still no samples.

Perhaps a link would be useful?

Does anyone know of an accurate graphic or reference file that CAN be used? I’m afraid both SMPTE and ‘HD’ bars as generated by CS6 are unacceptable for delivery to many broadcasters now. – Particularly in the UK.

[Craig Howard]

I am amazed that the U.K and U.S still use Bars on deliverables. ( ie Digital Deliverables.)

What possibly do they do with them?

If supplied as part of the “program file ” they would need to “edit” them off via an export.
If separate to “program file ” …what are they checking? !!!

They serve no purpose apart from setting up systems and dubbing pipelines. Its doubtful they do either with digital files.

QC uses scopes primarily to check Luma and Chroma …and they have other criteria that are less critical but still noted in q.c apps such as Black Magic Ultra Scope.

Bars , tone and countdown leaders are gone along with analogue.

Craig Howard
Shooter Film Company
Auckland
New Zealand

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[Tero Ahlfors]

[Craig Howard] “They serve no purpose apart from setting up systems and dubbing pipelines. Its doubtful they do either with digital files.”

You can easily see if there’s something wrong with the interpretation of levels if you have bars in front of the program.

[Matt Quinn]

Bars & Tone ‘should’ be the reference point from the originating system to the handling destination – A bit like someone blowing a pitch pipe to ensure the rest of the group follows in correct harmony and volume.

“QC uses scopes primarily to check Luma and Chroma …and they have other criteria that are less critical but still noted in q.c apps”

Which is most sensibly (some will argue can only be) done when you know the reference points used by the originator. Otherwise the actions become those of ‘educated guesswork’. – Something that is both very possible and very common but not at all desirable.

By “QC” I assume you mean some final ‘clean up process’ or post-production activity that you might expect the broadcaster or a finishing house to carry out? But really QC should be thought of as an ongoing process that starts with preparing the camera for a shoot and ends with the delivery of material that is minimally flawed.

If a workflow is such that its output demands extensive rework at the QC stage then that workflow carries an overhead and therefore a cost that might be usefully avoided. Certainly, leaving off a meaningful reference for those involved in final finishing isn’t helpful. In our case we’ll send out the file for final QC and ‘wrapping’ to AS-11/DPP if it’s to be broadcast. But we want the op-1a file to be ‘as right as possible’ – including the correct bars and clock.

“They serve no purpose apart from setting up systems and dubbing pipelines.”

Not so. The signal itself is part of any active system and the path from sensor to the viewer’s retina is all part of a pipeline. Broadcasters and others require a line up at the head of a piece for much the same reasons they always have. And part of the Automated Quality Control (ACQ) process is that it seeks and (I suppose) makes reference to the line up!

“Bars , tone and countdown leaders are gone along with analogue.”

It would appear not… From the June NZ “Technical Standards and Documentation Guide for the Delivery of Commercials.”

“1.3.3 Video Line-up

Line-up signals serve to identify individual signal channels and to provide reference levels that will confirm that the content transmitted is likely to be within transmission signal limits and will be as the producer intended.

At the beginning of each tape, line-up signals consisting of at least one minute of first generation Colour Bars shall be present (for SD – 100/0/100/0 bars is preferred, but 100/0/75/0 is acceptable. HD -100/0/100/0 bars).

The start of each commercial shall be preceded by a graphical identification (Slate) and a countdown leader (optional). The Slate must show the Key number, Production house, Advertiser and product description where appropriate.

The video and audio signal levels must be related accurately to their associated line-up signals with no deviation being permitted“

…There seems to be little significant difference between what the NZ broadcasters are asking for and that required by DPP group broadcasters in the UK.

The question remains though; how do you generate meaningful bars of you’re running something like CS6 which doesn’t have EBU bars? – For the record I’m not convinced that running an existing video sample from some random source IS the way forward.

Personally, I’ve not yet had any difficulties with acceptance of a pattern I set up in Photoshop, but I have my nagging doubts as to how ‘right’ and valid this is as a technique. I can set a Betacam deck to output bars and ‘capture’ that, scale ’em up to frame and it produces a the appropriate display on the software vectorscope – but again, I’m not sure how useful this is as it seems more of a bluff than useful/relevant reference.

[Tero Ahlfors]

I captured some generated bars from our Sony SRW-5000. Check out if that would work: https://we.tl/iZRaa0MG72

[Matt Quinn]

Thanks for that Tero…

Three images:

1) Bars created captured from an A75P – I did call up 100% bars but need to take a closer look at the machine’s settings…. But still, we get the picture.

2) The bars you just posted Teros, the file was simply downloaded and imported with no adjustment. If I received footage with these bars I’d normally ‘reign it in’ using the appropriate filters.

3) Finally, bars created using PhotoShop and imported as the native PS file. Note the lack of any ‘trace’ – just green spots bang in the targets.

We’ve gone with the PS file generally – though rather counter-intuitively it’s generated using ‘0, 255’ values.

Note: I’m not saying this is ‘right’ per se… But so far it seems to have caused no problems. We’re outputting to OP1a MXF using AVC100. – Incidentally, a compressed graphic of any kind seems to produce ‘less accurate’ results.