NTSC Broadcast legal video

[Chuck Reti]

Simple explanation:

Whites too high= highlights burn out or smear, Buzz in audio at home.
Blacks too low= picture looks dark and muddy
Chroma too high= picture looks like grandma’s old Zenith, people glow in the dark.
Chroma too low= picture looks as if done in color pencil
Any or all of the above= station or network will reject content on technical grounds

Simple solutions= get scopes and learn to read them. Get a professional video monitor.
Anyone claiming to be doing “professional” production of content for broadcast has no excuse
for not learning the most basic technical aspects of their tools. If the content looks like crap, the message is lost.

Some Useful sites:
Tektronix “Beyond Color Bars”
https://www.tek.com/Measurement/App_Notes/NTSC_Video_Msmt/beyondbars.html

Tektronix video measurement:
https://www.tektronix.com/Measurement/cgi-bin/framed.pl?Document=/Measurement/App_Notes/NTSC_Video_Msmt

Leader index of test and measurement papers
https://www.leaderusa.com/application.htm

Video University PDF “Broadcast Requirements for Commercials and Infomercials”
https://videouniversity.com/broadre.pdf

[Todd Perchert]

Thanks Chuck. I was working on simple explanations myself. I like some of yours better.
The leader index is a great source. I think that will be my main link. It seems easy enough to understand.
TC

[Tony]

Make it real simple.

Instruct them that all corrections needed to comply with established broadcast standards will be billed at $499.99 an hour.

$499.98 of that is to put up with the stupidy of the client thinking they could produce professional broadcast quality work and the remaining 1 penny to cover overhead.

All of a sudden they might start to figure out it would be cheaper to hire you in the first place to deliver “broadcast quality” material from the start.

enuff said,

Tony Salgado

Tony Salgado

[Todd Perchert]

LOL! I like that – a lot! Unfortunately, my bosses and sales staff look at the buy time and see dollar signs. Without a concern about the quality. Which is why I am putting together a tech specifications sheet to send out to these clients.

I just got a spot on MiniDV from a client. The video was soft, muddy, and not shot well, the audio was echoing, and the graphics were hard to read. They saw it on the air and didn’t like the audio. I told them I could put new audio onto it for cheap ($50), but they just went with it as is. This is a TV station in a top 50 market! I’m surprised this is allowed on the air.
TC

[tony salgado] “$499.98 of that is to put up with the stupidy of the client thinking they could produce professional broadcast quality work and the remaining 1 penny to cover overhead.

All of a sudden they might start to figure out it would be cheaper to hire you in the first place to deliver “broadcast quality” material from the start.”