Software video legalizer

[Robert Garry]

FCP does have a broadcast safe filter in the video filters folder within the effects tab. If you use this along with the range check (View>Range Check) you should be okay. Of course true leaglization is better but in a money crunch situation this is probably one of your cheapest options. As long as the Range Check shows a green check mark your levels should be acceptable.

You can also choose various levels of broadcast safe from within the filter parameter depending on how bad your levels are.

Good Luck
Bob

[Moody Glasgow]

The truth is, you need a hardware scope to make sure your output is “legal”.
Software solutions only make sure its legal inside your box. It can’t tell you if its legal on the tape. But, for the most part you should be ok with a software solution.

[Kurt Hennrich]

look at my mastering plugin.
demo at https://www.1z1.at/plugins/

as long as you use the plugins default settings
and you are going out to tape digital via SDI (decklink card)
the results are rock solid broadcast save.
I am delivering lots of color corrections & edits for broadcast this way.

good luck,
kurt

[Max Frank]

Dear Kurt,

But what happens if you go straight to a DV Tape right out of FCP using Print-To-Tape?

Will your plug-in still keep it broadcast safe?

Thanks,

Wayne

[Kurt Hennrich]

[Wayne K.] “But what happens if you go straight to a DV Tape right out of FCP using Print-To-Tape?

Will your plug-in still keep it broadcast safe?”

of course it also should produce broadcast save firewire streams to DV tape
because it corrects the digital levels inside fcp.

to be honest, I have no way to measure firewire streams
or analog signals from DV, just SDI signals with my tektronix rasterizer.
and: I am allways delivering broadcasts as digibetas.
no broadcaster around here would accept DV for this purpose.

but even for dvd-only productions I use the mastering plugin
to correct levels before encoding video to mpg.

produceing ‘broadcast save’ levels is not just an issue to fulfill
the tech specs of the broadcaster… they usually use legalizer anyway before broadcasting.
more important for the creative is, that ‘broadcast save’ also means that the own work
just uses video levels that are reproducable by every video equipment on this planet
and therefore it is likely that everbody viewing your work will see exactly what you wanted them to see.

++ when working with dv material,
keep in mind that these cameras usually are recording
video at higher than 100% level.
so to get the look you want, you need to correct the levels
with the color correection filters first to bring them towards the legal
range in a way you are pleased with the look.
for this working step, an extern wafeform monitor is of great help.
if you want to be shure about your colors
(is black really pure black without color shift and saturation?),
you also need an extern vectorscope with magnification.
fcp’s build in WFM/scope are not useable for serious
work for several reasons.
a legalizer is only the last step (after color correction) to be shure to get
legal YUV levels, where the most important ones are:
– no video over 100% white (brightness + saturation)
– no video under 0% black (brightness + saturation)
– no saturation at 100% white
– no saturation at 0% black

kurt

[Max Frank]

Kurt,

Thanks so much for your detailed and lengthy reply.

Another ignorant question if I may – something I’ve never quite understood:

If your plug-in brings all the levels into broadcast spec, then why should one still use the color corrector first?

You mention that you should do it if one wants to keep ‘the look’ (I assume the plug-in could alter the look of the clip) – but what if one is satisfied with the look AFTER the plug-in has been applied? Would one still need to do the color-correction step?

Thanks so much in advance,

Wayne

[Kurt Hennrich]

[Wayne K.] “If your plug-in brings all the levels into broadcast spec, then why should one still use the color corrector first?

You mention that you should do it if one wants to keep ‘the look’ (I assume the plug-in could alter the look of the clip) – but what if one is satisfied with the look AFTER the plug-in has been applied? Would one still need to do the color-correction step?”

if the plugin finds nonlegal levels, it simply cuts them
so you might loose wellcomed details that are beyond 100%.
if you like what you see after applying the plugin, you are just fine.
if not, bring very bright or very saturated details into the 100% range first
with color correction.

assume you bought a christmas tree thats too big for your room.
cut it’s top (legal only) or change it to a smaller one (colorcorrrection befor legal)
– it depends what you like more.

kurt

[Max Frank]

Great analogy.

Thanks for the prompt & informative reply.

Yours,

Wayne

[Trinity Greer]

THanks Kurt, I will test out your plugin for sure. Is it HD color space and SD, or just SD color space?

Robert,
the Broadcast filter didn’t produce reliable results in past broadcast prep sessions. I want something a little bit more true.

[Kurt Hennrich]

[Trinity Greer] “THanks Kurt, I will test out your plugin for sure. Is it HD color space and SD, or just SD color sp”

hd vers sd color space is handled by fcp itself
and is determined by the sequence settings and
what kind of clip (hd vers sd) is edited into it.
so filter-plugins dont need to take care about.

at least this is what I found out during tests.
could not find any docs about this issue.

kurt