What´s the best CODEC for TV?

[Todd Kopriva]

The best thing to do is to ask whoever you are delivering the video to for their exact specifications.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
product manager, professional video software
After Effects team blog
Premiere Pro team blog
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[Kevin Reiner]

To expand upon what Todd has said, you must ask each station what their specs are. They should have a spec sheet with size, codec, audio settings etc. We export to about 25 stations in our region and I see everything from DV to HDV to mpeg to .h264 to DVCproHD. It seems like .h264 is winning the format battle, but each station is still different.

This being an After Effects forum, I must also advise you not to export out of AE to each codec that you need. AE is not a compression application. Export a high quality master file (ProRes HQ 422 is a good one) and then use a compression application to make all your broadcast versions. I use Episode and have a watch folder that automatically creates the correct files for that station and then uploads it to their FTP site.

Good luck,
Reiner

PS If they say, “just send us a quicktime movie” then ask to speak to the person who loads the spots.

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[Todd Kopriva]

Here’s an excellent article by Aharon Rabinowitz that elaborates on this a bit more:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/delivery.php

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
product manager, professional video software
After Effects team blog
Premiere Pro team blog
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[Kevin Reiner]

Oh, and don’t forget this:

Each station wants your spot a little different. Some want exactly 30 seconds, some want an extra frame at the top and bottom, many want the file name a certain way. One of mine even wants 8 seconds of slate and 2 seconds of black before the spot (which, to me, is a huge waste of data space on their end.)

Its a bit of work to get it all figured out, but once you get it down, it can be pretty well automated.

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[Mijail Perez perez]

You are right. Sorry. Well, it´s an animated advertising for TV. I am going to do this animation in Toon Boom and then, I will export it with the ANIMATION códec, and after, I will open this animation in Premiere or After Effects and there, export the animation for TV. I don´t know if with the h.264 códec it´s ok. Besides, I don´t know which is the best resolution to do this video, maybe 1920 x 1080 píxels?.. What do you think about this?. Which is the best resolution to do a video, and can be see in any TV?.

Thank you.

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Besides all the advice in the previous posts, I would ask also about the audio specs. I had spots turned back quite a few times in the beginning because the audio did not match the exact standard of the station/channel.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Kevin Reiner]

1920×1080 is the resolution you should use. For final delivery, you need to contact the station that is playing the spot and ask them what their file specs are. They should give you detailed information. Then use a compression application like compressor, squeeze, episode etc to make the deliverable video file. Don’t use AE to compress.

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
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Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
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Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
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Zaxwerks Invig