[Jerome Martinez]

[Sian O'Brien BA MCP] “VLC Codec Information states they are 720×608, whereas MediaInfo says they are 720×576.”

I think VLC does not support “display area” info from e.g. MXF, so displays the whole frame, including VITC in VBI. Not a problem for broadcasters if they support such kind of file (you need to ask them, but they usually do, this is classic)
If you look at text of tree view in MediaInfo, you should see both values (608 and 576).

[Sian O'Brien BA MCP] “They’re also supposed to be 16×9, which I thought was 1024×576”

Only in the case of square pixels. You can not suppose of width with only height and display aspect ratio, corresponding width depends of Pixel Aspect Ratio. For PAL (720×576) this is **not** square pixel aspect ratio.

[Sian O'Brien BA MCP] ” If these files are 720×576, does that mean they’re anamorphic videos? And if yes, will this be a problem?”

Yes it is anamorphic, no it will not be a problem because it is standard PAL (you would have a problem if the file is not anamorphic, actually)

Jérôme, developer of MediaInfo.

[Jerome Martinez]

in your file, video_format is set to 1 (so PAL).
below is the trace of the begining of the avcC atom of your file:

0000025D AVC decode (55 bytes)
0000025D Header (8 bytes)
0000025D Size: 55 (0x00000037)
00000261 Name: avcC
00000265 Version: 1 (0x01)
00000266 Specific (46 bytes)
00000266 Profile: 100 (0x64)
00000267 Compatible profile: 0 (0x00)
00000268 Level: 40 (0x28)
0000026B Reserved: 63 (0x3F) - (6 bits)
00000269 Size of NALU length minus 1: 3 (0x03) - (2 bits)
0000026E Reserved: 7 (0x07) - (3 bits)
00000269 seq_parameter_set count: 1 (0x01) - (5 bits)
0000026B seq_parameter_set (33 bytes)
0000026B Size: 31 (0x001F)
00000272 nal_ref_idc: 3 (0x03) - (2 bits)
0000026D nal_unit_type: 7 (0x07) - (5 bits)
0000026E profile_idc: 100 (0x64)
0000026F constraints (1 bytes)
00000276 constraint_set0_flag: No
00000275 constraint_set1_flag: No
00000274 constraint_set2_flag: No
00000273 constraint_set3_flag: No
00000272 constraint_set4_flag: No
00000271 constraint_set5_flag: No
0000026F reserved_zero_2bits: 0 (0x0)
0000026F level_idc: 40 (0x28) - (8 bits)
00000276 seq_parameter_set_id: 0 (0x0)
00000276 high profile specific (18446744073709551612 bytes)
00000273 chroma_format_idc: 1 (0x1) - 4:2:0
00000272 bit_depth_luma_minus8: 0 (0x0)
00000271 bit_depth_chroma_minus8: 0 (0x0)
00000270 qpprime_y_zero_transform_bypass_flag: No
0000026F seq_scaling_matrix_present_flag: No
00000272 log2_max_frame_num_minus4: 4 (0x4)
00000271 pic_order_cnt_type: 0 (0x0)
00000274 log2_max_pic_order_cnt_lsb_minus4: 4 (0x4)
00000271 max_num_ref_frames: 2 (0x2)
00000270 gaps_in_frame_num_value_allowed_flag: No
00000273 pic_width_in_mbs_minus1: 119 (0x77)
00000276 pic_height_in_map_units_minus1: 67 (0x43)
00000275 frame_mbs_only_flag: Yes
00000274 direct_8x8_inference_flag: Yes
00000274 frame_cropping_flag (4 bytes)
00000273 frame_cropping_flag: Yes
00000272 frame_crop_left_offset: 0 (0x0)
00000271 frame_crop_right_offset: 0 (0x0)
00000270 frame_crop_top_offset: 0 (0x0)
00000273 frame_crop_bottom_offset: 4 (0x4)
00000273 vui_parameters_present_flag (22 bytes)
00000272 vui_parameters_present_flag: Yes
00000272 aspect_ratio_info_present_flag (7 bytes)
00000271 aspect_ratio_info_present_flag: Yes
00000271 aspect_ratio_idc: 1 (0x01) - (8 bits) - 1.000
00000270 overscan_info_present_flag: No
00000270 video_signal_type_present_flag (13 bytes)
0000026F video_signal_type_present_flag: Yes
00000274 video_format: 1 (0x01) - (3 bits) - PAL
00000273 video_full_range_flag: 0 (0x00) - (1 bits) - Limited
00000273 colour_description_present_flag (10 bytes)
00000272 colour_description_present_flag: Yes
00000272 colour_primaries: 1 (0x01) - (8 bits) - BT.709
00000272 transfer_characteristics: 1 (0x01) - (8 bits) - BT.709
00000272 matrix_coefficients: 1 (0x01) - (8 bits) - BT.709
00000271 chroma_loc_info_present_flag: No
00000271 timing_info_present_flag (21 bytes)
00000270 timing_info_present_flag: Yes
00000270 num_units_in_tick: 1 (0x1)
00000270 time_scale: 60 (0x3C)
0000026F fixed_frame_rate_flag: Yes
00000276 nal_hrd_parameters_present_flag: No
00000275 vcl_hrd_parameters_present_flag: No
00000274 pic_struct_present_flag: Yes
00000274 bitstream_restriction_flag (21 bytes)
00000273 bitstream_restriction_flag: Yes
00000272 motion_vectors_over_pic_boundaries_flagYes
0000026F max_bytes_per_pic_denom: 2 (0x2)
00000274 max_bits_per_mb_denom: 1 (0x1)
00000275 log2_max_mv_length_horizontal: 10 (0xA)
00000276 log2_max_mv_length_vertical: 10 (0xA)
00000273 max_num_reorder_frames: 1 (0x1)
00000270 max_dec_frame_buffering: 2 (0x2)
0000028C pic_parameter_set count: 1 (0x01)
0000028D pic_parameter_set (7 bytes)
(...)

[Jerome Martinez]

PAL standard, which makes no sense to me.

Again, I show only what the encoder says. Nothing else.
If you want a confirmation, please provide a sample file and I’ll show you the “trace” of the bitstream.

The video seems fine.

Most players don’t care of this bitstream field.

[Jerome Martinez]

So I was just suggesting that you be more intelligent in your guessing to include frame rate with width and height since it’s these three things together that determine if something is NTSC or PAL compliant.

Implemented.
For this file, no change in MediaInfo display because “video_format” field has currently the priority (the “auto-detection” is done only if “video_format” field is missing).

If you would never do that, then there should only be one check and that is what the video_format field says.

I wanted to mean that I’ll never hide the value from the “video_format” field.
There is definitely some incoherency here in MediaInfo output, and this is the reason I am thinking to split the line (1 line, 1 test).
I just don’t want to hide the “video_format” field even if it is wrong. I think I’ll move it to a “Reported standard” line but I need to think a bit more about it, never good to change things too quickly.

What I have in mind is to display something like:
Standard: Full HD
Reported standard: NTSC

[Jerome Martinez]

I guess you have to decide if you want to trust the metadata or the stream format?

MediaInfo aims to display information from the file. there is a “video_format” field in the bistream, I display what is in that field.
I prefer to educate people that cheating on the stream: the stream is bad, complain to the company who encodes it (even if it is Sony).
I understand that people prefer to discard such issue, but I did not choose this policy.

I would recommend that frame rate overrides the metadata and reports it as PAL video.

Rely on me for never doing that ;-).
If there are incoherencies and if I implemented the detection (incoherencies detection is a hard job, very long, I priotize depending of sponsorhips), I will display both values (the metadata one and the detected one) but I’ll never hide the bug from the encoder.
I consider MediaInfo as having the right output because I report the information from the bitstream. But I am thinking to split this line in 2: one for the “detected” standard, one for the “reported” standard.
I already have several coherency tests but I don’t have this one, this is the main issue I see and I put it on my (long) todo-list.

BTW, MediaInfo is an awesome program that we recommend here a lot. Thanks for writing it.

🙂

[Jerome Martinez]

NTSC does not support 25 fps so I don’t see how MediaInfo could mistaken it for NTSC unless it was a bug.

In e.g. MPEG-2 Video, there is a bitstream field for the standard (“extension_start”, “Sequence display”, “video_format”), and another one for frame rate (“sequence_header”, “aspect_ratio_information”). Same for AVC.

In MediaInfo, “NTSC” is displayed if:
– “video_format” bitstream field is set to “NTSC”
– width and height is 720/704 and 486/480 (there is no test on the frame rate, maybe I should add one…), impossible here (1080 lines).

Your file (its encoder) is buggy if “video_format” is set to 2 (“NTSC”) instead of of 5 (“Unspecified video format”) with a 1080p25 fps stream.
From specs: “video_format indicates the representation of the pictures as specified in Table E-2, before being coded in accordance with this Recommendation | International Standard. When the video_format syntax element is not present, video_format value shall be inferred to be equal to 5.”

Jerome, developer of MediaInfo.