[Tom Cooper]

Hi Bob,

I suppose the fact of the matter is there is no easy single source of this information. It seems strange as there are usually text books for most subjects, but perhaps really I am just being lazy and should be putting some time into researching the various sources on the internet. Maybe broadcast video just isn’t the sort of area that can be easily summarized, due to differences between regions and individual stations and also the fact it can become out of date or redundant quite quickly.

My biggest problem is I have to explain a lot of these principles to people who need a basic working knowledge of them. Maybe I just need to compile a list of links on our intranet.

Thanks for all your help, I look forward to learning much more from the forum!

cheers

Tom

[Tom Cooper]

Thank you for your reply.

It’s not so much broadcast video levels as general video principles: aspect ratio, analog/digital systems, test patterns, PAL/NTSC, blanking etc. Maybe this is the wrong forum. I work for a production company and it would be useful to have a reference guide at work. The internet is surprisingly bad for this kind of information, and trust me, I’d rather look on the internet than get a book, but when I type in “pixel aspect ratio” I get hundreds of different interpretations and for many other specialist technical questions the information simply isn’t out there, or is just very difficult to search for. I appreciate a lot of it is subjective and all TV stations require different delivery requirements but a single source of professional information would be highly appreciated. Does it not exist?

I see no reason to buy a “book”, when you can get current, brief, detailed info for free.

Why have you put book in apostrophes? Your condescension is noted.

I am unaware of a “Brodcast Video Levels for Dummies” book.

What a shame. I have many people I work with in junior production roles who do not work on the front line and would greatly appreciate entry level information on the subject, even if it is not to the level of detail required for them to operate in that area.

Maybe this is not the forum for questions such as mine.