Supply MPEG2 to TV stations?! Help!

[Rikki]

Hi there,

Just produced a music video for an artist and he's wanting to send it off to TV stations but this is what they've requested:

Supplying Copy to Fastrax via FTP
Technical Requirements
………………………………………………………………………………………..
The file name must include Artist & Song Title.
Music Videos should be delivered in 16:9 Aspect Ratio and adhere to the following spec.
This is an example using a 3’ 00” Music Video:
Clock:
09:59:50:00 Unique slate and countdown from 10’’
09:59:57:00 Black and silence
10:00:00:00 Video/Audio In Point (Start of Message)
10:02:59:24 Video/Audio Out Point (End of Message)
10:03:00:00 End of file
Broadcast Quality
Video Format: MPEG-2 422P@ML 4:2:2
Video Bitrate: 50 mbps I Frame Only
Resolution: 720x608 (we can accept 720x576)
Frame Rate: 25
Rate Control: CBR
Audio Channels: 2Ch Stereo pair
Audio Bitrate: Mpeg 1 layer 2 (we cannot accept uncompressed PCM audio)
Audio Bit Rate: 384 kbps
Audio Sample Rate: 48 kHz
Filed dominance: 1st field / Upper field first.
We require Broadcast Standard 625/50 (PAL) @ 720x608 resolution including VITC on lines 19 & 21.


---

Im using Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 and have no idea how to do any of that, can someone point me in the right direction please?

Thanks,

Rik

 

[PerroneFord]

I am going to be VERY interested in seeing how this one gets resolved.

 

[Demistate]

The big thing here you'll need to find out is if your mpeg-2 encoder included in Sony Vegas will encode a 4:2:2 Main Profile Mpeg-2 file. It looks like Premiere Pro CS4 here supports it.

If not You'll need to find a professional encoder to create your deliverable. 4:2:2 Mpeg-2 usually requires some high end encoding software. You'll spend less money sending it to a pro than trying to buy the encoder yourself.

http://www.mainconcept.com/products/apps-plug-ins/reference/mpeg-2.html

Main Concept's Mpeg-2 encoder is € 390.

You could also ask the station if they do conversions for a fee. It might be your best option if they want VITC in the signal.

 

[PerroneFord]

Is Vegas capable of doing VITC?

 

[Demistate]

Also found an answer on creative cow:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/21/858228

Hi Lloyd & co,

The actual reason we state both 720x608 as well as accepting 720x576 material in our specs is from a legacy requirement when recieving commercails that are originally ingested from a master tape direct to MPEG2. Examples of hardware encoders that can do this include Telestream's ClipMail Pro, Content Agent & Digital Rapids StreamZ.

As the world starts to migrate to a tapeless workflow (negating the need for physical tape masters) and smaller post houses or individuals cannot justify the costs of a Digibeta VTR, we are able to accept material without the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) included, thus a standard frame size of 720x576.

The only requirement we have for non-608 material is that TC is embedded and continuous which we can then reference and synthesize into our required VITC

The only situation we would stipulate that the VBI area be included is when the commercial has teletext (Line 22/335) embedded otherwise this information is not retained within 720x576 media and will be lost.

As Denis has mentioned (who i have worked with directly), please feel free to contact us if you require any advice or assistance in delivering material to IMD (IMDAdsat).

Kind Regards,

Adam Jakubowski

Technical Services Manager
Independent Media Distribution - IMD
www.imdplc.com

If this is the same station you're dealing with, it looks like its a carryover from Digibeta Legacy tape. If you don't need Closed Captioning it looks like you don't need to embed VITC signal.

 

[JeganRX]

Since you're on Vegas you're on a PC, so you have a few options with MPEG-2:

HC and QuEnc are free encoders that are both free (and both based on FFMPEG libraries), but I always preferred HC's customization - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/HC_encoder.htm

By the way, if you're dealing with DV-sourced material, you have bottom-field-first dominance on your interlacing, so this may become a problem since DVD is top-field; shift this in your editor first.

This also involves AVISynth, so I suggest you either learn how to use that, or find a commercial tool (TMPGEnc, or the much more expensive CCE SP) that allows easier input; here's my thread on basic AVISynth usage, but it doesn't cover anything regarding MPEG2: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=212392

Anyway let me guide you with pictures:

First Window

Obviously YOUR input goes here in the input. As for the bitrate, I realize that 50000kbits does not equal 50mbits, so I leave you to do the proper calculation.

Second Window

This is the most important screen, the GOP structure (or lack thereof) is what decides to encode in only intra-frames. You must go down to 1 GOP, and set b-frames to 0 - this forces it to encode intra. Now technically in my case, I'm using progressive video, so the interlacing option is irrelevant (I should have chosen 3:2 pulldown in the first menu), but as you can see, "TFF" is the default, and correct option. It does have an option for DV, but it merely switches to BFF, instead of adjusting your video to TFF. I'm not a big fan of interlaced chroma sampling, so I left it progressive here, but in all honesty, it's probably wiser to use interlaced in your case.

Third Window

I've left the profile at MP@ML, as required, but they didn't specify colorimetry, so I haven't changed it. I assume it defaults to BT.709, but ask them if they complain...

Fourth Window

The big thing here is the chroma output format, which has been requested as 4:2:2. Set it as such, and you'll be fine. I changed the CPU priority to "normal", but this has effect on quality, only speed.

The rest of the encoder can be left alone, unless you have other changes. I can't guarantee this will be perfect - they seem to want very strict MPEG2 encoding, so it's possible you might be forced into a commercial encoder. Their final note of VITC, I can't really help you with, but they also mention that they can accept 720x576, so you might be in the clear.

As for the audio, get this program:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffmpegGUI

It's another great, free program based on FFMPEG that can encode MP2 or AC3 audio. It's easy to figure out, just choose the bitrate specified and stereo mode, and you'll be set.

Next you need to mux these files together, and unfortunately, it seems that encoding such a file (intra, 4:2:2) creates difficulty for most of the freeware muxing tools out there. I resorted to the trial version of TMPGEnc to mux it (this is unlimited for 30 days, so you might as well use it while you can). Simply install TMPGEnc, go to File, and hit MPEG Tools. It'll take your files and spit out a .mpg file. Hope this works.

By the way, it may a bit tricky to test the file yourself: for the video end, check it in DGIndex (google it), and for overall playback, try using CCCP, and turning off Media Player Classic's MPEG2 decoding.