ALL: Video shoot for local TV

A

abeas

Well-known member
Today I am shooting a video at a local supermarket that will eventually end up as a 30-second spot ad, and as a 3.5 minute spot on Xfinity on Demand. The 30-second add will maintain HD resolution, but the on demand content will be down scaled to SD by the people at Xfinity. I am to deliver at either 720p or 1080i, Apple Pro Res with LPCM audio. There will be a short intro that I am shooting in front of a green screen. All of my previous gigs were for web uploading, so I always shot progressive. This is my first TV gig, so I am wondering if I should be shooting at 1080i or 720p? I will be using two Panasonic AG-160s, going to SDHC card; no external recorder.
Thoughts or reasonings?
 
On second thought, perhaps I'll shoot 1080p60 and export at 720p60. That might be my best best.
 
Ask the station/cable what file and specs they want. Shoot based on that and export to that. you also ask if they have a preset they want to e-mail you to use.
 
Broadcast specs usually call for 29.97 as well - though often I've had to supply 24p material already shot. I'll either send as-is, or export it at 29.97 and let FCP add the frames... always seems to look fine.
 
I stumbled across this thread and thought I would chime in to try and help people looking for information on the subject.

I have been doing pretty much all web video until recently where I have started doing broadcast TV commercials. The station I am doing work for is using a Digital Broadcast MediaFire Server to store and broadcast commercials using HD MPEG-2 files. No need to burn DVDs, I upload the MPEG-2 file directly to their FTP and they take it from there. While detailed requirements vary from station to station, the following are the requirements for the station I do work for and these parameters are probably a good starting point for anyone looking to get into/understand the requirements of modern broadcast TV video:

Stream Settings
Stream Type: MPEG-2 Transport Stream
File Extension: .mpg
Constant Bitrate
Closed GOP
GOP Size: 15, IBBP


Video
Format: MPEG-2
Picture Resolution: 1080i or 720p

Video Bitrate (for Chroma Sampling: 4:2:0*): 12 mbps – 20 mbps

Video Bitrate (for Chroma Sampling: 4:2:2*): 20 mbps – 40 mbps

*Video bitrate is dependent upon the chroma sampling format selected.

Audio
Audio Bitrate: 384 kbits / sec
Sample Rate: 48 kHz
Bits per Sample: 16

As you can see, there is no mention of frame rates so I think that is more of a creative choice rather than a required formatting parameter. Hope this helps!
 
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