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General-FAQ'S
HD video generally refers to a higher resolution than standard definition (SD) NTSC or PAL video. HD display resolutions are most commonly presented at the following resolutions: 720p - 1280x720 or 1080i & 1080p – 1920x1080.
“I” stands for Progressive Interlace Scanning”
“P” stands for Progressive Image Scanning”
Anamorphic video refers to the horizontal squeezing of a widescreen image. This format is typically used when down converting from an HD format to an SD format. This option allows the widescreen image to be recovered in later processing. There is no image loss.
Pillar box is vertical equivalent to letterbox and easily visualized as a 4x3 video image shown in a 16x9 frame. Black bars/mattes are placed on the left and right of the image. Pillar box usually becomes necessary when a film or video that was not originally designed for widescreen viewing will be shown on a widescreen.
USA Dubs uses the highest quality converter to change the video standards between NTSC, PAL and SECAM.
USA Dubs’ conversions provide a high quality up & cross conversion to HD video standards, which produces results far superior to other standards converters because it uses several methods of motion compensation and prediction. In addition, it calculates and fills in missing picture detail during up conversion to HD video formats, a capability not found in other HD converters.
Letterbox is when the video fits the widescreen image into the 4x3 space with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. In this format the image does not appear stretched.
HD video generally refers to a higher resolution than standard definition (SD) NTSC or PAL video. HD display resolutions are most commonly presented at the following resolutions: 720p - 1280x720 or 1080i & 1080p – 1920x1080.
“I” stands for Progressive Interlace Scanning”
“P” stands for Progressive Image Scanning”
Duplication and Replication describe two different processes. When you duplicate a disc you burn it (the same way you would at home). A disc that has been replicated is “pressed” with a glass master. The difference is consistency.
Replicated discs are identical to the glass master; duplicated discs vary according to the discs used & the drive they were burned in. USA Dubs uses the replication process for orders of 1000 discs or more.
Generally used for commercials, infomercials, video news releases, public service announcements and electronic press kits, SIGMA is an electronic verification service.
Lines 20 and 22 are encoded with an ID number, encoding date and time. Nielsen Media Research provides overnight service reports of airplay in all TV markets in the U.S.
An Audio/Video encoding system, SpoTTrac incorporates audio watermarking and video encoding for broadcast verification of commercials, PSAs, electronic press kits and more.
Using Nielsen Media Research content identification information, SpoTTrac delivers reliable detections in analog and digital broadcasting. SpoTTrac is yet another solution for tracking commercial airplay in U.S. TV markets.
USA Dubs requests artwork to be delivered via disc, email or uploaded to the USA Dubs ftp site. Artwork specifications and templates are available A client services representative will coordinate this with you
Closed Captioning- FAQ's
“Open captions” or “open caps” are captions that are visible to all viewers and does not require a decoder. USA Dubs can provide its clients with open caps as a digital file, on VHS or DVD when approving a closed captioning job
Subtitles, similar to captioning, translate dialogue and on-screen text. Subtitles assume the viewer can hear, but does not understand the language that is being spoken.
The V-chip, also known as “viewer control” chip, electronically reads television program ratings allowing parents to block out programs deemed inappropriate for their children. V-Chip is based upon the TV Parental Guidelines rating system established by the National Association of Broadcasters.
For a complete list of the guidelines:
http://www.fcc.gov/parents/parent_guide.html click here. The guidelines apply to most televised programming excluding sports and news shows.
“Open captions” or “open caps” are captions that are visible to all viewers and does not require a decoder. USA Dubs can provide its clients with open caps as a digital file, on VHS or DVD when approving a closed captioning job.
Blu-ray, also commonly known as Blu-ray Disc, is a next-generation optical disc format. This format was developed to enable the recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), in addition to storing large amounts of data.
The Blu-ray name is derived from the blue-violet laser used to read and write data to and from the disc. The letter “e” was intentionally left off so the term “Blu-ray” so the term could be registered as a trademark.
The Blu-ray optical disc format stores up to 25GB on a single-layer disc (BD-25) and up to 50GB (BD-50) on a dual-layer disc; translating to approximately 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video on a 50GB disc and 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video on a 50GB disc.
WMV stands for Windows Media Video, a compressed video file format developed and widely used by Microsoft systems. With a better compression ratio, Microsoft claims superior image quality over its competitor formats such as MPEG-4 and MPEG-
USA Dubs uses advanced hardware encoding systems to convert your tape or file-based content to high quality .wmv movies in HDTV, NTSC or custom resolutions.
Linear PCM (LPCM) - up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio. (mandatory)
Dolby Digital (DD) - format used forDVDs, 1-channel surround sound. (mandatory)
Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) - extension of Dolby Digital, 1-channel surround sound. (optional)
Dolby TrueHD - lossless encoding of up to 8 channels of audio. (optional)
DTS Digital Surround - format used forDVDs, 1-channel surround sound. (mandatory)
DTS-HD High Resolution Audio - extension of DTS, 1-channel surround sound. (optional)
DTS-HD Master Audio - lossless encoding of up to 8 channels of audio. (optional)
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is the consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray Disc technology. Click here for a list of Players and Playback software updates that are currently available.
Macrovision is an analog copy protection for digital media that prevents recording a DVD program onto videotape. It works by inserting signals and color bars into the video that causes a recorder to lose video synchronization while not affecting a television set. CSS stands for Content Scrambling System, which digitally encrypts the data on a DVD disc.
Multimedia- Format FAQ's
WMV stands for Windows Media Video, a compressed video file format developed and widely used by Microsoft systems. With a better compression ratio, Microsoft claims superior image quality over its competitor formats such as MPEG-4 and MPEG-2.
USA Dubs uses advanced hardware encoding systems to convert your tape or file-based content to high quality .wmv movies in HDTV, NTSC or custom resolutions.
WMV HD is a marketing name for HD video encoded using Windows Media Video 9 codecs. USA Dubs can encode your video to WMV HD, making it possible to view HD movies in 720p or 1080p on most personal computers and the Xbox 360 game console. WMV HD offers nearly six times the resolution of a standard DVD.
Quicktime is a comprehensive multimedia file container developed by Apple that can hold one or more tracks each with a particular kind of data. Its capabilities include digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation and music. The Quicktime framework includes Quicktime Media Player, Quicktime Movie (.mov) and is compatible with both Apple and Microsoft systems. Quicktime movies operate with a wide variety of codecs, giving Quicktime the ability to transport media from many different applications. Quicktime files are not limited to the 2Gb size limit that plagues the .AVI format.
USA Dubs uses Quicktime for a wide range of tasks including HD premastering for film recording, Blu-ray and HD-DVD encoding, and transporting audio and video through the Internet.
AVI is the acronym for “Audio Video Interleave” and is a multimedia container format originally introduced and still widely used by Microsoft Windows technology. Derived from the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) format, AVI files can contain multiple sequences of data, primarily audio and video streams. Therefore, AVI formats allow for capturing, editing and synchronous playback of multimedia files.
USA Dubs imports uncompressed audio and video content in the AVI format for projects being edited on our state-of-the-art video edit systems. USA Dubs also exports content in uncompressed or compressed AVI files for use in a variety of our customers’ applications.
Real Media is a multimedia container format created by Real Networks and is recognized by its extension (.rm). It is used for streaming content over the Internet in conjunction with Real Video and Real Audio. Typically, these streams have a constant bitrate (CBR), but new developments by Real Networks have also brought variable bitrate (VBR) streams into existence. Real Player and the Real Alternative codec pack support Real Media on different systems/platforms. Real Media is one of the many media formats encoded at USA Dubs.
MPEG-1 was an early standard for lossy compression, being the first “advanced” video codec to compress picture data across time (inter-frame compression) as well as within each frame of video (intra-frame compression). One of the most compatible codecs of its kind, MPEG-1 was designed to compress raw video into “VHS quality” that would fit onto the same capacity CD format used for audio discs. The Video CD never achieved commercial success and was rapidly replaced by DVD.
MPEG-1 supports video coding up to about 5Mbits giving decent quality video playback on virtually any computer platform. USA Dubs uses this capability to make approval copies of editing and closed captioning projects. An MPEG-1 movie of a 30 second spot is compact enough to attach to an email message. Customers receive longer programs by downloading their files from USA Dubs’ FTP site.
MPEG-2 is an extension of MPEG-1 international standard and was created to address video coding for broadcast formats. MPEG-2 codes standard definition (SD) at bit rates of approximate 3-15Mbit/s and high definition (HD) at 15-30Mbit/s. Audio capabilities of MPEG-2 extend to multi-channel surround sound coding.
MPEG-4 is a collection of standards for advanced video compression that scales to the needs of a wide variety of environments, from streaming media over the web, to Blu-ray or HD-DVD encoding, and master-quality video production applications. Built on the basic technologies found in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 provides a much more advanced method of creating “macroblocks,” the basic picture elements in compressed MPEG streams. The benefits of MPEG-4 encoding include noticeably better picture quality with fewer compression artifacts and much smaller file sizes.
USA Dubs uses MPEG-4 technology to encode Flash movies and Blu-ray discs, but the technology also provides the data compression engine used in USA Dubs’ most technically advanced HDTV videotape recorders, the Sony HDCAM-SR.
Flash video is a file format specifically designed to deliver a quality audio + video experience over the Internet using highly compressed files that download and stream well despite the limitations of Internet and PC technology. Flash videos are viewable in all web browsers having Flash plug-ins or in a variety of Flash players, such as Adobe Flash Player (formerly known as Macromedia Flash Player).
Flash files contain bit streams of motion video, vector graphics and MP3 audio authored in an animation environment.
MP3, also known as MPEG-1 Audio Layer, is a digital audio encoding format widely used for consumer audio storage and is the standard audio format for portable digital audio players such as the I-Pod. Because of its lossy data compression, MP3 formats significantly reduce the amount of data needed for reproductions of audio tracks. MP3 files are typically about 1/10th the CD file created from the original source. Although the new MP3 file provides only medium music fidelity, the audible difference is not noticeable to the ordinary listener.
USA Dubs encodes MP3 format audio for use on web sites, in Flash files and, yes, also for I-Pods.
Audio Interchange File Format, otherwise known as AIFF or AIF, stores audio data to be used for personal electronic audio devices and computers. These files are the preferred format to store and exchange full quality uncompressed audio in professional audio and video applications running on Apple Macintosh computers.
USA Dubs uses AIF files to create our customers’ videotape masters,DVDs, Blu-ray discs and audio CDs. Because Audio Interchange Files are non-compressed and lossless, they are not suited for applications such as web sites or content streaming, which require much more compact file sizes with reasonably good sound quality.
WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format and is used for standard audio bitstream storage on PCs. These files are the PC equivalent of AIF files, containing essentially the same audio data in a lossless compression scheme wrapped in a file format optimized for PC operating systems. WAV files can be quite large and often require a substantial amount of storage space.
USA Dubs uses WAV files to produce radio spots, uncompressed DVD tracks and a variety of audio imports/exports for video editorial. WAV files also occasionally are found in portable audio players where the listener desires the best possible sound quality. In that application, they consume much more storage space and battery life than the very compressed MP3 files usually used with portable players.
3GP is a simplified version of the MP4; it integrates mp3, mp4, 3gpp, 3g3p and 3g It is a multimedia container format supported by most 3G mobile phones. Because 3GP also describes image sizes and bandwidth, content is correctly sized for playback on mobile phone screens.
The two file extensions, .3gp and .3g2, correspond to the two predominant wireless digital networks currently in use: GSM and CDMA2000. 3gp is standard over the GSM Network and .3g2 is standard over the CDMA2000 Network. 3GP files can also be viewed on a PC using QuickTime or Real Player.
Digital Beta records as component video meaning the video signal has been split into two or more components.
Tape Formats FAQ's
Introduced by SONY in 1986, Betacam SP (or Beta SP) quickly rose to become the industry standard and the top choice for professionals in the electronic news gathering and post-production worlds. The success of Betacam SP is primarily due to the use of a newly developed metal-formulated tape. This allowed compact, lightweight video recorders to record component video signals with increased horizontal resolution of 360 lines and vastly improved color.It has been hailed as the most successful multi-purpose video format of the 20th Century and rightfully claims the title of Betacam SP: Superior Performance.
The Beta SP format allows USA Dubs to distribute broadcast quality video programs and commercial spots to TV stations and networks worldwide on compact, inexpensive tape cassettes.
First introduced in 1996, Betacam SX (or Beta SX) is the digital version of Betacam SP. As a highly compressed digital tape format that provides excellent picture quality, Beta SX became a cheaper alternative for digital production widely adopted by TV news gathering organizations. Beta SX uses MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frame compression, allowing ample chroma resolution for use with the Chroma Key process employed in almost every news broadcast. Several of USA Dubs’ customers have adopted Betacam SX as their in-house production format.
Beta SX VTRs feature a wide range of analog and digital inputs and outputs, allowing them to substitute for almost any other video recorder. USA Dubs uses the advanced capabilities of these VTRs to provide digital quality playback of legacy Beta SP tapes for duplication, standard conversion, editing and DVD encoding work.
One of the most commonly used formats for camcorders is the digital format, MiniDV. MiniDV tapes are available in three recording lengths: 30, 60 and 80 minutes.
DVCAM is a prosumer extension of the standard DV format, which operates with a 33% higher tape speed than MiniDV. This allows room to record control track and time code data, giving the format insert and assemble editing capability. The higher tape speed requires most robust DVCAM tape stock to be used for best performance; however, MiniDV cassettes can be used in a pinch.
DVCAM records component digital video using 7:1 compression with a reduced frame size and greatly restricted color space compared to mastering tape formats. It can record audio in either professional quality 2-channel mode or reduced quality 4-channel mode.
DVCAM is intended for use in very small and highly portable camcorders. The high compression and restricted color gamut make DVCAM unsuitable for chroma keying or multi-generation use.
XDCAM is a single sided rewritable disc that uses blue laser violet technology, like the Blu-ray disc (hence Blu-ray’s name). XDCAM offers up to 23 GB of storage space. XDCAM supports standard definition video and XDCAM HD supports high definition video.
The XDCAM HD system is its compatible with HDV 1080i editing. XDCAM HD supports 1080/594i, 50i, 297P, 25P and 298P frame rates; its SD counterpart supports 480/594i, 480/297P and 480/298P or 576/50i and 576/25P
Hi8, predecessor to the original 8mm, is a high quality version of the 8mm videotape format and was introduced to counter Super-VHS (SVHS). Hi8 is still an analogue format, using metal tape and records an increased image resolution of 415 lines of resolution (over 8mm’s 255 lines). This is still the best you can get in the analogue range of domestic camcorders.
D2 is a digital tape format that was introduced as a low-cost alternative to the D1 format. D2 is a metal particle tape format that comes in three different cassette sizes. It was the first digital tape format to offer “preread.” Read before write allows simultaneous playback and recording on the same VTR (linear editing), eliminating the need for an additional recorder and saved considerable time.
Introduced by Panasonic in 1994, D-5 is a professional digital video format that can be used for both Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD). D5 records uncompressed component digital video in NTSC or PAL, but recent D5 VTRs also record and play the commonly used HDTV standards. D-5 uses the same half-inch tape cassette as the D-3 (120 min D-3 tape = 60 min D-5/HD).
HD Tape Formats FAQ's
DVCPro HD, also known as DVCPro 100, encodes 4:2:2 color sampling and supports up to eight audio tracks. The entire DVCPro format was introduced by Panasonic and offers camcorders designed specifically for Electronic News Gathering (ENG) in addition to the Varicam, designed as a replacement for film cameras in commercial spot production.
DVCPro HD uses four parallel encoders to encode 720P or 1080i video at a bit rate of about 100Mbit/s. The Varicam offers the unique ability to shoot 720/60P video using overcranked or undercranked frame rates to provide slow and fast motion effects. These effects are stored as metadata in the video, so the motion effects become visible only after USA Dubs uses a frame rate conversion process on the camera masters.
DVCPro HD on tape is rapidly being supplanted by P2 card technology, where Panasonic cameras record DVCPro HD as files stored on memory cards in the camera. Most non-linear edit systems can use DVCPro HD media directly, eliminating the time-consuming capture process.
HDV was developed as the HDTV replacement for the DV, DVCAM and DVCPro formats. It offers the ability to record HD video in 1080i or 720P formats in the same 25Mb/S data rate that the DV formats use. That means that HDV uses the same compact DV tape transports and cassettes, but MPEG-2 compression at 4:2:0 sampling is required to accommodate the HDTV video. Although there is some quality loss that results, HDV has proven to be a useful alternative to higher bandwidth and more costly HD recording formats in camcorders.
USA Dubs provides HDV services to many independent productions working in this format, including capturing HDV tapes to your edit system’s hard drives.
HDCAM was the first commercially successful 1080P/1080i tape format. Its recorded bit rate is limited to 144Mbit/s, so HDCAM needs to use reduced bandwidth 3:1:1 chroma sampling plus a 1440x1080 compressed frame size. HDCAM VTR's have four audio channels, limiting their usefulness in surround audio applications. Because of the reduced image quality, most broadcast and cable networks are replacing HDCAM with the newer HDCAM-SR format.
USA Dubs offers all HD services in both HDCAM and HDCAM-SR.
D5HD supports the same HD formats as HDCAM with the addition of 720P. It uses standard D-5 videotape cassettes to record HD using intraframe compression with a 4:1 ratio and either four or eight channels of 24-bit audio.
For feature film post-production work, D5-HD VTR's can be fitted with an adapter unit to convert the unit’s electronics to record and play the 2K data format, which provides a larger frame size than is used in HDTV formats.
HDCAM SR uses a higher particle density tape and provides a greatly improved picture over standard HDCAM. While HDCAM sub-samples chroma information at 3:1:1 and horizontal resolution at 1440 pixels, HDCAM-SR uses MPEG-4 High Level @ High Profile compression to record the complete data in each frame of video while maintaining master quality. Additionally, SR offers the choice between 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma sampling, up to twelve audio channels and includes all 1080i and 720P formats.
USA Dubs uses a number of HDCAM-SR VTRs for HD editorial, closed captioning, duplication and Blu-ray mastering. HDCAM-SR has become the industry standard format for HDTV production, mastering and distribution of programs and commercial spots.
PAL HD is the High Definition Format most commonly used overseas. It is formatted at 1080i50 which means it has 1920 x 1080 pixels, interlaced encoding with 50 fields per second. The United States uses NTSC which has 60 fields per second.
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