When you read through your QC report you may have some questions on what certain things mean. We have compiles a guide with questions on what is on the report and what it means. Page 1 of the report is a general list of Video and Audio Specs that need to be measured and correct. Page 2 and beyond (if applicable) contains a list of the issues in the show and a rating for each item for severity of issue. Here are some things to look for in the report in which we often get questions.
Page 1
The numbers in red on the report correspond to the numbers below for each element in the report with a description of each.
1. Status: Your report will come with a final determination (in upper right corner) of either: Approved, Hold, or Rejected. If the program is on hold, that means that issues exist that may or should need to be fixed but it is at the discretion of the client, network, and / or distributor. If the determination is Rejected than mandatory fixes will have to be made as the program will be rejected in any situation.
The reasons for a Hold, or Rejected report are listed in two places. In the Comments section on page 1, there will be a summary of why the program is On hold or Rejected. On Page 2 and beyond there will be a list of issues with the timecodes where the issue begins and ends, and the duration of the issue. There is a rating next to each item of either 1, 2 , 2+ , or 3. Any item with a 3 rating is Rejected, any item with a 2+ rating is on hold. The same issues might not be noted in both the comments and the line items on page 2 and beyond but either is applicable.
Element Profile Section:
3. Total Run Time: Often if the feature or program has a slate before the start of program the run time listed will be incorrect. The total run time of a Television program or feature film is the duration from the first frame to the last including any logos, commercial breaks or black, or anything else in the program.
4. Total Program Time: The total program time of a program is the total duration not including blacks, or commercial breaks. As the majority of feature films do not have blacks or commercial breaks the Total Run Time & Total Program time are the same.
Program Format Section:
9. Start of Program: In broadcasting the program or feature always starts at timecode 01:00:00:00, known as hour one timecode. So the first frame of the program whether it is audio or video starts at 01:00:00:00 (In some countries in Europe they use hour 10 timecode in which the program would start sat 10:00:00:00) regardless of what is on the file before the start of program. When QC is performed the first frame of the program is found and the timeline is adjusted so that is the first frame. Often the program has audio fading up before the start of video. In that case the first frame of the fade up must be detected and marked as 01:00:00:00. This is done by backtiming from the start of file.
If a head format is on the file before start of program and it was not set up correctly it will result in a non-standard head format as the timecode is back timed from the start of program.
10. End of Program: This is the very last frame of the feature or show. It may be the end of an audio fade down after the picture has already gone to black.
11. Textless Material: This is covered on our Video Faq Sheet
Audio Information Section
15.Tones: If you are providing bars & tones in your head format (many distributors don’t want them) the tones should 1Khz at -20dbfs. (In some countries in Europe the tones are set at -18dbfs) Some editing program’s default tones are at -12dbfs or other levels; this is not correct for broadcast standards.
17.Audio Bit Depth: The Audio Bit Depth of a Feature or program for broadcasting standards is 24bit. We sometimes get audio delivered as 16 bit. In almost all cases if possible audio should be output at 24 bit.
18.Audio Bit Rate: Much of the audio streams on features and shows are delivered as single mono files on a self-contained Quicktime file. On such a file the audio bitrate will be 1151 kilobytes per second (kb/s). Sometimes a stereo pair can come together as a single track in which case the audio bitrate is doubled to 2304 kb/s. When mastering to a final output the audio tracks must be separated in either stereo tracks or mono tracks in terms of audio bitrate. Sometime we will receive a file where the audio tracks are grouped all into one track in terms of audio bitrate. If it is a 10 channel feature the audio bit rate when measured will be 11.5 megabytes per second (mb/s) which is 1151 kb/s x 10. In this instance the audio was not grouped together correctly and the layout should be redone.
Page 2
On Page 2 and beyond there will be a list of issues with the timecodes where the issue begins and ends, and the duration of the issue. There is a rating next to each item of either 1, 2, 2+ , or 3. Any item with a 3 rating is Rejected, any item with a 2+ rating is on hold. The same issues might not be noted in both the comments and the line items on page 2 and beyond but either is applicable. The columns on page 2 are layed out as follows from left to right.
In Timecode: The timcode where the issues starts
Item Description: Listing what the issue is.
Out Timecode: The timecode where the issue ends
Duration: How long the issue lasts.
Rating: The severity of the rating. (see above for description of ratings)
Sector: Where on screen the issue occurs (if it is not obvious)
Sector Descriptions
UL = Upper Left, UC = Upper Center, UR = Upper Right.
ML = Middle Left, MC = Middle Center, MR = Middle Right.
LL = Lower Left,LC = Lower Center, LR = Lower Right.
Fixed: This is use for second QC’s or fix checks where we get back a fixed version of the show and re-check it. Items that were rejected or on hold that are fixed will have a designation of Fixed in the box and the rating will be changed to FYI.
Examples in Item Descriptions.
Any time a item listed on page 2 and beyond is listed and an example (Ex. Example: Missing effect in M&E) that means that every instance of the example may not be listed in the report. This is done if the same issue persists over and over. In some cases the Example: will include further clarification such as Occasional throughout, or frequent throughout. If an issue is listed as an example than the person performing the fixes will need to find all the other examples of the same issue not listed and fix those as well.