sound problems when FCPX edit broadcast on TV

I edit for television with FCPX. I give a master (source-prores 422) to the producer. He encodes it XDCAM HD422 (50mbps) and sends it for encoding subtitles. It is then sent to the station. When it is broadcasted, their are intermittent "pops" in the sound and their are occasional black frames. The sound becomes desynchronized. The TV station says that they always have this problem with pieces edited by FCPX. They say it's because of the way FCPX renders. They said there is a way to render using Compressor. Can anyone tell me how to do that ?

Hi Marc,

I guess, Tom will give you here the same answers as at your request at ASC..

discussions.apple.com/thread/7537472

Whoever is encoding subtitles is causing it. I deliver broadcast, as do hundreds of others, and we don't see this. It is not an FCPX problem. But yes, that link Karsten posted.

I send videos to 3 different stations. Never have I had this issue. I do my own subtitles/captions though.
All 3 stations can do FTP, so I can send them a file. Some broadcast stations are still using tape and if this is the case, I send the video as Apple ProRes 422 with the SRT to a guy in another city to merge the two on tape. Even then, the broadcast station has never complained about these problems.

Also, these three stations require three different file formats. One wants MXF, and the other two want MPG with different settings.

May I ask why you don't just send an XDCAM HD422 (50mbps) file to the producer? Skip the whole Pro-Res export.
Do you have Compressor? If you can get the subtitles (SRT will need to convert to SCC) you can do all of this in compressor. This would take the three-step process down to one.

Schwyhart wrote: you can do all of this in compressor.

I stand corrected. It seems Compressor strips the captioning from the MXF. I tested the video using Switch player and nothing came up. Had our engineer look at it and he said there aren't captions attached either.

Thanks for your answers. I'm going to ask the closed caption company what type of files they use. They don't merge the file with mine though. They provide a separate file. I"ll use PPro in the meantime but I would really like to solve the problem because I really love working with FCPX.

Hi Marc, welcome to the forums.

We have been delivering to broadcast using FCP X since its release, and most of my friends are broadcasters or tv production companies. Never have we had any issues with audio coming from FCP X. So what that TV station is telling you is pure nonsense.

I find it aggravating that, as soon as people know that a program has been cut on FCP X, they try to blame it for every error that has been made somewhere else in the production chain. Very unprofessional.

Why do you let a producer create an XDCAM from your edit? You can easily do this yourself, bypassing the ProRes master. You will eliminate an unnecessary step that can introduce errors and over which you have no control. The shorter the chain between you and the station, the more control you have over what you do and the fewer nonsense you will hear from people who don't know what they are doing.

- Ronny

ronny courtens wrote: Hi Marc, welcome to the forums.

We have been delivering to broadcast using FCP X since its release, and most of my friends are broadcasters or tv production companies. Never have we had any issues with audio coming from FCP X. So what these people are telling you is pure nonsense.

I find it aggravating that, as soon as people know that a program has been cut on FCP X, they try to blame it for every error that has been made somewhere else in the production chain. Very unprofessional.

- Ronny

This is my frustration as well. Thanks for spreading the word Ronny!

My masters look and sound great when looked at on a computer. When the T.V. channel receives ti, they mix it with SCC files (subtitles) and again it looks and sounds good. It is then sent to Toronto for broadcasting (Rogers). It is when it is broadcasted that the sound distorts. When they try to correct the sound, the sound becomes desynchronized. I was told that it might be because I don't apply the broadcast safe filter correctly. I apply one broadcast safe filter on a compound clip containing my whole project. I was told by someone that we need to put two broadcast safe filters: one that reduces
luminance, the other that reduces saturation. Is that true ?

ronny courtens wrote: Hi Marc, welcome to the forums.

We have been delivering to broadcast using FCP X since its release, and most of my friends are broadcasters or tv production companies. Never have we had any issues with audio coming from FCP X. So what that TV station is telling you is pure nonsense.

I find it aggravating that, as soon as people know that a program has been cut on FCP X, they try to blame it for every error that has been made somewhere else in the production chain. Very unprofessional.

Why do you let a producer create an XDCAM from your edit? You can easily do this yourself, bypassing the ProRes master. You will eliminate an unnecessary step that can introduce errors and over which you have no control. The shorter the chain between you and the station, the more control you have over what you do and the fewer nonsense you will hear from people who don't know what they are doing.

- Ronny

Exactly

Marc,

- A broadcast safe filter is NOT necessary if your colors and luminance are within legal limits on your vectorscope/waveforms.

- It is correct that, in the very old days of analogue broadcasting, illegal luminance values could interfere with the audio. But this argument is not valid anymore today. So what they are telling you is pure B.S.

I would like to help you make your case. Export a small part of one of your edits to ProRes and send it to me via WeTransfer (max. 2GB) or Airbridge (max. 20 GB). We will do a broadcast-standard Quality Control on the file. If your program passes our QC I will send you a formal report to confirm that nothing is wrong with what you produce.

My email address is: ronnycourtens(at)mac(dot)com

- Ronny

I love this - nice touch Ronnie.

I get mad when so-called "professionals" try to put the blame of their own incompetence on someone else

BTW: I love your showreel, Steve!

- Ronny

Thank you, I'll ask the director of the show to send you sample !

We are asked by the station to give the master in XDCAM HD422 (50mbps). Do you want it in that format or you want me to export in just prores 422 ?

I will need the master exactly as you are sending it to the broadcaster. So yes, send me XDCAM HD422@50mbps.

Ronny

We too have delivered a ton of Broadcast EPs here to all Australian TV Networks.

Same tech specs as you. No problems.

Even with M&E stems (roles)...all good.

Frankly FCPX is far easier nowadays to deal with XDCAM HD422 workflows than FCP 7 ever was.

We simply used the XDCAM 50mbps 25i MXF preset in compressor shortcut in X and you can export straight out.

If you want to deliver on XDCAM optical disc - simply copy the MXF into the /CLIP subfolder. The XML stuff is automatically generated. Easy.

These days however, many of us are simply supplying MXF data files to Network either electronically or on external disk drives...

Dean...

The director will send you the file Monday or tuesday.