Best Compressor Setting for TV

Hello,

I was just wondering if I could get some suggestions for compressor settings for TV. All broadcast company requires is that it has to be 1920x1080 and that it has to be a .mov.

Thanks!

You need to get specs from that specific broadcast station. I run production at a TV station, and we just switched to HD, and only 720. Not every station is the same. I have a good friend at a station a couple of cities away, and they demand higher bit rates than our equipment can handle. So yeah, get specs from the TV station. And have them be very detailed.

A 1920 .mov file can be H.264, ProRes, any number of codecs. So saying ".mov" tells you basically nothing about what's inside the wrapper.

Just trivia, but I also consult for a station that does HD and demands MPEG-2 at 18 min, 25 max video bit rates, and audio at 44.1kHz. A different station I used to work with demanded H.264 as .mp4 with AAC 48kHz audio. All depends on the specific station's hardware requirements.

I'd ask specifically for:
- Video codec, frame size, bit rate, wrapper.
- Audio codec, sample rate, bit rate.

Gotcha thanks for the info. I found the sheet that has the specs they just don't have the video bit rate on there so I'm going to ask them about that. Thanks!

Yeah, I seem to have to dig for the video bit rate often with TV stations. They don't seem to think it matters, but I've encoded stuff that clogged up their muxing units with bit rates set to hight. 18-15 is pretty safe, but check to be sure. Usually, I have found, they'll give you the information you ask for quickly, but you have to ask for it.