What kind of video file format that TV show used?

[ohboy888]

Hi,

I want to know what kind of video file format that TV show used? For example, the TV show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Saturday Night Live, Ellen show, etc... are they storing the TV show recording in a file format such as AVI, MP4, etc? If so, what kind of file format they use? Or could you describe the process of broadcasting/playing the TV show? I'm very curious about this.

[Cornucopia]

Wow - that's a tall order!

Here's a common process:

Capture with Video camera or digital cinema camera: Red (.r3d), Panasonic P2 (.mxf of dvcpro50/100 or avc-intra), many others.
Transfer to PC and convert to digital intermediate file format for editing: Cineform (either .avi or .mov), Avid DNxHD (either .avi or .mov), Apple ProRes422 (.mov), many others.
Render master in same format, or if going to Cinema: DCP (.mxf as PNG/TIFF picture sequences)
Convert to end consumer formats for distribution: AVC in .M2TS for Blu-ray, MPEG2 in .VOB for DVD, AVC in .MP4 for Apple iTunes/orther VOD, many others.

This is just general, because you asked a GENERAL question.

Scott

[filmboss80]

Commonly, XDCAM is the most widely used format of choice for producers in terms of delivery to TV broadcasters, but (as Cornucopia points out) the acquisition format can vary widely. And beyond broadcast, the distribution can be to various other formats, depending on end use.

Here are some insights on how they do the TV series Community:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/equipment/0082/media-composer-keeps-editing-in-the-%E2%80%...mmunity/213924

By the way, TV Technology provides a lot of good information. Here's another good article on media storage issues:

http://www.tvtechnology.com/white-papers/0143/why-video-storage-is-different--an-intro...ionals-/214820

Hope that points you in the right direction.

[smrpix]

And you're chasing a moving target. SNL went fron 2" quad to 1" to D1 to Digibeta to HDCam to JPEG200 digital storage. I don't know what they're using now.

Not only is the target moving, but it's constantly expanding as newer technologies, techniques, preferences and fads come and go.

[ohboy888]

Thanks to all replies, I'm still trying to understand. It's very hard to be comprehended by layman like me. Is there educational video about this topic in youtube? Probably, it would be much easier for me to understand by visual way. Also, I would like to know, what is the major name in college for studying this topic? Multimedia? Broadcasting?

[filmboss80]

I just noticed your location listing as Indonesia, so it is hard to say how much of the information given here would be helpful to you, specifically.

Colleges that offer degrees in film and television can be a tiny bit helpful in teaching general production methods and principles, but since technology rapidly changes, a good portion of what you'd learn in such institutions will be obsolete within a few years. Countless college students want to major in broadcasting and film programs because it seems really cool, but there are a finite number of jobs out there in the real world. The vast majority of such students are just flushing their money down the toilet. It would be better for you to major in business, and take a few TV and film classes on the side -- or be self taught.

Check out this site: http://www.focalpress.com Focal Press is one of the best publishers books on the subject.

To get an idea of the kinds of course offered by colleges, you can look here:
http://www.zencollegelife.com/best-cinematography-and-film-production-colleges/

But, but as far as colleges go, I wouldn't invest so much money for so little return, if I were you. (And this is coming from someone who earned a bachelor's degree in Radio-Television-Film many years ago.)

[ohboy888]

@Cornucopia:

Capture with Video camera or digital cinema camera: Red (.r3d), Panasonic P2 (.mxf of dvcpro50/100 or avc-intra), many others.

Is that raw video format? The file size must be very big, right?

Transfer to PC and convert to digital intermediate file format for editing: Cineform (either .avi or .mov), Avid DNxHD (either .avi or .mov), Apple ProRes422 (.mov), many others.

That means they don't directly edit the raw video, right? They convert and shrink the raw video into PC format so the editing won't use much PC's memory and is much faster.

Render master in same format, or if going to Cinema: DCP (.mxf as PNG/TIFF picture sequences)

So that's for cinema. How about TV program like non-live TV show such as: TV game show, reality show, etc, and live TV program such as news?


@filmboss80:

Colleges that offer degrees in film and television can be a tiny bit helpful in teaching general production methods and principles, but since technology rapidly changes, a good portion of what you'd learn in such institutions will be obsolete within a few years. Countless college students want to major in broadcasting and film programs because it seems really cool, but there are a finite number of jobs out there in the real world. The vast majority of such students are just flushing their money down the toilet. It would be better for you to major in business, and take a few TV and film classes on the side -- or be self taught.

Is the job opportunity really that rare in U.S. which is the country that produces many cool movies?

It would be better for you to major in business, and take a few TV and film classes on the side

Did you mean it's better become producer than editor or technical staff?

From the link you gave, there is a mention of "arts", so I got a thought, I remembered in my country, there is art university that teach art of movie and TV. I went to its website and find out the major name is very simple: TV and Movie.

[smrpix]

.. double post

[smrpix]

You may want to poke around at sites like post magazine: http://www.postmagazine.com/
or American Cinematographer: http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/

Or even get a subscription. Having a hard copy to pick up and return to helps. It will probably be total gibberish at first, but eventually things start to make sense.

A great site always worth mentioning, mostly historic, is http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/

If nothing else it will help you understand why there's no straight answer to your very broad question.