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Submission Specifications
Version 5.0
June 2015
Page 2: General Submission Guidelines / Delivery Information
Page 3: Technical Specifications
Page 4: Additional Requirements
Pages 5-6: Closed Captions / Subtitle Requirements
Page 7: Common QC Issues
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GENERAL
SUBMISSION
GUIDELINES
bitMAX accepts a variety of archival-ready formats for ingestion but requires that the media be submitted as its native source (frame rate / resolution) which adhere to international standards. Please also note that
submission of content that does not meet bitMAX's preferred file specs will most likely result in an order processing delay.
Masters which have been standards-converted (PAL to or from NTSC) by conventional 4-field linear conversion equipment are NOT acceptable. Please provide masters in the native framerate / dimensions in which the content was produced.
You may send any archival ready format, but please note that bitMAX’s expectation is that when content is received for archive and delivery, that it has already passed a QC/QA stage from its place of origin. Video DVDs are NOT considered a broadcast-ready format, and are not acceptable. In the event that a submission to bitMAX does not pass our QC/QA, you will be notified and offered a chance to replace said material prior to delivery (additional costs may apply).
MEDIA SUBMISSIONS
When delivering any media you MUST complete the submission form located at: http://bam.bitmax.net/submission/index.html
Please note that the job cannot begin processing until we receive the form.
PHYSICAL DELIVERY DIGITAL UPLOADS
If you wish to submit physical media please deliver to one of the following two offices:
bitMAX LA 6255 W. Sunset Blvd Suite 1515 Los Angeles, CA 90028 Phone: 323.978.7878 bitMAX NY 55 Broad Street Suite 13A New York, NY 10004 Phone: 646.572.9292 All physical media will be held at bitMAX for a
MINIMUM of 24hrs after delivery. There will be NO exceptions granted. If a digital file is submitted via external hard drive (USB / Firewire / Thunderbolt), please ensure that the file to be archived is clearly named and placed in separate folder entitled: “FOR BITMAX”.
All physical media MUST have contact information provided with them either in the form of a telephone number or email address.
The return of source material should be arranged with the bitMAX vault manager either by telephone or email, a minimum of 1 hour before intended pickup.
Please note that the content owner will be responsible for any costs involving the return of
source material.
Internal hard drives and memory cards will NOT be accepted
All digital uploads must be sent via Aspera. An Aspera upload invitation for Music Video/Short Form may be requested at: www.bitmax.net/inbox An Aspera upload invitation for Film/Television/Concert content may be requested at: www.bitmax.net/longform Digital files MUST follow a specific naming convention: Music Videos:
Artist_Title_Version_ISRC.mov (ISRC should be provided if known.) Feature/Trailers:
Title_Feature_Version.mov Title_Trailer_Version.mov Television Series:
Series_EpisodeName_EpisodeNumber_Version.mov Use English letters, numbers, dashes and underscores ONLY. Abbreviations will not be accepted.
Versions should only relate to the deliverable product. (IE. Broadcast, Clean, Explicit, Closed Captioned). We CANNOT accept any videos from a third party site (IE. DROPBOX / YOUSENDIT)
We will NOT accept any videos with third party file compression (.zip / .rar)
Content uploaded will only be held temporarily for one month unless archived to BAM.
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DELIVERY FORMATS
Digital Tape
Apple ProRes 4444 Digital Betacam
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) HDCAM 4:2:2
Avid DNxHD / AvidDV100 (Music Videos ONLY) HDCAMSR 4:2:2 or 4:4:4
DVCPro HD / DVCPro (Music Videos ONLY) D5
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS
Standard Resolution Frame Rates Color Space
4K 4096 x 2304 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p ITU-R BT.2020 4096 x 2048 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p 4096 x 2160 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p 4096 x 1714 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p 3996 x 2160 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p 3840 x 2160 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p 2K 2048 x 1152 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p ITU-R BT.2020 2048 x 1024 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p
HD 1920 x 1080 29.97i / 29.97p /25i / 25p / 24p / 23.98p ITU-R BT.709 1280 x 720 29.97p / 25p / 24p / 23.98p
SD
720 x 486 29.97i (Lower Field First)
ITU-R BT.601 720 x 480 29.97i 720 x 576 25i / 25p AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS Stereo 5.1 Audio (+LT/RT)
Audio Codec: Linear PCM Format: Big Endian or Little Endian
Sample Depth: 16-bit or 24-bit Sample Size: 48kHz Audio must be stereo paired
Audio Track 1: Ch.1 Left (Front) Audio Track 2: Ch.2 Right (Front)
Audio Track 3: Ch.3 Center Audio Track 4: Ch.4 LFE Audio Track 5: Ch.5 Left Surround Audio Track 6: Ch.6 Right Surround
Audio Track 7: Ch.7 & 8 Left Total / Right Total (Stereo Pair) HD content on tape with 5.1 Audio MUST be delivered on HDCAM SR or D5 when sending tape.
bitMAX does not accept Dolby E.
Any external audio provided for an editorial session MUST be 48kHz .wav / .aiff audio file. 44.1kHz audio will NOT be accepted
Audio levels should remain constant at -6db as much as possible. Please prevent audio levels going below -12db
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FILM AND TELEVISION ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
No Advertising, release date, physical product tags (i.e. DVD, album, concerts, promotions). Must be a clean and true feature/video. No Commercial blacks longer than 3 seconds. No Bumpers. No URLs)
Trailer Notes
o No MPAA ratings card
o Cannot have more active pixels, and must be the same aspect ratio as the feature. o No Release Date tagging or voice over
o No Physical Product tagging
o If trailer is a continuous clip from the feature, it must have duration between 30 seconds and 5 minutes
o If trailer is edited (traditional trailer), there is no time limit on duration. o No URLs
o No DVD references, images or voice over o No Nudity / Profanity
Chapter Points & Stills
o All Chapter points must be provided using time code from the provided masters. o Time codes must be included on the metadata excel sheet. (Chapter Points Tab) o Time codes from DVDs are not acceptable.
Closed Captioning
o Closed Captioning is required for all english content (except trailers). o Preferred file type is **.cap
Poster Art Profile o Feature Art
TIFF with “.tiff” extension (32-bit uncompressed) or JPEG with “.jpeg” extension RGB 1400x2100 pixels minimum size (2:3 ratio)
Minimum resolution 72 dpi RGB
Poster Art of film must contain key art and title. Credit blocks, DVD cover, release date, website, award laurels (winner, nominated for, critics’ choice etc.) or promotional tagging may not be included.
o TV Art
JPEG with “.jpeg” extension
RGB 2400x2400 pixels minimum size (1:1 ratio) Minimum resolution 72 dpi RGB
Credit blocks, DVD cover, release date, website, award laurels (winner, nominated for, critics’ choice etc.) or promotional tagging may not be included.MUSIC VIDEO ADDTIONAL REQUIRMENTS
The following issues can be approved but MIGHT be rejected by delivery partners (i.e. VEVO/ iTunes):
o Hash tags
o Scrolling credits accompanying music and visuals
o The following displayed for no more than 3 seconds at end of video Album Single Pack Shots (Cover Art)
Logos: Record Label, Management, Production Company, Charitable Foundation
The following issues WILL FAIL at iTunes. They will also FAIL at VEVO (unless pre-approved). o Release Dates (including Coming Soon and Out Now)
o Logo Bugs / Chyrons / Lower Third Graphics o Burned in Logos
o Brand or Product Logos
o Digital/Physical retail or DSP callouts/buttons o URLs / Twitter Handles / Instagram Handles
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TIMED TEXT SPECIFICATIONS
Closed Captions Subtitles
TRANSCRIPTION of all spoken dialogue in language spoken
TRANSLATION of all spoken dialogue into subtitle language
Grammar All captions should be grammatically correct with correct punctuation, capitalization and
spelling.
All subtitles should be grammatically correct with correct punctuation, capitalization, spelling
and sentence structure for that particular language File Types Music Videos QuickTime 708 closed captioning track. EIA-608 captioning on line 21
(SD ONLY)
Films Television
Concerts
EIA-608 captioning on line 21 (SD ONLY)
**.cap (Cheetah International Caption File) **.scc (Scenarist DVD File) Films Television Concerts **.stl (Spruce)
**.itt (iTunes)
Naming Caption files MUST follow these naming conventions: Films: Title_Feature_FrameRate Title_Trailer_FrameRate Television Episodes: Title_SeasonEpisode_FrameRate (e.g. Example_S01E01_2997.cap) Concerts: Artist_ConcertTitle_FrameRate
Subtitle files MUST follow these naming conventions: Films: Title_Feature_FrameRate_Language Title_Trailer_FrameRate_Language Television Episodes: Title_SeasonEpisode_FrameRate_Language (e.g. Example_S01E01_2997_FRENCH.itt) Concerts: Artist_ConcertTitle_FrameRate_Language Display All timed text MUST be Pop-on or Pop-up
Character Limit 32 Characters per line 42 Characters per line Duration Minimum duration: 10 frames per text event
Maximum duration: 10 seconds per text event
(except for song lyrics or on-screen text, which may exceed 10 seconds) Timed text must not remain on screen during times of silence
An outpoint must be used to remove the timed text from the screen during silence or extended pauses.
Frame Gaps 2 frames minimum (regardless of frame rate) Line Treatment 3 lines maximum
(including any blank lines between captions)
2 lines maximum
(including any blank lines between subtitles) Positional Data All timed text should be center justified / center positioned and placed at bottom of the screen
unless covering text or a lower third graphic in which they should be at the top of the screen Reading
Speed
Adult programs: 400 words per minute Children’s programs: 160 words per minute
Timing Text should be timed to the audio or within 2-3 frames of the audio. If more on-screen time is needed for better reading speed, the out-time can be extended up to 10 or 12 frames past the
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Formatting Text should be provided without any text effects including bolding, italicizing and underlining. Line Breaks If multiple lines are necessary; each line must be broken so that they are of similar character
lengths FAIL:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
PASS: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog Line breaks should occur:
- after punctuation marks - before conjunctions
- before prepositions
Continuity ELLIPSES:
Do not use ellipses (3 dots) or dashes when an ongoing sentence is split between two or more continuous subtitles.
Use an ellipsis to indicate a pause or dialogue trailing off. In the case of a pause, if the sentence continues in the next subtitle, do not use an ellipsis at the beginning of the second
subtitle. EXAMPLE: Had I known... I wouldn’t have called you.
Use an ellipsis followed by a space when there is a significant pause EXAMPLE:
She hesitated… about accepting the job. HYPENS:
Use a hyphen without a space to indicate two speakers in one subtitle, with a maximum of one speaker per line.
EXAMPLE: -Are you coming?
-In a minute
Use two hyphens to indicate abrupt interruptions. EXAMPLE:
-What are you-- -Be quiet! Speaker ID /
Sound Effects
Use brackets [ ] to enclose speaker IDs or sound effects.
Only use speaker IDs or sound effects when they cannot be visually identified. Use a generic ID to indicate and describe ambient music
(e.g., rock music playing over a stereo). Sound effects should be plot pertinent.
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COMMON REASONS FOR IMMEDIATE REJECTION
Apple ProRes 422, Apple ProRes 422 (LT), H.264 and MP4 are NOT acceptable codecs. Video codec must be “Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)” in a QuickTime container (**.mov).
If both the L and R audio are identical, it is DUAL CHANNEL MONO and will fail. Audio must be in STEREO.
Videos that have a 23.98 frame rate with repeated frames, dropped frames and/or interlacing are not acceptable. Videos with a 23.98 frame rate must be fully progressive.
Audio with a sample rate of 44.1kHz is NOT supported. It must be 48 kHz, even for editorial audio replacements.
The AAC audio codec is NOT supported. It must be the Linear PCM codec.
4:1 CADENCE is a failure point for Long Form content. It must be fixed to be either fully progressive 23.98fps or 3:2 interlaced 29.97fps video before submission.
Poor audio/video sync is not acceptable. Audio/video must be properly SYNCED on all video content. ***This is a list of the most common quality control issues,
but videos may be failed for reasons not stated above***
4:1 CADENCE EXPLAINED
4:1 Cadence has 4 progressive frames of video, and every 5th frame is a repeat of the 4th frame. There should be no repeated frames at all. This issue is often the result of a 23.98 frame video being converted to 29.97 incorrectly. When done correctly, you will see 3 unique progressive frames followed by 2 interlaced frames. Content should be kept native to the frame rate at which it was shot. This also can occur when interlaced content is tagged as progressive.
DUAL CHANNEL MONO EXPLAINED
Dual mono occurs when both the Left and Right channels are identical to each other.
Audio should be checked on an audiometer as QuickTime will falsely define anything with two audio channels as “stereo.”
DUAL MONO STEREO
Wave Form is a straight vertical line Wave Form branches out to left and right Right and Left Levels are uniform Right and Left Levels are dynamic
Correlation Meter is static at +1 Correlation Meter is dynamic between 0 and +1 If you are using Final Cut 7, make sure that you are stereo pairing your audio track before exporting. (Select your audio tracks then Modify ---> stereo pair).
Your tracks should have icons like this (notice the 4 green arrows)
