Want Award Winning Content? Avoid These 9 Video Fails
Brie Clayton November 16, 2022
0 Comments
Top issues every studio must avoid around frame rate conversions, deinterlacing, retiming, image noise reduction, standards transcoding, HDR conversions, and image scaling.
Whether you're bringing old movies, shows, or footage up to modern quality standards or converting last night's game to a different format or frame rate, you want viewers to see the best possible outcome.
That's why it's so important to avoid audio and video issues that compromise the viewing experience. Your content deserves it, and your business depends on it!
As a longtime developer of enterprise-grade image processing solutions that solve just about every problem that plagues video, and a partner to audio industry-leader Skywalker Sound too, we've seen it all. Based on our years of experience, this guide outlines the top 9 issues to avoid if you want to keep viewers tuned in and engaged.
No. 1: Cadence Errors If your 3:2 pulldown (telecine) process isn't quite up to par, you may find that video converted from film appears jerky. Motion just doesn't look right because frames of film haven't been stretched across video frames in an effective way. While viewers may not be able to name the problem, they will notice the resulting cadence errors, and they may not be able to tolerate them. Broken patterns are very tricky to remove, especially when they are embedded randomly throughout the content. You want a proven solution that can remove those patterns, no matter how strange and bad they have become over time, so that you can ensure a fluid playback experience for the viewer.
No. 2: Inferior Deinterlacing Yes, deinterlacing is still a thing! While OTT delivers content in progressive format, television archives hold tons of content in interlaced formats. To monetize those archives on OTT/streaming platforms, you need to convert from interlaced to progressive - and you need to do it well. To prevent the introduction of visual defects, you can use advanced, two-stage deinterlacing to virtually eliminate all aliasing in SD content and to extract every possible detail from interlaced HD sources.
No. 3: Rescaling Anyone can upres or downres - but not everyone knows how to do it really well. Interlace-aware up/down rescaling between SD and 8K+ is a must to ensure the highest quality in the main processing step. Exquisite noise management is also critical during the scaling process, preventing the nasty pitfalls of turning film grain or signal noise sand into giant buzzing marbles all over your valuable images, for example. Advanced scaling algorithms are needed to perform special pre- and post-filtering to remove and minimize annoying effects such as aliasing and ringing.
No. 4: Frame Rate Conversion Done well, it goes unnoticed. Done poorly, it ruins the viewing experience! Imagine you've got 40 different cameras bringing in a hodgepodge of formats with different frame rates. You need to normalize it - convert it all to one solid mezzanine format - so video is ready to use in editorial. (Solving this one is how we won our first HPA Engineering Excellence Award.) Frame rate conversion is an essential part of this process, and the faster and better you can do it, the sooner your team can get to work. Ideally, as you perform frame rate conversion, your system automatically calculates frame-accurate motion blur to prevent video from looking jittery or stutter - not a pleasing effect. Lastly, embedded framerates (like 24 telecine'd within a 60p timeline) can shift scene to scene and need to be handled differently when you're doing global frame rate changes. This ensures creative intent is honored without distracting the viewer.
No. 5: Runtime Changes Is it OK to change the runtime length of video to address business constraints and opportunities? Of course. But at the cost of video quality? Not so much. The stuttered action and jumping pans caused by dropped frames during retiming just aren't worth it. But when you have more precision and control in adjusting audio, video, and captions, you can easily hit your target run length while maintaining the seamless experience viewers expect. Anyone can drop or repeat frames to shorten run time. We don't! We completely resynthesize all new frames, captions, and audio sampling (with our friends from Skywalker Sound), ensuring beautiful retiming that can be done globally or scene by scene.
No. 6: Poor Noise/Grain/Texture Management There is something about bad noise, grain, and texture management that makes it hard for the brain to ignore. And it's not an all-or-nothing thing! Ideally, you need to remove noise while retaining all the detail; removing it entirely is a sin in some circles. While mechanical, buzzy, painful noise is difficult to digest, believable film grain texture adds to viewer comfort. It adds sharpness. It calms the brain down. It's really amazing what a difference it makes, and your ideal solution performs this balancing act brilliantly.
No. 7: Inaccurate SDR/HDR Conversion Without accurate SDR-to-HDR conversion, you don't get the full benefit of higher dynamic range, along with increased brightness, contrast ratio, and number of colors displayed on screen - viewers pick up on poorly converted SDR<>HDR material. Find a way to automate conversion at a high quality, though, and you can affordably bring your SDR libraries to the HDR world of OTT delivery, editorial, and production workflows - even editing into native-captured HDR material. (We solved this problem by partnering with Technicolor, the most trusted name on the subject of color. It's literally in their name!)
No. 8: Time-Consuming Audio Processing Audiences dislike audio issues just as much as, if not more than, they dislike ba
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
01/12/2025
Many industries have seen big-ticket hardware turn into software. Switchers, though, demand a combination of real-time performance and sheer bandwidth that has ...
01/12/2025
GENEVA Shanghai will host the next quadrennial Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27), Oct. 11-Nov. 12, 2027. This...
01/12/2025
NEW YORK Just in time for Giving Tuesday tomorrow (Dec. 2), the Broadcasters Foundation of America is seeking out donations to help television and radio industr...
01/12/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Net Insight CEO Crister Fritzson has informed the company's board that he will retire from the video transport and media cloud technology ...
01/12/2025
01 Dec 2025
Kyivstar and Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation Select Go...
01/12/2025
The prequel to the global hit Sky Original mob crime saga, Gomorrah' is a s...
01/12/2025
Featuring Florence Welch, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Flea, designer Bella Freud...
01/12/2025
Back to All News
A Down to Earth, All Too Relatable Hero: Cashero' Teaser ...
01/12/2025
In the rush to deliver content to every screen, many broadcasters overlook one of the most crucial steps in the workflow: format and frame rate conversion. Get ...
01/12/2025
Fox Corporation Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic to Participate in Upcoming ...
01/12/2025
Arvato Systems' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Receives BSI C5 Certification (T...
01/12/2025
Summary This short video gives you an summary of the changes in under two minutes.
--...
01/12/2025
As the festive season approaches, RT Supporting the Arts is proud to showcase a...
01/12/2025
Researchers worldwide rely on open-source technologies as the foundation of their work. To equip the community with the latest advancements in digital and physi...
01/12/2025
Festive specials of Christmas in Kilmainham presented by Marty Whelan, High Road Low Road, Callan Kicks the Year and Keys to My Life
Ring in the New Year with ...
01/12/2025
Architect and television presenter Hugh Wallace, best known to RT audiences as a long-serving judge on Home of the Year, has died at the age of 68.
In a state...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
Want Award Winning Content? Avoid These 9 Video Fails 
