Mastering audio for broadcast tv/dvd

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:03 am

ok so we have made a documentary, and mixed the audio track, which includes speech, and a lot of (already mastered) music. now our problem is, this sounds fine, but we have a volume issue, there are no visible peaks, but apparant audio clips when playing on a tv, and also our main volume(its peaking at -0.2 and its rms is - Cool

does not compare to a standard dvd/tv show.
so basically im looking for as much info as possible about mastering for broadcast tv and dvd as possible.
please someone help
Chris
x

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:22 am

What software are you using to make your DVD?

Can you play the audio track in your "project mode" ok? (Dunno what your software calls it; Sony Vegas calls it "VEG" for the timeline-based editor view, and then it's something else entirely, when the rendered files are prepped in DVD Architect.) Other applications use different terms, but the intent is the same. Is your audio sounding OK at that point?

Does the problem get worse after you create the DVD? (Are you creating separate MPEG and AC3 files for your DVD?)

You need to give some more info, if you can, otherwise, we can't help you...

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:24 pm

Oh how I hate how people just throw the word "mastering" out as if they know what it means!

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:51 pm

Peaking at -0.2???????????????

Max peak for broadcast is -10dBFS
Max peak for a DVD "Feature" is -4dBFS

Volume should show around -4 to 0dBVU thats VU not peak.

Monitoring for broadcast and DVD with speech:
Set you monitor to 0dBVU=80 to 82 dBSPL, and mix by ear.

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:56 am

Quote:

Peaking at -0.2???????????????

Max peak for broadcast is -10dBFS
Max peak for a DVD "Feature" is -4dBFS

Volume should show around -4 to 0dBVU thats VU not peak.

Monitoring for broadcast and DVD with speech:
Set you monitor to 0dBVU=80 to 82 dBSPL, and mix by ear.

Hi,

could you possibly go into a little more detail as to what this means in a practical sense?

Thanks a lot....

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:08 pm

I HATE it when folks post things like this, without enough (or incorrect) information.

Good folks jump in, attempting to help, and then the original poster never returns to explain further.

Mods, please remove this thread. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:58 am

Yeah,

well if anyone else has any ideas...

Is there a kind of peak levels 'charter' for different media, DVD, TV, Radio, Cinema?...

Some light please! Thanks...

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:46 am

As said before, for dvd release, you should just calibrate your monitors to 82dbspl, and mix by hear. You should be fine then...

Do not forget that people can turn the volume knob of their TV, so don't worry about that, and just focus on making the mix sounds as good as you can.

The loudness war has not yet reach DVD releases, so let's not try to go there.

Another thing, you should try not to have to much peak above -6db fs in order not to have those Dolby compressors ruining your mix. Even if that means lowering the entire mix by a few dB.

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:50 am

TVPostSound wrote:

Peaking at -0.2???????????????

Max peak for broadcast is -10dBFS.

-10 dBfs!!!???
What's your max value in peak DIN???
Here, in France max Peak DIN is 0 (+1), so the brooadcaster ask to limit at -9 dBfs, but it always seems too much.
I usually limit around -7 and keep an eye on the meter...

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:03 am

"The approach taken by SMPTE in standardizing -20 dBFS as the "operating level" for digital audio systems. Doing so establishes VU zero as -20dBFS and produces typical PPM peaks of about -10 dBFS for VU peaks of 0."

From here http://etvcookbook.org/audio/dialnorm.html and here http://etvcookbook.org/audio/ntsc.html

Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 7:52 am

oh yeah, we work with a -18 dBfs ref, for 0 VU, and -9 PPM.

So limiting à -10 makes sense then.

That's the same thing but with 2 more dB of headroom...

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