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Digital Billboard specs help!


Dong Won Lee

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Hello,

 

I'm fairly new to the filmmaking industry so I would really appreciate if anyone can help me solve my confusion!!

 

I had a question about matching the video specs for a digital billboard. I need to get a 15 second commercial spot into a digital billboard in my local town and their specs to meet are as follows:

 

Composition Size: High Definition (HD) 432 x 252

Color Mode: RGB

Resolution: 72 dpi - 300 dpi

Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square

Recommended Static File Format: JPEG

Other Acceptable Static Formats: BMP, GIF/GIFF, PNG

Recommended Animated File Format: AVI (compressed with XVID)

Other Acceptable Animated Formats: SWF (Versions 6 through 9), MOV (compressed with H.264)

Video Frame Rate: 30 fps

Video Color Depth: 24 bit RGB

Video Bit Rate: +9000

 

Here are my questions:

 

1) What is composition size?

 

2) Are there any of these specs I MUST consider before shooting? For example, it shows Video Frame Rate is 30fps. Must I film at 30 fps?

 

3) What is Video Bit Rate?

 

4) Can I match these specs in Final Cut Pro X when exporting?

 

5) I am filming with a GH5s. Is this camera compatible with these specs?

 

I am embarrassed to say that I am extremely clueless to these things. I am really hoping I can gain some insight from you guys. Thank you!

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These are delivery specs, for the final output, rather than acquisition specs, which would dictate how you would shoot it. I feel like these specs aren't presented intuitively, however, so I'll only answer what I'm confident in rather than give mis-information.

 

1.Composition size is the export resolution. The resolution of 432x252 provided is definitely not HD, so that seems confusing, and is actually a 12x7 (1.714) aspect ratio, so be sure to set your editing timeline accordingly. You may as well set the timeline resolution to that size and scale the footage down so there aren't any aspect ratio inconsistencies once you render.

 

2.Things to consider during production would be the delivery aspect ratio (12x7) for framing while shooting, and the framerate, so yes go ahead and shoot at 30fps to avoid any framerate mismatches.

 

3. Video bitrate is set at export (depending on the codec), and I'm assuming they're meaning at least 9,000kbps, or 9mbps. I'm not sure how the XVID codec they're asking for handles bitrates, I've never used it. The 24bit rgb color depth is also sometimes called 'millions of colors' and is a default for many codecs.

 

4. Final Cut Pro does not natively support exporting XVID or AVI files. I would suggest exporting in a different codec, and using a different encoder to export the AVI in the XVID codec. In my quick limited research just now, it seems XVID and AVI are more Windows based formats, so you may have trouble with a Mac.

Edit: I see they also accept h264 MOV's, that will be the easiest format for you most likely.

 

5. I believe so.

Edited by Adam Froehlich
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I don't know about Final Cut, but in Premiere Pro it won't matter if you set the sequence size to 432x252 or 1280x720 to match your footge. When you export it as a Quicktime Movie .mov file (H.264) it will only export a proper aspect ratio, so the closest is 432x244 for the export.

These are delivery specs, for the final output, rather than acquisition specs, which would dictate how you would shoot it. I feel like these specs aren't presented intuitively, however, so I'll only answer what I'm confident in rather than give mis-information.

 

1.Composition size is the export resolution. The resolution of 432x252 provided is definitely not HD, so that seems confusing, and is actually a 12x7 (1.714) aspect ratio, so be sure to set your editing timeline accordingly. You may as well set the timeline resolution to that size and scale the footage down so there aren't any aspect ratio inconsistencies once you render.

 

2.Things to consider during production would be the delivery aspect ratio (12x7) for framing while shooting, and the framerate, so yes go ahead and shoot at 30fps to avoid any framerate mismatches.

 

3. Video bitrate is set at export (depending on the codec), and I'm assuming they're meaning at least 9,000kbps, or 9mbps. I'm not sure how the XVID codec they're asking for handles bitrates, I've never used it. The 24bit rgb color depth is also sometimes called 'millions of colors' and is a default for many codecs.

 

4. Final Cut Pro does not natively support exporting XVID or AVI files. I would suggest exporting in a different codec, and using a different encoder to export the AVI in the XVID codec. In my quick limited research just now, it seems XVID and AVI are more Windows based formats, so you may have trouble with a Mac.

Edit: I see they also accept h264 MOV's, that will be the easiest format for you most likely.

 

5. I believe so.

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I don't know about Final Cut, but in Premiere Pro it won't matter if you set the sequence size to 432x252 or 1280x720 to match your footge. When you export it as a Quicktime Movie .mov file (H.264) it will only export a proper aspect ratio, so the closest is 432x244 for the export.

 

Are you sure? I just jumped into Media Encoder and it allowed me to set any custom resolution on a Quicktime MOV w/ h.264 at any aspect ratio.

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Yes you are correct. There is a little box with a link symbol to the right of the width and height settings on Premiere Pro CS6 that locks the aspect ratio. If I click on that box to blank the link symbol, it unlocks the aspect ratio and I can export at the 432x252 size.

 

Are you sure? I just jumped into Media Encoder and it allowed me to set any custom resolution on a Quicktime MOV w/ h.264 at any aspect ratio.

Edited by Bob Speziale
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