A small number of agencies are experiencing issues when uploading Videos to CopyCentral. When upload has completed the user receives an email stating that transcode has failed. Additionally the video within CopyCentral submission is clearly marked.
CopyCentral checks that all upload video files (Rough-Cuts and TVCs) adhere to the published specification for CopyCentral. This is to eliminate delays in the clearance process where the file may fail due to its format. We want to ensure that if a file isn't valid it is refused at the earliest possible point.
Please see the article on CopyCentral Digital File Specification Guide.
For specific transcode failures, please see the corresponding article: FAILED Transcode Email
Clearcast recommends that if you have issues especially with uploading a clocked file, always upload the broadcast delivery master to your submission. Whilst these are larger in size, they will be accepted since they will be of the correct resolution, codec and will be interlaced top-field first. Additionally you wont have to produce a separate version of the file just for copy clearance.
I can't get any files to upload successfully to CopyCentral - what can I do?
If you are unable to produce a file that CopyCentral will accept, please first try the following steps:
- Check your encoder/transcoder configuration against the CopyCentral Digital File Specification.
- Analyse the file with a professional digital video analysis tool to check adherence to the digital file specification. See section below on Analysing Files.
- Send an email to help@clearcast.co.uk explaining the problem and providing a download link to the file in question. One of the support team will analyse the file and provide some guidance on what is wrong.
Note: if you are trying to upload a file and it is stuck at a certain percentage (whether 0% or 53% or 89%) - this will most likely be an internet issue on the uploader's side. If there is a drop in connection at any point during the upload, you will need to reupload the whole file. If you are uploading a long or large file, we recommend making sure you are doing so from somewhere with a strong connection, like at the office or through a wired connection.
Analysing Files
There are a number of companies who have applications which can analyse digital files and report on various aspects of the video, audio and container formats. Some software only reports the meta-data written in the rather than actually analysing the Video and Audio itself. A good example is MediaInfo. When choosing an analyser you need to ensure that it can analyse the base-band video.
Clearcast use VidChecker-Post (www.vidcheck.com) which can be used to analyse a file and provide a report.
The template we use to check files is available for download here. This can be imported via the Admin Page on VidChecker.
Encoding/Transcoders
There is a large number of different pieces of software that can export or transcode videos that meet one of the CopyCentral Specification formats. Clearcast have tested some of these to see if they can convert progressive video into interlaced top-field first, results are below:
Compressor (MAC)
Compressor can correctly convert a progressive source to interlaced. Please see the digital file specification guide for information on how to configure this.
Use of this with the correct settings will produce a file that CopyCentral will accept.
MPEG StreamClip
We tested version 1.2 but weren't able to produce an interlaced file from a progressive source.
Clearcast do not recommend using free or open-source software to encode videos for any professional purpose including for copy clearance.