Converting H.264 to PAL at DVinfo.net

Jack D. Hubbard · November 5th, 2010, 10:23 AM

I have a client at the BBC who wants me to change H.264 QT files to PAL. Never heard of this before, and have checked some conversion charts' don't see it there, either. I always thought H.264 as a file is a file and doesn't have to be converted. And in the past, I have sent H.264 files to my BBC friends which seemed play just fine. I hope this is the right forum...any suggestions?

Sareesh Sudhakaran · November 5th, 2010, 09:09 PM

h.264 is just a compression codec. It doesn't tell us anything about the video's -

1. Aspect Ratio
2. Bit rate
3. Frame rate
4. Pixel Aspect Ratio
5. Scane - Interlaced or Progressive?
6. Colorspace - Log or Linear - RGB or YUV, etc?

It could be 2K, full HD, 720, PAL, NTSC, Youtube...at 24/25/30/50...i or p, Rec.709 or Cineon...you get the drift.

However, PAL is a standardized delivery medium:

1. 720x576
2. Can be varied according to the codec and originating format - BBC is very particular about this part. They don't accept DV/HDV or any 'prosumer' source format.
3. 25
4. 1.1 or 1.22 (4:3 or 16:9)
5. Interlaced (progressive only works on HD or a computer, not 'regular' television)
6. PAL color space

Hope this helps in some way.

November 5th, 2010, 10:23 AM	#1
Jack D. Hubbard Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Menlo Park, CA Posts: 342	Converting H.264 to PAL I have a client at the BBC who wants me to change H.264 QT files to PAL. Never heard of this before, and have checked some conversion charts' don't see it there, either. I always thought H.264 as a file is a file and doesn't have to be converted. And in the past, I have sent H.264 files to my BBC friends which seemed play just fine. I hope this is the right forum...any suggestions?

November 5th, 2010, 09:09 PM	#2
Sareesh Sudhakaran Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Mumbai, India Posts: 1,385	h.264 is just a compression codec. It doesn't tell us anything about the video's - 1. Aspect Ratio 2. Bit rate 3. Frame rate 4. Pixel Aspect Ratio 5. Scane - Interlaced or Progressive? 6. Colorspace - Log or Linear - RGB or YUV, etc? It could be 2K, full HD, 720, PAL, NTSC, Youtube...at 24/25/30/50...i or p, Rec.709 or Cineon...you get the drift. However, PAL is a standardized delivery medium: 1. 720x576 2. Can be varied according to the codec and originating format - BBC is very particular about this part. They don't accept DV/HDV or any 'prosumer' source format. 3. 25 4. 1.1 or 1.22 (4:3 or 16:9) 5. Interlaced (progressive only works on HD or a computer, not 'regular' television) 6. PAL color space Hope this helps in some way. __________________ Get the Free Comprehensive Guide to Rigging ANY Camera - one guide to rig them all - DSLRs to the Arri Alexa.