Video Format Guides
The specs and the arithmetic behind three formats you will meet in finishing: 4K acquisition and delivery, HDR mastering, and the Digital Cinema Package. Figures come from the standards and the manufacturers that publish them, with the arithmetic shown.
Format Guides
4K Production
UHD and DCI 4K, data rates for ProRes and camera raw, and storage per hour.
Covers:
HDR Video
PQ and HLG, reference white, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision metadata, and platform delivery.
Covers:
What Is a DCP?
What is inside a Digital Cinema Package, how big one is, SMPTE vs Interop, and KDMs.
Covers:
Four Numbers Worth Knowing
UHD
Television and streaming 4K (ITU-R BT.2020), 16:9
DCI 4K
Cinema 4K container, about 1.90:1; Flat and Scope sit inside it
PQ (ST 2084)
The curve HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision use; masters are usually graded at 1,000 nits
DCP picture
DCI ceiling for JPEG 2000 at 2K and 4K: at most 112.5 GB per hour of picture
One Formula for File Size
Resolution, bit depth and HDR only change a file's size through the bitrate. Once you know the bitrate, size is arithmetic, in decimal units (1 GB = 8,000 megabits).
Size (GB) = Bitrate (Mbit/s) × Duration (s) ÷ 8,000Per hour this is simply bitrate × 0.45. A DCP at the 250 Mbit/s ceiling is 112.5 GB of picture per hour.
Example: 1 hour of UHD ProRes 422 at 23.976 fps (471 Mbit/s)
- Calculation:
- 471 × 3,600 ÷ 8,000
- Result:
- 212 GB