# What file type is played on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** random\ **Created:** [June 30, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802 "2008-06-30T18:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thejoeknows\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@thejoeknows\_com](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thejoeknows_com)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/1 "2008-06-30T18:26:13Z")
When a show is made, it has to be recorded on the camera and then sent into the PC for editing… What type of file is exported? my only guesses could be .mkv or .avi, unless it is some type of DVD file which the channel puts on the air anyone know? im just curious ---
**Author:** ![Esherido](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/esherido/32/2158_2.png) [@Esherido](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Esherido)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/2 "2008-06-30T18:31:59Z")
There is no “file-type” for analog, because it’s not digital. For actual digital television, it’s probably not going to be .avi. Honestly I don’t know and couldn’t care less. ---
**Author:** ![MTsoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MTsoul](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MTsoul)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/3 "2008-06-30T18:36:44Z")
I doubt anything is physically transported in analog forms anymore these days. When show producers create an episode of a show, they export it to a digital encoded format, which may have the DVD container (DVD is a huge container format, video codec could vary depending on the quality & resolution picked). Then channels just broadcast the raw format or transcode it to something else and add logos or whatever to it. ---
**Author:** ![thejoeknows\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@thejoeknows\_com](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thejoeknows_com)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/4 "2008-06-30T18:46:18Z")
yeah, that makes sense ---
**Author:** ![nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@nobody](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/nobody)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/5 "2008-06-30T18:46:50Z")
I was actually at the Viacom NOC where they beam out all their shows to their 100 some odd channels. I’m not sure exactly what format they use but I know they use GIANT SATELLITE DISHES to beam their stuff to the cable companies. So if I were you I’d try thinking like a GIANT SATELLITE DISH and think about what format you’d want all up in your parabolic grill. ---
**Author:** ![DanontheMoon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/danonthemoon/32/7436_2.png) [@DanontheMoon](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/DanontheMoon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/6 "2008-06-30T19:04:55Z")
I’ve done some production work for local channels - and what they aired was straight from a DVD we sent to them, so I assume raw video format or AVI. ---
**Author:** ![thejoeknows\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@thejoeknows\_com](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thejoeknows_com)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/7 "2008-06-30T19:11:27Z")
haha thats nobody - it all makes sense now and dan, so they just pause it play commercials? or does the channel split it into its appropriate pieces? ---
**Author:** ![prg9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@prg9](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/prg9)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/8 "2008-06-30T19:12:17Z")
Maybe you can gather some information concerning possible “file types” from these links OLD: > **[NTSC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC)** > > NTSC, named after the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in North America, and until digital conversion was used in most of the Americas (except Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and French Guiana); Myanmar; South Korea; Taiwan; Philippines, Japan; and some Pacific island nations and territories (see map). The first NTSC standard was developed in 1941 and had no provision for color. In 1953 a second NTSC standard was adopted, which allowed for c... > **[PAL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL)** > > Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television used in broadcast television systems in most countries broadcasting at 625-line / 50 field (25 frame) per second (576i). Other common colour encoding systems are NTSC and SECAM. All the countries using PAL are currently in process of conversion or have already converted standards to DVB, ISDB or DTMB. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system. The articles on broadcast television systems and analog... > **[SECAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECAM)** > > SECAM, also written SÉCAM (French pronunciation: ​\[sekam\], Séquentiel couleur à mémoire, French for "Sequential colour with memory"), is an analogue color television system first used in France. It was one of three major colour television standards, the others being the European PAL and North American NTSC. Development of SECAM began in 1956 by a team led by Henri de France working at Compagnie Française de Télévision (later bought by Thomson, now Technicolor). The first SECAM broadcast was made ... NEW for Digital: > **[ATSC standards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC_Standards)** > > Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are a set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard, and like that standard, used mostly in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Other former users of NTSC, like Japan, have not used ATSC during their digital television transition. The ATSC standards were developed in the early 1990s by the Grand Alliance, a consortium of electron... > **[Digital Video Broadcasting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Video_Broadcasting)** > > Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of internationally open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project an international industry consortium with more than 270 members, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU). DVB systems distribute data using a variety of approaches, incl... > **[ISDB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Services_Digital_Broadcasting)** > > The Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB) (Japanese: 統合デジタル放送サービス, Tōgō dejitaru hōsō sābisu) is a Japanese standard for digital television (DTV) and digital radio used by the country's radio and television networks. ISDB replaced NTSC-J analog television system and the previously used MUSE Hi-vision analogue HDTV system in Japan, and will be replacing NTSC, PAL-M and PAL-N in South America and the Philippines. Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) services using ISDB-T sta... More info/links to sort through > **[Video](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video)** > > Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode ray tube (CRT) systems which were later replaced by flat panel displays of several types. Video systems vary in display resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate, color capabilities and other qualities. Analog and digital variants exist and can be carried on a variety of media, includi... You could also try contacting your local TV station or national stations and ask for their video “File Type” requirements when submitting etc… ---
**Author:** ![thejoeknows\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@thejoeknows\_com](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thejoeknows_com)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/9 "2008-06-30T19:20:05Z")
thanks for the links prg9, it seams like they all very raw, large file formats are used. nothing like avi/mkv or any “simple” filetype like that ---
**Author:** ![Templarian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/templarian/32/7152_2.png) [@Templarian](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Templarian)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/10 "2008-06-30T19:26:22Z")
Once and a while you can tell its a dvd because it sort of skips a bit during movies. :lol: [ot]Whats better is all the “Filler” video they have. It would probably be one of the best jobs ever just going around finding random stuff to video tape (Anchor: can you go video tape a bunch of kids playing at recess… better yet you might want to hide in the bushes so they don’t look at the camera while your doing it. Have fun)[/ot] ---
**Author:** ![DanontheMoon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/danonthemoon/32/7436_2.png) [@DanontheMoon](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/DanontheMoon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/11 "2008-06-30T19:41:37Z")
^:look: If I ever see someone hiding in bushes videotaping my kids, I’ll club them to death like a seal. @TJK, they have commercial reels queued up on a different medium, and they flip from feed to feed to go to/from commercials. ---
**Author:** ![MTsoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@MTsoul](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MTsoul)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/12 "2008-06-30T19:59:48Z")
There’s no way they use raw formatting. A raw video, say assume DVD quality (720x480 pixels @ the lowest 24-bits/rgb channel @ 25fps), would be 78MB per second. A regular tv show at 22 minutes would be 103 gigabytes. Why do that when they have to transcode it before airing anyway? ---
**Author:** ![thejoeknows\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@thejoeknows\_com](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thejoeknows_com)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/13 "2008-07-01T03:04:41Z")
@Dan, that is amazing to me, seams so “old-school”. i would of thought it is all pre-made with commercials and played straight off of a computer ---
**Author:** ![randomagain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@randomagain](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/randomagain)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 9:54am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/14 "2008-07-01T09:54:54Z")
mini DV tape is industry standard for filming, now High Def/ “betacam” is creeping in, some digital cameras they still use tape for practical reasons I was at a film house a while back so it may have changed but I doubt it ---
**Author:** ![matthewjumps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/49beb7/32.png) [@matthewjumps](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/matthewjumps)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 10:41am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/15 "2008-07-01T10:41:44Z")
> [@DanontheMoon;2351473](#): > > ^:look: If I ever see someone hiding in bushes videotaping my kids, I’ll club them to death like a seal… That comment alone made this thread worth reading 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DanontheMoon](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/danonthemoon/32/7436_2.png) [@DanontheMoon](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/DanontheMoon)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/16 "2008-07-01T13:42:47Z")
:lol: Thanks. For real, though, if they’re broadcasting from a DVD then a 22 minute show would be less than 4.4 GB in size. I think that the AVIs we rendered out were only about 1.5 GB total, so it’s not raw video but DVD compressed video. It was a super low budget local station - I’m sure that the big dogs like the networks can broadcast analog, digitally or however the hell they want. ---
**Author:** ![ethant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@ethant](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/ethant)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/17 "2008-07-01T16:51:45Z")
I did some consulting work on a broadcast video server once. I don’t remember the in-depth details, but the video was stored on the server in a proprietary format based on M-JPEG. The master control would queue up the segments which would then be transcoded for analog broadcast (I am less familiar with this part of the process). There was a lot of custom FPGA based hardware to make this happen very quickly, and the server itself was running VxWorks (a “real-time” operating system). I don’t think many stations use this product anymore however so I doubt this is the norm. ---
**Author:** ![thejoeknows\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@thejoeknows\_com](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/thejoeknows_com)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/18 "2008-07-01T17:06:13Z")
@ethant, that is is how i imagined it myself (use of big server) @dan, yeah haha, im sure they do crazy stuff just cause they hav the money to 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Phenex](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/phenex/32/686_2.png) [@Phenex](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Phenex)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/19 "2008-07-04T17:00:13Z")
We use Wasp 3D (developed by our company Beehive Systems) for broadcasting in real time. The data is stored in a templatized format as a .wsp file (A wasp template file basically). This template, when queued to be sent on air, is encoded in an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format or using H.264 compression format or an advanced profile in WMV Pro format. The compression algorithm chosen depends upon the channel really, rather than our decision because we produce the software and motion graphics for the clients with live video feed playback capabilities and stored video playback as well, all in realtime. This encrypted data is then sent through RF, MW etc. depending upon the factors the specific client channel has available. When this signal reaches a television, it is decrypted and displayed on your screen. The result is a lossy format, of course. Also, I am still not very sound conceptually with how all this works, but this is the rough sketch of things. ---
**Author:** ![mlk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@mlk](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/mlk)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:21am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802/20 "2008-07-05T11:21:26Z")
[QUOTE=randomagain;2351749]mini DV tape is industry standard for filming, now High Def/ “betacam” is creeping in, some digital cameras they still use tape for practical reasons I was at a film house a while back so it may have changed but I doubt it[/QUOTE] Mini DV tape is DEFINITELY not the industry standard for filming. And it’s like any kind of support, there is no specific format associated with it (you can put DV but also HD on a mini DV tape) The tapes used in loads and loads of tv stations were the Betacam (then Betacam SP, and Digital Betacams are still widespread) the first betacam was already VHS on steroids. Today most big tv stations have moved to full digital production with many, many proprietary formats (as mentioned by Phenex) which most of the time involve loads of metadata (easier to index). My guess would be that they store uncompressed or lossless data digitally. They broadcast compressed digital signal (DTV, digital television), most of the times in mpeg2 (the DVD format). Broadcasters may (and often do) combine many lower resolution data casts to their DTV signal (be it video, audio, or data). For analog (old =) ) TV, compression is in the signal (this is where you get PAL NTSC etc…) [Next page](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-file-type-is-played-on-tv/264802.md?page=2)