Audiovisual

Definition

Audiovisual materials at Yale University Library include analog audio and video formats, digital audio and video formats, and film.

External Resources

One Format Does Not Fit All: FADGI Audio-Visual Working Group’s Diverse Approaches to Format Guidance (October 31, 2013)

Carl Fleischhauer, “Format Considerations in Audio-Visual Preservation Reformatting: Snapshots from the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative,” Information Standards Quarterly 22, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 34-40.

Library of Congress Audio-Visual Conservation Resources (Last updated: 8/3/2007)

Guidelines

Below is a chart showing AV preservation format recommendations YUL is considering adopting in accordance with a consulting report submitted by Audiovisual Preservations Solutions in June 2013. Two competing standards are currently in use at YUL: (1) uncompressed 10-bit video, which results in large files, and (2) mxf-wrapper motion JPEG 2000, which is not 100% open source. 


Format
Preservation Master
Access Master
Access Copy
Audio-Analog

- Broadcast Wav File (BWF) wrapper

- PCM uncompressed

- 24-bit

- 96kHz

n/a

- MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3)

- Bitrate 256Kbps

Audio-Digital

- Broadcast Wav File (BWF) wrapper

- Native uncompressed data at original sample rate and bit-depth

n/a

- MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3)

- Bitrate 256Kbps

Video - Analog Standard Definition

- Quicktime wrapper (.mov extension)

- Video encoded as 10-bit YUV 4:2:2 uncompressed (v210)

- Audio encoded as uncompressed PCM, 48kHz

- Maintain original aspect ratio, recording standard, interlacing, number of audio channels, and auxiliary information such as original timecode and closed captioning

- Quicktime wrapper (.mov extension)

- Video encoded as DV

- Audio encoded as uncompressed PCM, 48kHz

- Maintain original aspect ratio, recording standard, interlacing, number of audio channels, and auxiliary information such as original timecode and closed captioning

- MPEG4 wrapper (.mp4 extension)

- Video encoded as H.264

- Audio encoded as uncompressed AAC, 44.1kHz, 256Kbps

- Bitrate 5.0Mbps

Video-Digital

- Native encoding and data rate in Quicktime wrapper (.mov extension), e.g. DV for MiniDV and DVCam

- Maintain original aspect ratio, recording standard, interlacing, number of audio channels, and auxiliary information such as original timecode and closed captioning

n/a

- MPEG4 wrapper (.mp4 extension)

- Video encoded as H.264

- Audio encoded as AAC, 44.1kHz, 256kbps

- Bitrate 5.0Mbps

Film

16 and 8 mm:

- 2k 10-bit RGB 4:4:4 DPX log

- Uncompressed 96kHz/ 24-bit Broadcast Wav File (BWF) for audio

35 mm:

- 4k 10-bit RGB 4:4:4 DPX log

- Uncompressed 96kHz/

24-bit Broadcast Wav File (BWF) for audio

- MXF wrapper

- AVC-Ultra

- MPEG4 wrapper (.mp4 extension)

- Video encoded as H.264

- Audio encoded as uncompressed AAC, 44.1kHz, 256kbps

- Bitrate of 5.0mbps