Full Range & Broadcast Delivery

Help! Data Levels & Considerations For Broadcast Delivery

Team Mixing Light got an interesting question from Mixing Light member Victor:

‘I have a color grade project planned to deliver for the Internet. The postproduction manager of the film has asked me to prepare a broadcast version, but I have never done that. My settings in Resolve are set to full/data for my levels and I do not have any particular software to check gamut errors, etc., … can you advise me on how to release a broadcast version from my full data level version?’ 

Data levels (full-range) vs. Video Levels (legal-range) is a confusing topic and the thing is –  Resolve gives you different places to set this option – in your monitoring settings, on per media basis and when rendering.

After lamenting that unless a client or workflow is specifically asking you to work in Data/Full-Range levels, you’re best sticking to legal-range. We discuss some ways that Victor can get his data-level graded project back to video levels and then we go on to discuss a range of things to consider when delivering for ‘broadcast’.

Enjoy the MailBag and remember, you can submit your questions via the contact form or by emailing us at team.ml@mixinglight.com. Your questions can be technical, creative, about gear or anything else related to the world of color correction.

-Team Mixing Light