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Common QC Fail Glossary

Type Label Description
av Abrupt Edit an incomplete transitional effect or hard cut that is not creatively intended
av Extraneous Content contains intra-program bumpers, teaser or recap content etc
av Truncation an incomplete asset, where a portion of the program is missing from the head/tail of the asset. This results in an abrupt cut out before the end of program or a cut in after the true beginning of program
a Abrupt Edit abrupt signal drop off or incomplete transitional effect
a Artifact audible artifacts such as "ticks", "pops", "crackle", "hiss" etc
a Channel Mismap incorrect implementation of the audio track or audio channel order, which dictates the desired speaker assignment or channel arrangement of an audio mix
a Drop Out irregular interruption or lack of audio signal in an audio mix, channel or track
a Mute the complete lack of audio signal in an audio mix, channel or track
a Level Shift/Change any abrupt change of base or peak audio levels that could be considered unintentional
a Mixdown Error discrepancy stemming from the process of folding tracks from one/multiple mixes together to create a new mix (i.e. creating a stereo fold down from the 5.1 mix). This can result in overall levels or specific elements not matching between the mixes
a Panning Error incorrect balance between left and right channel pairs that does not match the on screen action. This can happen through a limited duration, or audio may favor one channel through the entire program
a Phase Error different recorded signal frequencies are identical but partially or completely inverted, effectively delaying or cancelling out certain elements of the mix
a Skip irregular interruption of audio signal in an audio mix, channel or track
a Upcut an audio edit that happens mid-dialogue, music and/or effect resulting in audio that does not match the rest of the scene in audible level/sound quality
a Sync Drift audio sync that drifts progressively earlier/later through a section or entire program
a Sync Offset audio across section or entire program that is out of sync (early or late) by a consistent amount of frames/seconds
a Incorrect Language an asset that was delivered with a dialogue language that does not match the expected language of the asset
a Volume Flutter rapid oscillation of volume in dialogue, music or effects
a Dual Mono the duplication of an audio track, effectively eliminating any stereo or surround panning
a Dialogue Out of Sync lip movement that does not match on screen performance
a Effects Out of Sync refers to sound effect timing that does not match on screen coincidence
a Extraneous Content additional, unnecessary audio is included with program. This may be large sections of silence before or after program, 2 pops, and other extraneous dialogue, music or effects
a Low Level audio tracks or segments peaking at dramatically low levels
v Visible VITC lines that are typically inserted into the vertical blanking interval of the video signal
v Aliasing caused by the limited spatial sampling during image processing and/or poor compression or a bad conversion. Object or text/graphic edges appear "jagged" or pixelated
v Banding/Posterization when low color bit depth results in defined "stepping" from one color gradation to another versus a smooth, continuous gradation
v Black Frame an unintentional frame without any image information
v Blown-out/Clipped Whites an image's highlights exceeding the maximum reproducible video level. This causes an overall loss of detail in the portions of the image where max luminance approaches true white
v Burned in Subtitles any subtitle text that is rendered into picture of the primary video asset
v Chroma Contamination colours on screen appear over-saturated with enhanced noise/distortion, or there is noticeable colour separation around the edges of characters/objects
v Frame Error - Blanking Shift intermittent horizontal and/or vertical shift of the active image
v Framing Error improper matting or scaling of the intended visual resolution & frame
v Freeze Frame a duplicate frame(s) within the sequence that contains no different information than the adjacent frame(s)
v Interpolation the process of creating new frames in between existing frames to increase the frame rate of a video. Often present on interlaced content and causes "ghosting" or double images
v Non-Native Aspect Ratio either the image is squeezed or stretched within the frame OR the content does not match the expected/intended aspect ratio
v Picture Jitter shaking of the image due to unintended, unnatural camera movement or image re-positioning. In archival film footage, may be the result of film perfs not being properly aligned with film scanner sprockets/pins
v Picture Stutter when an image sequence lacks motion blur. This can be made worse in encoded streams and during compression, as inter frame coding may further enhance any picture stutter
v Pixel Error one or several pixels in a frame which do not display the correct captured information as the pixels surrounding them. Sometimes also referred to as a "Dead Pixel"
v Pixelation/Quantization visible, individual coloured blocks within an image, often due to poor resolution scaling or rendering at lower bit depths
v Placeholder Text temporary text burned into or overlaid onto the final image. This can be used to refer to any non-final, non-creative text or watermarks, such as asset filenames, VFX shot numbers, or timecode burn-ins
v Video Artifact any extraneous element in the image that is not creatively intended. Can be used to cover anything that does not fall under one of the other specific error codes
v Video Hit any corruption in a video file that results in a shift in pixels or visual artifacts
v Visible Frame Edge active image not reaching the expected edge of the frame or matte
v Visible Matte Edge an object layer (animated or composited) that does not extend to the edge of frame or has been poorly composited into the shot, causing a noticeable edge or outline where the layer ends
v Warping usually the adverse effect of image stabilization where the frame compensation causes the image to shift in an unnatural way
v Combing/Ghosting an artifact that is often induced by converting video from one standard or frame rate to another
v Commercial Blacks black frames accompanied by silence for a duration of 2 seconds or longer, indicating a placeholder for a commercial/act break
v Compression Artifacting the adverse effect of image degradation where the image complexity exceeds the necessary bit rate/depth
v Conversion Error - Quantization result of reprocessing an image through compression, scaling and/or interpolation, causing the image to appear "blocky", aliased, or un-sharpened
v Crushed Blacks when black levels are underexposed causing an overall loss of detail in the shadows/darker portions of the image
v Dropped Frame a single or sequence of frames which are missing or corrupted in the video essence
v Enhanced Video Noise refers to footage that contains extraneous activity and/or visible distortion/pattern in grain structure; may make image appear blurry or overly "soft"
v Low Quality Footage image that exhibits visual qualities lesser than the primary source image
v Luminance Shift/Flicker a change/multiple changes in the brightness levels within a shot/scene
tt Extraneous Content events do not match any audible or on-screen text cues
tt Censorship censorship exhibited by truncation of obscenities ["s---"] or insertion of replacements during obscenities ["bleep," "#@!*&"] that does NOT follow audio
tt Formatting - Positioning position of text events conflicts with other on-screen text, negatively impacting legibility
tt Incorrect Asset contents do not match video asset
tt Missing Events sections that are present within the audio have not been translated/transcribed
tt Missing Content - Identifiers missing speaker ID or missing dashes for dual speakers or same color caption for dual speakers
tt Requires Forced Narrative certain lines, text, or scenes require translation in order for the audience to understand the plot
tt Sync Drift event sync that drifts progressively earlier/later through a section or entire program
tt Sync Offset events across section or entire program that is out of sync (early or late) by a consistent amount of frames/seconds
tt Sync - Intermittent sync with audio/video is inconsistent throughout the program (i.e. some scenes are in sync and others are out of sync)
tt Translation/Transcription error includes events with misspellings or incorrect punctuation

Example interpolation artifact: