Lack of Standards Gives Advertisers HD Headache
Adweek has it wrong. Its recent post, entitled “Falling on Def Ears: Marketers Slow to Embrace HD Ads,” takes advertisers to task for not producing high-definition (HD) spots. The magazine cites a DG Systems estimate that only 16% of all TV ads are in HD, although HD ads have a higher retention rate. Therefore, Adweek concludes, advertisers are missing out.
However, the problem is not with advertisers; it’s with the distribution system. There is no standard for delivering HD spots to stations, because each network has different specs. Moreover, there is no way of knowing how people watching standard-definition (SD) will see an HD feed.
If you are an advertiser with an HD spot, you have only two options for presenting your spot to SD viewers:
1. Provide an HD spot that is center-cut safe. Center-cut means the sides of the HD 16:9 frame are cut off so it will fit into an SD 4:3 frame. This means you must keep all action and titles within a 4:3 safe area. Obviously this is less than ideal creatively, as you have a huge canvas to work with, yet are confined to its center.
2. Provide an SD letterbox version with the black bars on the top and bottom. This will allow the whole 16:9 frame to appear on a 4:3 SD TV. However, for those watching in HD, it will be much smaller, it will appear to have a box all the way around it, and will not actually be in HD.
As an agency producer, I run into this problem on every single job. Advertisers want their spots to be seen in the best possible format. Even the smallest client produces content in HD. There’s no reason not to -- it looks better on the web and any added HD production costs are negligible.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem for local and regional advertisers is that often local stations cannot even accept HD spots. As far as I know, there are only three TV stations in all of North Carolina that can accept HD spots for local or regional airing. So it's only national ads that stations can run in HD. Thus, an advertiser that is only running its spot in one market or one state, doesn't even have the option to supply HD.
Advertisers are justly concerned about how the SD viewer will see their spots. There are simply too many people still watching SD for advertisers to ignore them. Yet until there are entirely separate HD and SD feeds or until there is some consistency in standards, advertisers must still plan for the lowest common denominator. It would be ideal if advertisers could provide two versions to a TV station -- one in SD and one in HD -- but often this is too expensive. And frequently not even possible because their SD feed is actually the same as their HD feed, simply center-cut.
The problem rests with the lack of standards, and it’s giving today’s advertisers an HD headache. Fix distribution and you will see the number of HD spots suddenly skyrocket.
Comments
This article ignores AFD (Active Format Descriptor.) When and HD spot is encoded with a proper AFD flag and it is passed properly through the HD plant, almost all downstream SD conversion equipment at cable companies and the major DBS satellite providers properly letterboxes the material for the SD viewer.
We ask all of our advertisers and program producers to provide material encoded with AFD and I'm often surprised at how little knowledge of it there is in the industry. We usually hear something back like "AF ..what?"
AFD's the way to go.
Thank you Ed. I have never heard of AFD, but now that I know about it I will definitely research and see if it's an option.
I'm not familiar with AFD. Ed can you give some direction or contact info so I could learn more?
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