10ch Audio & Labeling

Hello all,
I'm on a Windows system and currently having the hardest time turning something in with 10ch audio. The 10 streams are all mono and present. I have to deliver ProRes, so i'm doing DNxHR out of Resolve and ProRes in Media Encoder. The QC facility is giving me a hard time because the 10ch audio streams are not labeled. They said this can be done in QuickTime Pro 7 which is, of course, Mac only.

Is there no other way for me to tag the file with the proper audio labels?

I've only done a couple of broadcast projects, definitely not the meat of my work. But here's how I handled it.

I called the station and said "I can't deliver QuickTime. What else can you take?"

The local stations were able to work with me.

The QC facility is giving me a hard time because the 10ch audio streams are not labeled. They said this can be done in QuickTime Pro 7 which is, of course, Mac only.

Is there no other way for me to tag the file with the proper audio labels?

What is the delivery spec?

Apple's Compressor (version 4.4.5 and later) is required to tag audio channel assignments for QuickTime movies since QuickTime Pro 7 is a 32bit only application.

Good old ffmpg can do this for you:

C:\ffmpegpath\ffmpeg.exe -i "C:\mediapath\SourceFileName.mov"
-map 0 -c copy -metadata:s:v:0 language=eng
-metadata:s:a:0 language=eng -metadata:s:a:0 titel="English"
-metadata:s:a:1 language=deu -metadata:s:a:1 titel="Deutsch"
-metadata:s:a:2 language=spa -metadata:s:a:2 titel="Spanish"
-metadata:s:a:3 language=eng -metadata:s:a:3 titel="Atmo"
-metadata:s:a:4 language=eng -metadata:s:a:4 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:5 language=eng -metadata:s:a:5 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:6 language=eng -metadata:s:a:6 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:7 language=eng -metadata:s:a:7 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:8 language=eng -metadata:s:a:8 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:9 language=eng -metadata:s:a:9 titel="Something"
"C:\mediapath\OutputFileName.mov"

Take your ProRes file:
In windows command line write all of the above in ONE LINE (no new lines) and replace SourceFileName and OutputFileName and of course the language and titles... this should do the job.

Get ffmpeg Windows Build: https://jeremylee.sh/bin.html
or here the nightly builds: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffmpeg-windows-builds/

Of course you could use ffmpeg directly to encode ProRes from DNxHR with the following:

C:\ffmpegpath\ffmpeg.exe -i "C:\mediapath\SourceFileName.mov"
-map 0 -c:v prores_ks -profile:v 3 -c:a pcm_s16le
-metadata:s:v:0 language=eng
-metadata:s:a:0 language=eng -metadata:s:a:0 titel="English"
-metadata:s:a:1 language=deu -metadata:s:a:1 titel="Deutsch"
-metadata:s:a:2 language=spa -metadata:s:a:2 titel="Spanish"
-metadata:s:a:3 language=eng -metadata:s:a:3 titel="Atmo"
-metadata:s:a:4 language=eng -metadata:s:a:4 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:5 language=eng -metadata:s:a:5 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:6 language=eng -metadata:s:a:6 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:7 language=eng -metadata:s:a:7 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:8 language=eng -metadata:s:a:8 titel="Something"
-metadata:s:a:9 language=eng -metadata:s:a:9 titel="Something"
"C:\mediapath\OutputFileName.mov"

Kind regards, Christoph

Hello all,
The QC facility is giving me a hard time because the 10ch audio streams are not labeled. They said this can be done in QuickTime Pro 7 which is, of course, Mac only.
Is there no other way for me to tag the file with the proper audio labels?

The funny thing here is that QT 7 Pro is no longer supported on Mac since mac OS 10.15, so it should be considered a dead product. Btw, QT7 Pro did exist on windows too, but you probably won't be able to find or run it.

CineXmeta does what you want to do, but it's not free. They do have a very flexible price, though (you can rent hourly!).
https://cinedeck.com/cinexmeta/

FFMPEG rewrap might not pass QC if they are really stringent about the metadata.

Is is the BBC asking for this? That's the only broadcaster that I encountered to ever ask this.

All mentioned methods will work.
There is also https://www.digitalrebellion.com/promedia/

You can make ffmpeg files pass about anything if you know how to use it.

It's actually easier to do it in QT 7 Pro on Windows (easier to make it running), assuming you have a serial

We are also again talking about metadata and approach to it. Tools like Resolve should have full implementation of setting language, track name etc. Why does it have to be so difficult to do such a simple thing?
If a tool can write actual MOV structure with video, audio data etc. then surely it's not a big deal to add support for metadata

FFMPEG rewrap might not pass QC if they are really stringent about the metadata.

You are right... for some QCs it's also important to add parameters like:

-metadata:s "encoder=Apple ProRes 422 HQ" -vendor apl0

Be carefull - encoder Name depends on Qualitysetting !
Have a look at this Post by Andrew Kolakowski:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=51457#p355458

[[coincidence?! ]]

It also could be important to set the colorspace for instance to REC709

-bsf:v prores_metadata=color_primaries=bt709:color_trc=bt709:colorspace=bt709

look here: https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-bitstream-fil ... 5fmetadata

For audio-channelmapping (like 5.1) look here
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#channelmap

All depending on your delivery specs...
Programs like "Mediainfo" can help you check the videofiles.

Apple's Compressor (version 4.4.5 and later) is required to tag audio channel assignments for QuickTime movies since QuickTime Pro 7 is a 32bit only application.

I'm not sure it will be possible to do this without re-encoding in Apple Compressor.

FFMPEG rewrap might not pass QC if they are really stringent about the metadata.

You are right... for some QCs it's also important to add parameters like:

-metadata:s "encoder=Apple ProRes 422 HQ" -vendor apl0

Be carefull - encoder Name depends on Qualitysetting !
Have a look at this Post by Andrew Kolakowski:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=51457#p355458

[[coincidence?! ]]

It also could be important to set the colorspace for instance to REC709

-bsf:v prores_metadata=color_primaries=bt709:color_trc=bt709:colorspace=bt709

look here: https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-bitstream-fil ... 5fmetadata

For audio-channelmapping (like 5.1) look here
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#channelmap

All depending on your delivery specs...
Programs like "Mediainfo" can help you check the videofiles.

If you re-wrap then all original ProRes data is passed, so no need for any adjustments (assuming original file is properly flagged). Also if source has colr tags etc ffmpeg should also pass it now bay default. There has been quite many changes since that post in ffmpeg.