Technical Specifications

SCREENER PASSPORT

Screener Passport serves as a video streaming site employed by studios and membership groups for reaching their audiences. It is accessible across various platforms including Apple TV, iOS, Roku, Android, Chromecast, and desktop browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge). To ensure the best viewing experience for your audience, please adhere to the specifications outlined below.

We will need the following for titles to appear on Screener Passport:

• • A video asset that meets our video specifications
  • Artwork assets that meet our artwork specifications
  • Accessibility options (subtitle/captions/audio descriptions) that meet our accessibility specifications
  • Titles will not be made live without both video and artwork assets

Once all of the above assets have been received, please allow 5 business days from the receipt of the final approved assets to appear on our site.

We will follow this process to make your title live:

Guidelines

• Please ensure the version of the title uploaded is the qualified version with theatrical clearances
• When naming your video file, adhere to the following guidelines:
  • Legal characters: [a-z], [A-Z], [0-9], [ . ], [ _ ], [ - ]
  • Illegal characters: spaces or any other symbols/characters
• Burn-ins should not be on the bottom 20% of the video to avoid overlap with visible user watermarking or subtitle/caption accessibility features
• Video must not include test signals or patterns (i.e. countdown, slates, bars and tone, etc)
• One second of black (no more than three seconds) at head and tail of video is preferred

To ensure the best viewing experience, video assets should NOT contain:

• • FBI or MPAA notices, or cards with legal or content-state information such as “modified to fit screen” or “preserved in original format,” except for parody notices and cards
  • Promotional material, including all references to theatrical release date, air date, or DVD release date
  • Visible watermarks
  • Bonus content
  • Promotional bumpers or URLs
  • Technical or regulatory certificates

We follow the below definitions of captions, subtitles, and audio descriptions:

Captions are text-based representations of spoken dialogue and relevant sounds in a video, encompassing details about background noises, music, and speaker identification.

• Two captioning forms exist: open and closed captions
  • Open captions are integrated into the video and cannot be turned off (provided on video delivery)
  • Closed captions (CC) can be disabled by the viewer on the video player (supported by Screener Passport)

Subtitles are text overlays on a video that provide a translation of the spoken language or a transcription of the dialogue, typically utilized for foreign language films or videos in diverse language contexts.

Audio descriptions are supplementary narrations detailing visual elements, actions, and scene changes in a video, aiding individuals who are blind or visually impaired, offering a comprehensive understanding of the visual content.

All of the above features expand inclusivity, allowing viewers to enable or disable options based on their preferences.

Caption & Subtitles Guidelines

Caption and subtitle file names should only include letters (upper or lower case), numbers, dashes [ - ] and underscores [ _]

Captions should be submitted in sentence case (mixed case, not upper case).

Caption & Subtitle Specifications

• WebVTT (.vtt) or SubRip Subtitle File (.srt) file format
• Must be encoded in UTF-8 (without BOM) to display properly
• Must start with zero-hour time code (i.e. 00:00:00)
• Before providing your WebVTT, please ensure it is in sync with your video file
  • To ensure your file is free of “drifting sync” (i.e., in sync at the beginning of your film, but out of sync at the end), please check a scene at the beginning, middle and end of your film.
• Please also note that drop frame timed text files will drift out of sync

We offer basic subtitle corrections ($500 / Adjustment)

• • Includes zero-hour reformatting
  • Linear sync corrections (we are unable to fix drift sync)

Vision Media will spot QC random spots of the video of closed captions and subtitles only. Subtitles will not be QC’d for language correctness.

Audio Description Specifications

• .WAV with codec: PCM
• .MPEG with codec: AAC or MP3
• 2 Channel Stereo as one audio track
• Include any pre-roll/indent offset to the audio file

Guidelines

• Artwork should not include text such as quotes, taglines, credits, copyrights, or billing blocks
• Artwork should not include laurels or award achievements
• Accepted file types: PNG, JPEG, JPG

Encountering issues during the video quality control (QC) process may necessitate a request for a new source file, potentially impacting the go-live date. To avoid any delays, please adhere to the technical specifications on this page.

• Source files will undergo a media analysis to ensure compliance with required specifications
• Transcoded files will undergo a spot-check QC process to verify successful transcoding without issues
  • Closed captions and subtitles will be spot checked for drift and overlapping text
  • Audio descriptions will be spot checked to ensure narration of elements
• Artwork assets will undergo QC to verify content requirements and will be resized for optimal display on Screener Passport
• Vision Media will not spot-check QC for accuracy of closed captions, subtitles, or audio descriptions
• Source video swapping of “live” content may take up to 5 business days. Requests should be directed to vmxservices@visionmedia.com