Final QC is the last time anyone on your side watches the file before it leaves. After that, the next person to see it is the client’s team, a broadcaster’s QC operator or a platform’s automated check, and none of them will be as forgiving as you.
This checklist covers that pass: the approved cut, exported as a master, plus every version made from it. Run it on the exact files you’ll deliver, in this order, because each step costs less than the one after it.
In short
- Get the spec and the approved version in front of you before you press play.
- Check the file data first, since a wrong frame rate fails before anyone watches.
- Watch the whole thing in real time, once for picture and once on headphones for sound.
- Read every piece of text on screen as a separate pass.
- Check each delivery format on its own and write down the result.
Before you press play
- Have the spec in front of you. Resolution, frame rate, aspect ratio, codec, audio layout and loudness target, from the broadcaster’s sheet or from the one you agreed with the client.
- Confirm which version was approved. Note its version number and running time, because QC on the wrong export is an easy way to lose a day.
- Keep the client’s confirmed list of names, titles and end card details next to you. Names get checked against that list, not against memory.
- Set up the room. Full screen on a decent display, headphones you know well and the volume set once for the whole watch.
Check the file before you watch it
Open the file’s technical properties and compare every field with the spec. Your player, a media info tool or the import panel of your editing software will show them.
- Resolution and aspect ratio, including black bars the spec didn’t ask for.
- Frame rate, written out exactly. 23.976 and 24 are different frame rates, and so are 29.97 and 30.
- Scan type, progressive unless the spec asks for interlaced.
- Codec and container, plus bitrate if the spec sets a range.
- Audio channels: how many, in what order and what goes on each one, like the stereo mix, a dialogue stem or music and effects.
- Duration, compared with the approved cut down to the frame.
- File name, following the naming convention you agreed.
A file that fails here goes back to export before anyone spends time watching it. The settings are covered in video encoding best practices and video resolution standards.
Watch the whole thing in real time
There’s no shortcut for a real-time watch from start to finish. Scrubbing skips single-frame problems, and playing at double speed hides sync and audio glitches.
On the picture, look for:
- Black or flash frames at cuts, the most common failure in an edited video. Causes and how to find them are in black frame detection.
- Freezes and stutters, from a stalled render or a clip at the wrong frame rate.
- Compression damage in dark scenes, smoke, water and soft gradients like skies, where blocking and banding show up first.
- The first and last frames. Nothing before the programme starts and nothing after it ends, unless the spec asks for black, bars or a slate.
Then watch it again on headphones for sound:
- Sync, watching lips near the end of long takes, where drift builds up.
- Pops and clicks at edits, and audio that cuts in or out without a fade.
- Level jumps between shots, like music that leaps up when an interview ends.
- Loudness and true peak, measured with a meter against the target in the spec. Ears can’t do this part, and the targets are in audio level standards.
Read every piece of text
Text gets its own pass, because nobody reads properly while watching. Pause on every title, lower third, caption and end card, and read it letter by letter.
- Names and job titles, against the confirmed list.
- Title safe in every format, so nothing gets clipped on a TV or hidden under a social app’s buttons.
- The end card: logo, URL, phone number and legal lines. Open the URL.
- Subtitles and captions made from the final cut, not an earlier one. Check that the last line lands on the last thing said; line length and reading speed are in the subtitle guidelines.
Check every format on its own
Each file you deliver gets its own pass. The vertical version, the 30-second cutdown and the lighter web file each went through their own export, and each can break where the master didn’t.
For versions made from the master, focus on what’s different rather than repeating every check. That means reframed text and graphics in the vertical cut, the new edit points in the cutdown and the compression in the smaller file.
Write down the result
A QC pass that isn’t written down is hard to prove later. For each file, record:
- Who checked it and when.
- Each problem at its timecode, what was wrong and how it was fixed.
- Anything left as is on purpose, and who on the client side agreed to it.
When something turns up on delivery day, fix whatever breaks the spec or the client’s trust, like a wrong name, missing audio or a black frame. Raise the rest with the client before the deadline passes.
What goes in the handover itself is in the final delivery package post, and the mistakes clients spot first are in video editing mistakes to avoid.
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview, final QC happens in the same player the client reviews in. The G key draws title safe at 90% and action safe at 93% over the picture, and the guides menu adds a delivery crop (9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9) to show what a reframed version keeps.
The arrow keys step one frame at a time. The quality menu has Original, which plays the file you uploaded instead of the streaming copy.
AI Review runs on the final version like on any other. It measures the audio, flags short black gaps, stray frames and brief freezes, and reads the text on screen for clear spelling mistakes and text cut off at the edge.
When the task has a script, it compares speech with the script and warns when the last lines of the script were never said, a sign the export cut the ending.
From the second version on, it also goes through the client’s notes on the previous version and marks each one done, partial or not done, so a request that slipped through shows up before delivery.
To confirm that only the requested changes went in, compare it with the previous version side by side, split, or overlaid in Difference mode, where everything that stayed the same goes black.
AI Review doesn’t read the file data against a spec sheet, and it doesn’t judge sync or color between shots. The file check and the headphone watch are still yours.
