Media file transfer

How it works

Media files are large, already compressed or mezzanine-uncompressed, and useless if the wrapper and the essence disagree. The transfer is the large-file path. The spec is the extra contract: frame rate, channels, loudness, container. A player opening the file does not prove the spec.

A 22 GB mezzanine is specified as ProRes 422, 48 kHz, 8 channels. The file that arrives is ProRes, 2 channels. Hash matches the sent file. The sender exported the wrong preset. The transfer did not cause it. The spec check after the hash did. They re-export and send again.

How it differs

Media file transfer is the umbrella. Video, audio, and RAW pages cover the specific traps. Use this term when the ticket is mixed media.

Proxies and masters travel as separate deliveries. One link named 'the film' is how a proxy gets mastered.

Timed text sidecars that do not arrive leave a picture that looks complete and fails QC.

On the ticket

• The practical close is a log line: time, actor, byte count, result.
• Without that line the transfer is a story.
• With it, the next person can see whether this door did what the ticket claimed.
• If the path is shared, say so in the partner profile so a later change does not silently pick a different limit, key, or region.
• On a real ticket, write down the door, the byte count, and the clock.
• For media file transfer, that means naming the host or bucket, the expected size, and the time the other side must have a complete file.
• A progress bar is not that record.
• A 200 response that arrives before the complete call is not that record.
• If a retry is allowed, say how many and whether it resumes.
• If a person must approve the send, name the person.
• Partners who receive media file transfer files should match on hash or size before they import.
• A same-length corrupt file passes a size check and fails a hash.
• Keep the published hash off the only channel an attacker can edit, or treat it as a corruption check rather than a substitution check.
• When the path changes, new key, new region, new cap, update the profile the same day so the next run does not use a stale limit.