DNxHD/VC-3 Compliance Issue

It has been discovered that a standards compliance issue exists. This

affects DNxHD media created by both Avids hardware and software
products. The media is not compliant with the SMPTE VC-3
specification. The compressed data is NOT corrupted, but there are
three bit-fields that are affected. All Avids current and past products
decode DNxHD media, but as Avids customers incorporate 3rd party
VC-3 products, they will encounter this issue due to the non-compliant
bit-fields.
The problem involves three separate fields in the picture header of a
DNxHD 1080i encoded frame. Avids software and hardware DNxHD
codecs currently create media that have different combinations of noncompliance. The hardware codec compliance issue is limited to Avid
Nitris DX models.
1. The Active Line Height (ALPF and NAL) is set to 1080 but should
be set to 540 for interlaced frames. (S/W codec only.) (See
Section 7.1.3 of SMPTE 2019-1-2008)
2. The Source_Scan_Type (SST) is set to 0 but should be set to 1 for
interlaced frames. (H/W codec only). (See Section 7.1.3 of SMPTE
2019-1-2008)
3. The Field or Frame Encoding (FFE) in the Coding Control B area is
set to 1 but should be set to0 for interlaced frames. (H/W codec
only.) (See Section 7.1.5 of SMPTE 2019-1-2008)
In all cases progressive media (720p and 1080p encoded frames) is
compliant.
To correct this compliance issue, Avid is releasing a new version of the
DNxHD optimized binaries as well as a new version of the QuickTime
DNxHD codec. This release of Avid Media Composer v4.0, Avid
Symphony v4.0 and Avid Newscutter v8.0 contains updated codecs to
create compliant media.
The updated codec is backwards compatible, decoding both compliant
and non-compliant media. A codec will be made available for previous
versions (prior to v4.0 and v7.0) of Avid Media Composer, Avid
Symphony and Avid Newscutter.
When you play compliant DNxHD media in a previous editor
application, it may result in frames being decompressed incorrectly.
This is characterized by only the top half of a frame being
decompressed with the bottom half of the image displaying in with

either black or green. If you install the updated codec in these earlier
editor applications, it will correct the decoding.