Colour Signalling — BT.601 (SD)
The standard-definition matrix. Decoding BT.601 content as BT.709 (or the reverse) shifts every colour subtly — greens and reds most visibly. It is the single most common colour bug in transcode pipelines, and this pair reproduces it on demand. Every clip in this group carries the SAME picture and differs only in its colour signalling, so any difference in how a player renders them is entirely a metadata-handling difference.
Rendered preview of the mkv file (26 KB). Download above for the original.
Specifications
- Resolution
- 640x360
- Fps
- 24
- Codec
- HEVC (libx265)
- Container
- Matroska
- Bit Depth
- 8
- Colour Primaries
- smpte170m
- Transfer
- smpte170m
- Matrix
- smpte170m
- Range
- limited
What is a .mkv file?
MKV (Matroska) is a flexible open multimedia container that can hold virtually unlimited video, audio, subtitle, and attachment tracks with rich metadata and chapters. It is codec-agnostic and popular for high-quality video with multiple audio and subtitle options. It is a superset of the design behind WebM.
How to use this file
Use an example MKV to test multi-track demuxing, subtitle and chapter extraction, codec detection, and remuxing or transcoding pipelines.
How to use this file for testing
“Colour Signalling — BT.601 (SD)” is a deterministic Novus Examples fixture for Video codecs, Compression artefacts, Video QA. One source encoded as H.264, HEVC, AV1, VP9, MJPEG, and a ProRes-compatible mezzanine, across 8/10/12-bit and 4:2:0/4:2:2/4:4:4 — for testing decoder support, transcode pipelines, and container remuxing.
Documented properties for this file: 8-bit · 24 fps. Compare results against paired or grouped companions on this page when present (clean↔damaged, searchable↔scanned, or format twins) so scores stay reproducible across runs.
Download the file once, keep the path stable in CI or local scripts, and treat the spec table as the contract: dimensions, seeds, field lists, and roles are intentional. Corrupt or invalid samples are labelled as such — expect parsers to fail loudly rather than silently accept them.
Media fixtures are short and synthetic by design. Prefer waveform or transcript ground truth in the same group when measuring ASR, trim, upscale, or sync tools; do not assume broadcast-quality masters.
Code examples
<video controls preload="metadata" width="640" src="bt601.mkv"></video>Related files
- mp4Compression Input — detail-chart at CRF 28The detail-chart plate at CRF 28 — mild artefacts. Encoded from the original frames rather than transcoded from the reference, so it carries exactly one generation of loss and the comparison is clean. On this plate the fine wedges collapse first, showing exactly which spatial frequencies the quantiser discarded.
- mp4Compression Input — detail-chart at CRF 36The detail-chart plate at CRF 36 — clearly visible artefacts. Encoded from the original frames rather than transcoded from the reference, so it carries exactly one generation of loss and the comparison is clean. On this plate the fine wedges collapse first, showing exactly which spatial frequencies the quantiser discarded.
- mp4Compression Input — detail-chart at CRF 44The detail-chart plate at CRF 44 — severe artefacts. Encoded from the original frames rather than transcoded from the reference, so it carries exactly one generation of loss and the comparison is clean. On this plate the fine wedges collapse first, showing exactly which spatial frequencies the quantiser discarded.
- mp4Compression Input — detail-chart at CRF 51The detail-chart plate at CRF 51 — extreme — the codec's limit artefacts. Encoded from the original frames rather than transcoded from the reference, so it carries exactly one generation of loss and the comparison is clean. On this plate the fine wedges collapse first, showing exactly which spatial frequencies the quantiser discarded.
- mp4Compression Input — gradient-sky at CRF 28The gradient-sky plate at CRF 28 — mild artefacts. Encoded from the original frames rather than transcoded from the reference, so it carries exactly one generation of loss and the comparison is clean. On this plate the damage shows as banding across the smooth gradient, which is the artefact viewers notice first and metrics score most poorly.
- mp4Compression Input — gradient-sky at CRF 36The gradient-sky plate at CRF 36 — clearly visible artefacts. Encoded from the original frames rather than transcoded from the reference, so it carries exactly one generation of loss and the comparison is clean. On this plate the damage shows as banding across the smooth gradient, which is the artefact viewers notice first and metrics score most poorly.
Generated by generation/video_streaming_wave.py. Free for any use, no attribution required — license.