Video requirements

• Content must be trimmed to only contain the program material. Non-program content like advertisements, bars and tone, test patterns, production slates, textless material, or ad/commercial blacks not due to creative intent and/or longer than 1-2 seconds must be removed before delivery.
• Letterboxing and pillar boxing don’t need to be removed from video sources prior to delivery so long as they are free of burned-in subtitles or ancillary data such as Vertical Interval Timecode (VITC). Automated cropping during the transcode process ensures that final target encodes include the active picture only. Ensure that letterboxing and pillar boxing are symmetrical.
• Advertisements, bugs, logos, and watermarks:
  
  • No non-program advertisements. If an ad is part of the program, it may stay (for example, sponsorships, product placement, parody, and so on).
  • No studio or network logos.
  • No callouts to external websites or other distribution platforms.
• Prime Video can accept video sources in either progressive or interlaced formats, but will reject all telecined content. If your content is stored in a telecined format, we require it to be inverse-telecined to return it to native frame rate before delivery.
• The frame rate of the mezzanine file must be constant. Variable frame rate sources will be rejected.
• The file header metadata must accurately describe the following:
  
  • Scan Type: Progressive, Interlaced, or Adaptive (MBAFF). Progressive or interlaced formats are accepted, but telecined content isn’t. If your content is saved in telecined format, it must be inverse-telecined to return it to native frame rate before delivery.
  • Field Order (Bottom Field First or Top Field First) if video source is interlaced.
  • Display aspect ratio information in one of the following accepted formats: 4:3, 1.66:1, 16:9, 1.85:1, 2:1, 2.20:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, or 2.40:1. Note: Anamorphic content must have correct 4x3 or 16x9 display aspect ratio flags. 3:2 and 5:4 anamorphic storage formats will be rejected.
• VITC and other ancillary data must be cropped prior to delivery.
• If saving video out of QuickTime Player, the display size in the View window must be saved to Normal Size before delivery to Prime Video. In the Movie Inspector window, Current Size must match Normal Size.
• Multi-Track Audio: Mezzanines delivered with Multi-Track Audio (MTA) packages (multiple languages conformed to a single mezzanine video) must be semi-textless and must exclude embedded Forced Subtitles.
• HDR sources must be delivered in the Open HDR Format, commonly referred to as HDR-10.
• All HDR deliveries must include a separate, standard dynamic range (SDR) source in the same resolution as the HDR source. Conformance and runtime of SDR and HDR sources must be identical, meaning the only acceptable difference between the SDR and HDR mezzanine file is the colorspace.
• For all HDR requirements, see the 4K HDR mezzanine specifications section on this page.

• All audio tracks in a given source file must be in the same language. Multiple language tracks within a single source are not allowed.
• Audio mixes must only contain program audio. Non-program and production audio like Music & Effects, MOS, silent, or commentary tracks must be removed.
• Audio duration and video duration must match exactly.
• All audio tracks in a given source file must be the same bit depth. For example, an 8-channel MPEG-2 TS that has a 24-bit surround sound track must have a 24-bit stereo track. A 24-bit track and a 16-bit track embedded in the same video will be rejected.
• Surround Sound Channel Layout: Prime Video requires the following audio channel mapping. Incorrectly mapped audio will be rejected.
  
  • 1-Channel: Mono
  • 2-Channel Stereo: L-R or Dual-Mono
  • 6-Channel 5.1 Surround Sound: L-R-C-LFE-LS-RS
  • 8-Channel 5.1 Surround Sound+Stereo: L-R-C-LFE-LS-RS-Lstereo-Rstereo
• All audio tracks in .mov and .mp4 files must be enabled in the QuickTime Player Video Properties window. Content with disabled audio tracks will be rejected.

Transcode of video assets shouldn’t be necessary if sources meet the guidelines in the sections above. If transcoding is deemed necessary, Prime Video works with you during the technical asset review to determine the ideal output format. The tables in the following Specifications sections are provided to convey Prime Video profile expectations for standard video formats. Any video processing must follow industry best practices for creating high-quality video mezzanines. Content with obvious artificing or quality loss due to improper processing will be rejected.

Prime Video requires that source mezzanines have frame rates native to the title’s production. Content originally produced at 23.976fps, 24fps, or 25fps which was telecined to 29.97i should be inverse-telecined and delivered at native frame rates. Also, Prime Video will not accept sources that have been up-scaled or up-sampled.

4K UHD must be at least 3840 pixels horizontally and at least 2160 pixels vertically.

4K HDR must be at least 3840 pixels horizontally and at least 2160 pixels vertically.

Note: 4K/HDR video support is available for managed contract partners. If you are a self-service publishing partner, we plan to add publishing support for these quality variants. Check back for updates.

Conformance and runtime of SDR and HDR sources must be identical, meaning the only acceptable difference between SDR and HDR mezzanine files is colorspace. Misaligned HDR/SDR asset parts will result in re-delivery request. In particular, the following must be identical:

• Frame rate
• Runtime duration
• Scene/shot boundaries

Any timed text or audio files delivered with UHD/HDR package should conform to both the SDR and HDR mezzanine files. The inventory should reference both the SDR and HDR mezzanine files. Also, the HDR10 metadata must be included in the inventory section of the MMC. Both the SDR and HDR mezzanine files should then be referenced by the same presentation. For more information, see the MMC sample files.

HD must be at least 1280 pixels horizontally or at least 720 pixels vertically.

SD must be at least 640 pixels horizontally and at least 260 pixels vertically.

Prime Video doesn’t support the following file types, which are rejected upon ingestion. Work with your Prime Video Partner Operations Manager to identify alternatives.

• .mkv video sources
• .ts wrapped files with AC-3 audio
• .mov files that contain any codec other than ProRes (AVC/h.264, MPEG-2, DNXHD; ProRes 444XQ is no longer supported)
• .vob files
• .wmv files

To minimize delivery of out-of-spec video assets, the following quality control software services can be used for testing to perform automated QC on video mezzanines prior to delivery:

• Interra Baton from Interra Systems
• Aurora and Vidchecker from Telestream
• Pulsar from Venera Technologies

The following are common issues:

• Non-standard display aspect ratios
• Resolutions that don’t meet the minimum requirements for SD, HD, or UHD delivery
• Too many audio channels
• Too few audio channels
• Mismatched video and audio durations
• Non-standard frame rates
• Long silent periods

For information about trailers, see Deliver trailers.