The Editor's Guide to Proper Video Deliverables

I once delivered a broadcast spot as an H.264 MP4. The network rejected it within two hours. Their spec sheet, which I had not read because I assumed I knew what I was doing, required ProRes 422 with embedded closed captions, audio peaks at -10 dBFS, and a specific QuickTime color tag. I had none of those things.

It took me six hours to re-export, re-encode the captions, verify the audio with a dedicated meter, and re-deliver through their portal. Six hours I could have spent on the next project. Six hours the producer had to explain to the client. All because I treated deliverables as an afterthought instead of a discipline. Since then I have delivered to broadcast networks, streaming platforms, social teams, festivals, and corporate clients with IT departments who have opinions about file formats. This is the workflow I built to handle all of them without surprises.

The Master File: Your Source of Truth

Before I create any deliverable, I export one master file. This is the highest quality version of the project, rendered once and used to generate every downstream format. Never export multiple versions directly from Premiere. Every render introduces subtle shifts in color, audio sync, and compression artifacts. One master, many derivatives.

In the Export Settings dialog (File > Export > Media, or Ctrl+M / Cmd+M), check Render at Maximum Depth and Use Maximum Render Quality under Video, and set the audio sample rate to 48000 Hz. This master lives in my project archive at roughly 3 to 5 GB per minute for ProRes 422 HQ at 1080p. Storage is cheap. Quality loss from re-rendering is expensive.

Broadcast Delivery: Where Specs Rule Everything

Broadcast is the most rigid delivery environment. Networks build their playout systems, QC departments, and transmission chains around specific parameters. Deviate and your file gets rejected by an automated system before a human ever sees it. Typical US network specs run ProRes 422 (exactly 422, not HQ, not LT) at 1920x1080, 29.97 fps, Rec. 709, with 48 kHz 16-bit stereo audio peaking at -10 dBFS and an integrated loudness of -23 to -24 LUFS. Closed captions go embedded as CEA-608/708 or as a sidecar .scc file.

Checking loudness in Premiere

Open the Loudness Radar under Window > Audio Meters > Loudness Radar and play through the whole sequence. The integrated reading should land between -23 and -24 LUFS for broadcast. If it is off by more than 1 LUFS, fix the mix before you export. The meter is built in, so there is no excuse for guessing.

Closed captions

With a caption track in your timeline, set it to CEA-608 or CEA-708, then under the Captions tab in Export Settings choose Embed in Output File or Create Sidecar File. I always deliver both, embedded in the master and a sidecar .scc as backup. Requirements change between networks, and having both covers me.

Web Delivery: YouTube, Vimeo, and Client Portals

Web delivery is more forgiving than broadcast, but more forgiving does not mean anything goes. For YouTube and Vimeo I export H.264 in an MP4 container, 1080p or 2160p to match source, VBR 2-pass at 20 Mbps for 1080p and 50 to 60 Mbps for 4K, High profile, with AAC audio at 320 kbps. Both platforms re-encode everything you upload, so the higher the bitrate you give their encoder, the better the compressed result looks.

Here is the part most editors miss: YouTube expects Rec. 709 content with a BT.1886 transfer function (gamma 2.4). If you grade in a wide gamut space and upload without conversion, your colors shift on YouTube. For critical color work, export a test frame, upload it as an unlisted video, and check it on multiple devices before delivering the final.

Social Media Exports: One Size Fits Nobody

Social is where deliverables get complicated. Every platform wants a different aspect ratio, duration limit, and file size. Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts want 9:16 at 1080x1920. Instagram feed takes 1:1 or 4:5. LinkedIn and Facebook lean 16:9. X/Twitter caps uploads at 512 MB and 2 minutes 20 seconds, which catches a lot of editors off guard.

When I need a 9:16 version of a 16:9 edit, I do not just scale and crop, because that destroys compositions. I create a new 1080x1920 sequence, copy the edit over, and reframe every shot. For interviews I use Motion > Position and Motion > Scale to push in and center the subject. For wide B-roll I sometimes stack two moments from the same shot vertically. It takes longer, but the result looks intentional instead of cropped. When a file blows past Twitter's 512 MB limit, I drop the bitrate to 8 to 10 Mbps for 1080p, or switch to H.265/HEVC, which Premiere can export directly for roughly half the size at the same quality.

Audio Stem Delivery

Many professional deliveries require audio stems, separate files for dialogue, music, and effects, so a broadcaster or international team can remix for different markets. My standard layout is five stems: a full M&E (music and effects) mix for dubbing, dialogue only, music only, effects only, and the full mix as heard in the final piece. Some deliveries want split-track M&E or mono dialogue per speaker, so check the spec sheet.

The manual way is to solo the right tracks, set in and out points to the full sequence, and export an audio-only WAV at 48 kHz 24-bit, then repeat for each stem. It works, but it is tedious and error prone. I have forgotten to solo a track and shipped a stem with audio bleeding through, which means a re-export, a re-upload, and an awkward email. For anything past two stems I use Clip Exporter, which renders every stem in sequence with correct naming and folder organization from one setup. It saves me at least 30 minutes per multi-stem project.

Caption and Subtitle Files

Captions and subtitles are not the same thing. Captions include speaker IDs and descriptions of non-dialogue audio for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, usually embedded or delivered as .scc for broadcast. Subtitles are translated dialogue only, delivered as .srt, .vtt, or .stl for web and theatrical. If you build captions with Premiere Text-Based Editing or Essential Graphics, export them from the Captions tab as SRT for web, WebVTT for HTML5 players, SCC for broadcast, STL for European broadcast, or XML/TTML for some streaming platforms.

Premiere Text-Based Editing auto-transcribes your timeline and generates captions from the transcript. It gets you about 80 percent of the way there, but review every caption by hand. Auto-captions miss homophones, misattribute speakers, and butcher proper names. For broadcast, legal, or medical content I hire a captioning service at $1 to $3 per minute.

ProRes vs. H.264: When to Use What

Use ProRes for broadcast, cable, and streaming delivery, for anything that will be edited or graded downstream, and for archival masters where quality matters more than file size. Use H.264 or H.265 for web playback, when file size is constrained, when the client asks for MP4, or when upload speed matters. Never deliver H.264 for broadcast. Its long-GOP structure creates artifacts that broadcast encoders exaggerate. ProRes is intraframe, so every frame is complete and survives multiple generations of encoding.

On flavors: ProRes 422 Proxy and LT are for proxies and fast-turnaround budget work, plain 422 is standard broadcast delivery, 422 HQ is the color-critical choice with grading headroom, and 4444 or 4444 XQ are for alpha channels, graphics, and archival. For about 95 percent of my deliverables, 422 HQ is right. Only reach for 4444 when you need embedded transparency.

The Delivery Package Structure

I deliver everything as a structured folder, even for simple jobs. It looks professional and prevents the which file is the final confusion that plagues client relationships. My standard package uses numbered top-level folders so nothing sorts out of order:

• •01_VIDEO: master ProRes, web 1080p H.264, social 9x16 cut, and a 720p preview
• •02_AUDIO: full mix, M&E, dialogue, music, and SFX stems as WAV
• •03_CAPTIONS: .srt for web and .scc for broadcast
• •04_DOCUMENTS: a delivery notes file with specs, file list, caveats, and contact info
• •05_THUMBNAIL: a 1920x1080 still

The delivery notes file carries the project name and version, the delivery date, a list of every file with descriptions, the master file specs, any known issues, and who to contact. It takes two minutes to assemble and has prevented countless which file do I use emails.

Batch Exporting Multiple Deliverables

A typical project needs five to eight files: master, web, social cuts, preview, stems. Exporting each one by hand means five to eight trips to the Export dialog and five to eight chances to make a mistake. The built-in option is to queue formats to Adobe Media Encoder: File > Export > Media, set the format, click Queue instead of Export, repeat, and let it process while you work on something else.

Even Media Encoder needs manual setup per format though. When I am delivering eight or more variants across social ratios, stems, and caption formats, I define the full output list once in Clip Exporter and walk away. It handles naming, folder structure, and format presets automatically. If you do multi-format deliveries weekly, the time savings compound fast. You can find it on the presets and plugins page.

Checking Your Deliverables Before You Send

I run the same checklist on every export, and it takes about five minutes:

1. Play the first 10 seconds. Clean start, no black frames, no flash frames, no audio pops.
2. Play the last 10 seconds. It ends on the right frame. I have seen exports cut off a frame early from a wrong out point.
3. Spot-check three random points. Scrub to 25, 50, and 75 percent and play five seconds at each, watching for sync drift and artifacts.
4. Verify audio on headphones. Speakers hide clicks, noise floor issues, and level inconsistencies.
5. Check the file size. A 60 second H.264 that is 2 MB is missing content. One that is 2 GB has a bitrate problem.
6. Verify caption sync. Open in VLC or QuickTime and confirm captions land at the right moments. Do not trust the export blind.

The one time I skipped this, confident my settings were correct, I shipped a file with the temp music track still in place. The client noticed in 30 seconds. Never again. Deliverables are not the boring paperwork after the creative work. They are where your work meets the world. Master file first, spec sheet second, checklist last. The next time you finish a cut, spend an extra 30 minutes on the delivery. It is the easiest professional upgrade you can make, and the one clients notice most.