Media QA: Technical, Semantic, Rights, and Aesthetic

1. The problem: one green light is not media QA

A video can have the correct codec and resolution while a subtitle reverses the intended message. The message can be accurate while one ingredient's permission has expired. A lawful, accurate asset can still be unusable because captions, composition, or accessibility requirements fail. CON-022 keeps these dimensions independent instead of collapsing them into one score.

2. The owned CON-022 boundary

This lesson owns the Multidimensional Media QA Dossier & C04 Exit Record v1. Every decision binds to an exact candidate_id + candidate_digest + qa_profile_version. Media production, transform recipes, and creative lineage belong to CON-014 through CON-017; CON-018 consumes the evidence for its publication-candidate gate. CON-022 closes only the multidimensional QA and C04 exit evidence.

3. Keep four dimensions independent

The core dimensions are technical, semantic, rights/provenance, and aesthetic/accessibility. A pass in one dimension cannot compensate for failure in another. Record each state independently and derive the final decision from critical states rather than an aggregate average.

4. What technical QA with ffprobe can prove

ffprobe can report container and stream information and expose frame/subtitle-related metadata. That supports deterministic checks such as codec, audio-stream count, resolution, duration, or expected subtitle streams. It does not prove that subtitles preserve meaning, that rights are valid, or that brand composition is acceptable.

5. The technical profile must be versioned

“File is healthy” is too vague. qa_profile_id and qa_profile_version must define the expected container, codec, resolution, channel layout, and stream constraints. When a profile changes, the old result remains history; it does not silently qualify the candidate under the new profile.

6. Semantic QA evaluates meaning, not text presence

A subtitle stream or a successful spellcheck does not establish semantic correctness. Compare message_intent, fact_consistency, locale_consistency, and final wording against the source intent. If “this capability is limited” becomes “this capability is unlimited,” technical QA may still pass while the semantic state must block release reliance.

7. Rights QA cannot close on a generic licensed flag

Creative Commons licenses combine different conditions. BY requires attribution, NC limits commercial use, ND limits sharing adaptations, and SA can require adapted material to use the same or a compatible license. The dossier therefore records license type/version, permission scope, expiry, and intended use. licensed=true is not enough.

8. Provenance and rights are different dimensions

Provenance records where an asset came from and how it was transformed; rights record whether the intended use is permitted now. Good provenance cannot turn expired or unknown permission into a pass. Both need independent evidence bound to the exact candidate or ingredient.

9. Accessibility is part of media QA

WCAG 2.2 requires captions for prerecorded audio in synchronized media at Level A and includes audio-description requirements for prerecorded synchronized media. The lesson's accessibility profile states which checks apply to the fixture. Subtitle presence alone does not prove adequate captions; captions must represent the necessary speech and non-speech audio and should not obscure important visual information.

10. Do not mislabel aesthetic QA as an external standard

Visual hierarchy, composition, safe areas, brand constraints, and readability may be project-critical, but FFmpeg and WCAG are not brand-aesthetic standards. These constraints belong to a versioned MAKNOW profile and attributable human review. The aesthetic state needs evidence and a reviewer, not an unexplained taste judgment.

11. Critical failures are non-compensatory

Suppose technical, semantic, and aesthetic states pass while rights are expired. A three-out-of-four score must not make the candidate publishable. In this lesson design, a critical failure produces BLOCK; unknown or stale evidence normally produces DEFER or RESTRICT until repair and recheck occur.

12. Recheck the affected slice plus required regression

If only subtitles change, rerun semantic and caption checks while retaining the necessary technical regression. If a new ingredient enters the composition, recheck that ingredient's rights/provenance. The goal is not to rerun everything blindly; it is to leave no affected dimension unrequalified.

13. What the C04 Exit Record must say

The exit record captures candidate digest, profile version, every dimension state, evidence references, reviewer, reason, and the next recheck trigger. C04 can pass only when all required critical dimensions have current attributable evidence. UNKNOWN, contradiction, or rights expiry remains visible rather than disappearing behind a score.

14. Lab: eight multidimensional QA fixtures

lab://CON-022/CON022-LAB1 provides eight synthetic fixtures: a valid baseline, codec mismatch, subtitle meaning reversal, rights expiry, caption gap, composition failure, unknown semantic evidence, and the transfer case with a new audio mismatch plus rights expiry. Derive eight output states from fixture evidence only; the reference answer is not placed in the learner tree.

15. Transfer: two repaired dimensions, two new failures

In the transfer case, the earlier subtitle and composition problems are fixed, but the audio track no longer matches the profile and one ingredient permission has expired. Preserve the semantic/aesthetic history, recompute technical and rights states, and keep the final result blocked. A good decision states what is now supported, what still prevents reliance, and what event triggers the next recheck.