Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Hey, as far as I'm aware regionals each have a drop where teams can plug-in VCRs or cameras or computers to record video. That is, whether or not a regional is webcast, the footage from that competition can still be saved and put onto SOAP108's website, or somewhere similar. What I'm wondering, and I guess I'll bump this in a few months, when it actually starts to matter, is if there could be a coordinated effort here, to ensure that every single regional has video footage put up on SOAP, for scouting purposes?

The idea:

- You volunteer to record a regionals feed.
- You bring a VCR, a camera, or a computer, and plug it into the production company's drop..
- At the end of the competitions, you send the video tape, or a CD, or something like that, to a group of people willing to go through and seperate the long stream into individual matches.
- The individual matches get posted for everyone to watch (on SOAP?)

I also wouldn't mind having the regional scoring system database put online, for scouts to be able to look at the match data (get original scores before penalties, etc..), but that's for a different thread, and is reliant upon a solid enough scoring system weeks 1-5.

Just planting the idea at this point.

Who would be interested in plugging into FIRST's video drop and recording the official feed? Who would be willing to parse each video to have individual matches ready for upload? What are some ideas as to how these two processes can be made as efficient as possible (that is, as easy as possible)?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Hey,

I see votes, awesome!

If you are interested, then can you please reply to the thread stating what competitions you are interested in recording..

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'm definately doing FLR's video recording and if we go to Buckeye (we're pending) I'll record that one too.
Unfortunately our video computer blew up so I may not be able to immediately download it (that's why I haven't downloaded the Rah Cha Cha Ruckus Pieings).

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'd be interested for the VCU Regional - I'll ask my team.

Someone may be able to write a program to parse the video into matches. For example, based on the beginning buzzer, a certain screen, or something else. Not sure exactly how to do it, but I'm sure there are a bunch of really good programming people in FIRST who could figure it out.

I'll ask the programmers on my team on Monday about parsing.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

This might be a large project to undertake, but couldn't this all be done in software?

1 - Direct feed from capture card/FireWire/USB Camera
2 - Figuring out when matches start and end (Operator to say when matches start and end, and/or direct input from FIRST field control system, and/or sound recognition to signal match start and end, and/or ripping match status from radio signals.)
3 - Apply buffer to start and end to ensure whole match is captured
4 - Save video file to hard drive
5 - Encode to WMV/Xvid/Divx/h.264

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I would totally be willing to record matches from any of the three regionals I am going to, BAE, Waterloo, or GTR. I would need some help figuring out what output they will give me, and I would prefer to record it to an external HD (like the nice big 500GB one). I have a large amount of experience in video encoding, I would probably output it to mp4 or divx. But the recording input would be the hardest part, how much memory will recording a full day of matched into mp4 take up?? I love going back an looking at matches during the season.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I like the idea.. I don't know how well the actual parsing algorithm would work, however. If you can think of something, then great. I guess I'm trying not to be overwhelming. Recording and sending in video might sound more doable than something elaborate.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I think its a great idea, i'd be interested in recording one of the three regionals i'm going to (GLR, Waterloo, GTR). Although, as Jonathan said.. I'm also curious to know what kinda output they'll give, using a HD sounds like the most effective way to record, perhaps a DVD-RW recorder w/HD?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Can we just send the recorded tapes to the good folks at SOAP to put on their site?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

We could, but I wouldn't want to be the person to go through 20-30 tapes of regionals, and split it up into individual matches. I think the idea here is to split up that work and get more regionals recorded and posted on the internet.

How about this idea, we could try and do it all through google video, which will remove the problem of people recording it different formats. Google video also has the option to download the files to your computer. With FIRST's connection with Google... maybe we could do something here. Then maybe make a page which links to all the matches from the different regionals.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I just had a thought that people could possible take to there regional planning committee. What if each regional had say 2-3 cameras setup around the field. And when a match starts (or 1-2minutes before) a person at the scoring table would press a "start" button to make the cameras begin to record, then at the end of the match it would be on for another 1-2 minutes (and then have the final score displayed on the video. Just another idea to simplify/make this effort easier.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Really? How have I missed this all these years?

If this is the case then why doesn't the production company(s) just sell a copy of the whole regional video on tape/DVD at the end of the regional? Wouldn't the production company own the rights to the video even if you just tap into their feed? I guess I was always under the impression that SOAP either recorded their own video or had permission from NASA to archive and distribute the NASA feed.

This sounds like great idea though. I will be looking for that video drop in New Orleans!

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I have to echo Deep Water's post; do all the regionals really have this? Prior to last year (when it was webcasted) I don't ever remember cameras at the Arizona Regional other than what teams brought with themselves. I think if this was true we would have seen footage from more non-webcast regionals around CD, and that there'd probably be regional videos either for sale or being given out for free.

That said, we've been recording every match at Arizona for the past 2 years, and prior to then we did a large porition, so I think we could get them all and send them along anyway.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

If there's a large screen showing action on the field then there is a live feed and you can attach your VCR to the feed and record what's happening.
I just looked at pictures from previous years at Arizona and I see the big screen so that means there are the means to record the action. Ask the AV guy to help. They're nice guys.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Wow, how did I not realise that? Thank you.

In that case, we will get all the matches from Arizona for certain, either ourselves or through their feed or both.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I believe that 108 already SOAPs VCU (they have in the past anyway), but since they are attending NJ in week 1 this year, we may need it.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

My team may be able to provide recordings for NJ (if soap doesn't do it) and Chesapeake. Anyone going down to Brazil?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I think we can handle it! ;)

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Not committing anyone, just getting a sense of what events may be covered.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I plan to record both Boilermaker and west michigan and if we get there Nationals all to DVD. I bought 2 DVD recorders last spring and I hope to get another 4-6 this year so that I can have redundancy, expecially since last year I was unplugged a time or two and lost about 3 hours of videos.

I had started to work on parsing the videos last year but my job got very busy. I should have more initiative and time to do it this year. So cound me for Boilermaker and Westmichigan. If I get my recorder card I will also bring my computer to do a webcast.

-Mike
1654 last year
2015 this year

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Personally I don't think recording is the biggest issue, getting it posted on the web in a central location is even more key. I was thinking we could try and bug Brandon to add a function to CD Media that would let us post links to youtube or google videos. I really think this would be the best option, seeing that the videos are not hosted here (bandwidth!) and they are accessible to everyone. I have been playing around with flash video lately (here) and really love it, but I still feel youtube and/or google video embedded in a CD Media page would be best.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Even if it means I have to get a new VCR (my current one likes to eat tapes) and a second hard drive (for parsing), I'll take care of Wisconsin. No promises on the parsing, though, since that is about the time when my Master's Capstone project will kick into high gear. Raw footage is definitely covered though!

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

If I can get the equipment required (just a VCR?), I'll record New York City and Pittsburgh... If someone else is going to one of these and has a DVD recorder though then that's probably easier to get it onto a computer.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

This sounds great! It’s awesome to see so many others interested. We've been planning for quite some time to release a guide on how SOAPify your local regional some time after kickoff and before the regionals, and hopefully this sparked interest will help us speed up the process.

Just to clarify a few things from the SOAP side...

At each regional we attend, we receive an A/V feed from FIRST, encode each match individually, and then upload them to the site after each match. Last year we encoded the VCU Regional as training for new SOAP members, as it was on the Saturday before our first regional.

We also did the webcast for NASA at the Palmetto Regional, which was relatively easy because the computer used for that purpose did not have to be constantly monitored. I suppose if you were just getting started with this, an archived webcast would be they way to go, yet parsing would still need to be done.

Although encoding only takes 1 person per regional, the tedious start, stop, rename, upload, process required us to work in shifts throughout the weekend to prevent us from collapsing in front of the computer after 20 or so matches. And the Championships are a completely different story...:ahh:

On the idea about some sort of program to encode and parse the videos, it has been considered before, but we ran into a few concerns. If each match went perfectly with no redos or resets or glitches, the software should work perfectly, but it becomes difficult when a match needs to be reset, or may even be rescheduled for a later time (this was a problem even with human encoders and caused a bit of confusion). I'm not saying it can't be done, but those are just some things to keep in mind.

Hopefully with proper implementation, the whole FIRST community will finally be able to see those classic GTR and other powerhouse regional matches that everyone raves about.

-No L

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

My team will record PNW if someone agrees to remind me about two days before the event starts :) There's otherwise no way on Earth I'll remember to find and bring along a VCR.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Jon,

I just started to think about implementation details, and that suggestion is a really good one to consider. Does YouTube or Google Video allow downloads of video to a user's hard drive?

I think getting the regionals recorded deserves just as much attention as getting the video parsed into individual matches and put online (though the parsing is alot more tedious). Every step has to be executed for this to work.

I'm also hoping FIRST's scoring system is working by week one, so that we could possibly nag them about getting a copy of the scoring database, to pull match information from. Then things will really start to come together, you know? If they don't provide the database, then there is always the online match results to use (still counts on data availability from day one). Ugh, then there is also the matter of robot information, and robot pictures, but I'm taking this thing one step at a time. (Actually, I think getting robot pictures may be easy, as I notice there are always a few people that upload robot pictures onto CD-Media that they took for scouting purposes).

Anyway, back to the video feed talk :).

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Yes, but I think it's only if it's not copyrighted. I noticed some videos on Google Video allow downloads, while others don't.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

If I could get donations to install a T-3 to my house for 3 months I could host the files with more bandwidth than I already have. Currently I have all the files soap does and plan to in each year to come but I dont have nearly the speed to make it easy for downloads. I may talk to my ISP about getting my SDSL speed upped for the season...

-Mike

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

They don't using standard software, but I know there is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to download streaming videos from YouTube, Google, etc. The only catch is that they download in .flv format, and there isn't an .flv player for OSX that I know of, so us Mac users would either have to run bootcamp or be happy streaming.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Ah.. so YouTube or Google video would be good as a complement, but should not be used as the main repository for storing all the regional video. I wonder what SOAP thinks about all of this? I would think they'd be happy to get all the regionals archived on their site. Maybe I should ask them.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

At some point you run into the real problem of storage and bandwidth. Obviously the video itself would take up a lot of storage space. Not so big a deal if you're storing it on your 500GB USB hard drive at home, but that can be expensive if the storage is located on a real dedicated server on the Internet. The other problem is bandwidth. You need lots of it. In this case you really want to have a machine in a datacenter with multiple connections to the various Internet backbones that cover the US. A single T1 will not cut it. Having only a single connection to one provider will probably mean very poor download times for certain people as the data has to hop through a bunch of different networks. Of course, when you get such a server in a datacenter like this, they tend to cap the amount of data you can transfer each month. Having 100s of people downloading regional video will chew through this in a hurry!

What would be interesting would be to see if we could somehow come up with a server with plenty of storage (maybe a generous donation or maybe a bunch of teams pitch in and split the cost or something) that we could convince an institution connected with FIRST to host for us (some organization that has lots of bandwidth, like a major university or perhaps something like NASA). If we could pull off something like that maybe we could also standardize a webcasting system too (that also uses up enormous amounts of bandwidth).

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

As I mentioned before google video allows users to download the video (as long as it is not copyrighted), here is an example of a video from GTR I posted a while back. On the right you can select to download it as a .mp4 file at high quality, same as I get from SOAP. Where as you can only download youtube files as .flv (flash video files). With both youtube and google video you can embed them into a web site, click the blue "Email - Blog - Myspace" button then embed HTML link and you can have a nice little 400X326 video player. I can hopefully see something like this implemented into CD Media, seeing the the videos are not hosted here and will be in the most central of locations, Chief Delphi. If we cannot make that work here, I think it is a good idea to try it on another service like SOAP.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Do most of you think the location would have to be available to be downloadable all year round? Or would only march through june or so be sufficient? I can get my ISP to up my upload speed for a few months with little effort. And at my current location I can probably get a donated connection to my BPW's fiberoptic to get a good 30MB upload speed. I will talk to them this coming week and see what I can come up with. The biggest issue, as already mentioned is the money factor. I can get a 1.5-3.0 MB upload but it'll cost me around $300/month.

-Mike

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Hey,

If you cant find somebody else, depending on my schedule I might be able to break up some regional footage. But I'll give you a definate anwser when you ask me.

Pavan.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Is there a reason the videos have to be stored centrally? Wouldn't it be easier to have, say, 100 sites with something like half a regional's worth of videos, and a central site that just links to them? Just a thought...

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Ok. I just heard back from Randy (at Sevaa, the hosting company SOAP uses), and based on what he says, hosting/bandwidth for these videos should not be a problem. So I guess now we just have to work on getting, parsing, and uploading the videos, as the regionals happen.

I'll see if I can contact the people at SOAP (or if someone on CD knows, then they can share) to see what they are working on as far as scouting information goes. I know that a few years ago they had a very nice scouting interface with information from pretty much every regional, and I'm curious if they are going to provide that this year.

The complete package:

1. Match Videos
2. Match scores
3. Robot pictures
4. Robot stats
5. Overall stats

Aiming a little bit high here, but whatever. One step at a time.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

The last I heard the 108 team will be attending the Florida and Las Vegas events. I know firsthand there will be a SOAP effort in Boston again. You could add that to the list in this thread.

KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'm planning on recording LA & San Diego (for my own sake). If someone wants to organize something more, I'm happy to share my recordings. Just let me know who/what/where/when/how.

--AJ

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

The capture device we used last year and intend to use again is Xpert DVD Maker USB 2.0 by KWorld. http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2...-1022inset.jpg
It captures at 720x480. We use windows media encoder (free) with the latest codecs.
If there's no real objection, may we ask that e1 try this format?

Regardless, if you digitize it we'll gladly host it.

Regards,
KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Ok, so things are coming together.. a little bit. Only 14 regionals that don't yet have people interested in recording.

I think I outlined the basic plan in one of my posts above, but will be trying to work out some details very soon, to actually see how the whole process may evolve.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

That would be a great idea if we could videotape the matches. It would be cool to have them on video. Also it would help strategize against teams.;)

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Alright, its getting close(r) to showtime, so I think its a good time to revive this thread. For those who are willing to record, how are you planning on recording the regional feed? That is, are you recording to a VHS that has to be digitized, are you recording to a digital format? Are you going to use the setup SOAP108 has suggested? If you aren't sure, then what options do you have for recording? I think now's a good time to get an idea of what formats of video will be coming in, and of how to actually parse the hours of footage to get each match onto SOAP's website.

Also, there are regionals that currently don't have anyone interested in recording. If you are just seeing this tread now, and want help out, then certainly step forward.

Here are the regionals, and there associated recorders:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Currently, I will be recording in VHS. I MAY be able to transfer that to DVD within a week after the event, or I MAY get a DVD recorder by then. In either case, I will not have the time to parse anything until after all the regionals, which defeats the purpose of that - so I'll need to know who to send it out to for parsing and uploading via mail (I have no problem sending it overnight to get this all done as quick as possible).

Kev

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I have a question about the camera feeds at regionals. Are they like the nationals where there are multiple camera angles? or is it just the long shot of the field? I'm looking for some action shots and close-ups of some robots in action but I don't think they will let me on the side of the field with a camera.

Any ideas about how to get good action video at regionals?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

The camera feed that is recorded is a direct mirror of what is on the big screen. If you are seeing it on the big screen, then its being recorded at the A/V drop by your equipment.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'm still deciding whats the easiest way for me to record at GLR...

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Ok so I have tried to do some planing for this. Right now i am thinking of using the recomended solution from the SOAP people, this recorder , into an old laptop that has an 80GB hard drive in it, with about 50GB free. It looks like I will need to use an external drive with it. I was wondering from the community out there what resolution/format/bitrate I should record at, and how big of an HD will i need to record a 2 day event??? the parsing is not an issue.. but will take some time. Then how would I get all this on to the SOAP archive. I also plan on hosting it on my team's website, and one of google video or youtube.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

You may not necessarily need the external drive, unless you want it for backup. Just adding up the size of videos from the 2006 regionals, each regional contains about 2-2.5 GB of video, including awards and some extra stuff.

I'm not exactly sure at the moment how the uploading works, but I can find out tomorrow and get back to you.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I know for Arizona that one of our mentors will be recording the matches himself, as we sometimes don't like the view the camera give us (such as zooming in on a robot picking balls up from the ground when the other 5 are over fighting in front of the goal). I think I'll end up recording the actual big screen feed by VCR, but I'm not certain yet.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'll be recording either to DV tape or directly to DVD. I need to check both setups and make sure I have all the parts/cables/media/etc and see which works better before I decide.

That's ay2b, not ayb2.

I may also be able to record the Silicon Valley Regional; I don't know yet if I'm going to that one or not.

--AJ

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Regarding the video hosting --

Have you secured who will do this yet? Besides being a mentor & on Pittsburgh's planning committee, I also do business development for a user-generated content video sharing company (http://www.bocoo.com/)

I don't know if Bocoo would be interested in FIRST, but bandwidth and server space isn't an issue.

Maybe take a look and let me know.

Bill

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

We, SOAP, will most definately host ALL videos we can get our hands on. I have been tediously working on this year's site for several months now, and I think its safe to say you will all be quite satisfied. As for video delivery, there will be our own flv player on the site to stream match videos. In addition, original filetype downloads will be available. If need be, different resolutions and/or filetypes will be generated to make your downloading experience as painless as possible. Tomorrow we will try to come to a consensus on official uploading methods and develop some sort of guidelines to reduce post-processing time on our end, and make this operation run smoothly. I shall report back asap.

I'm not on CD regularly, so if anyone needs to talk to me about anything SOAP related, feel free to IM me at ANY time. (aim: substr108)

As a side note, it has come to the attention of our team that SOAP is commonly identified as our own team, SOAP 108. It is in fact apart of SigmaC@T 108. SOAP is an acronym for SigmaC@T Opponent Analysis Program. Just something I needed to clarify. :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Like Matt commented, we will gladly host it. I will ask our host to create an ftp account specifically for uploading movies. Upload as soon as possible- LiVE at the event is preferred, or the Sunday/Monday after is acceptable too.

Worse case, snail-mail a dvd or hand one to us at the Championship. We'll be behind Einstein.

Regards,
KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

For consistency and predictability sake, we have a preference in naming the movie files.

General Naming Rules
* Two or three character event abbreviation in lowercase, e.g. "fl"
* Underscore, "_"

* XOR:
Qualification: Use THREE digits, "001", "047", "108".
Elimination: Use "qf4m2", "sf2m1", "fm3"
Awards: Use "award_" + AwardDescription.
Opening: Use "openingremarks_" + "friday" or "saturday".
Closing: Use "closingremarks_" + "friday" or "saturday".
Else: any string that does not begin with "qf", "sf", "fm", or a digit.

* ".wmv" (or whatever format extention you encoded, hopefully windows media)

Notes:
# Always use lowercase, please.
# No spaces in a filename, please.
# Sometimes a match gets replayed- name the one that counts in the standings as "fl_001.wmv". The one(s) that do NOT count, "fl_001bad1.wmv", "fl_001bad2.wmv", etc...

Abbreviations are as follows:
BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional NH
NASA / VCU Regional VA
New Jersey Regional NJ
Pacific Northwest Regional OR
St. Louis Regional MO
Arizona Regional AZ
Bayou Regional LA
Brazilian Pilot BR
Finger Lakes Regional ROC
Florida Regional FL
Great Lakes Regional GL
Los Angeles Regional CA
Pittsburgh Regional PIT
Wisconsin Regional WI
Boilermaker Regional IN
Chesapeake Regional MD
Detroit Regional DT
Greater Kansas City Regional KC
Midwest Regional IL
Peachtree Regional GA
Silicon Valley Regional SJ
UTC Connecticut Regional CT
New York City Regional NY
Boston Regional MA
Buckeye Regional OH
San Diego Regional SDC
Waterloo Regional WAT
GM/Technion Israel Regional IS
Colorado Regional CO
Greater Toronto Regional ON
Las Vegas Regional NV
Lone Star Regional TX
Palmetto Regional SC
Philadelphia Regional PA
Sacramento Regional SAC
SBPLI Long Island Regional LI
West Michigan Regional MI


Many thanks,
KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Are you volunteering to parse the matches from a long video stream!? If so, then how long do you think it would take to do the videos as they keep rolling in, week after week?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

We'd certainly host the large files, but prefer not to do any parsing ourself. Please use available media tools to extract just the match.

KA

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Ok, The first week of regionals are right around the corner. We have almost all five regionals covered. If we get someone to volunteer to record St. Louis, then we will have complete coverage.

BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional - J. Norris
NASA / VCU Regional - Rob2713g
New Jersey Regional - Alex Burman
Pacific Northwest Regional - M. Krass
St. Louis Regional - ??

J. Norris, Rob2713g, Alex Burman, and M. Krass, I sent you a PM.

Is there a volunteer for St. Louis?

Its great that there are a number of people volunteering to get the raw data, but the problem now is that not many people have volunteered to parse the video into individual matches. I'm not really sure what to do about this. Suggestions?

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'm going to St. Louis to watch. I'll see if I can get it recorded.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I can probably get the matches for AZ parsed, but I'd probably take a while to do it.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Alright, awesome.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Based on what you said we could "TiVo" it, right? Maybe instead of people with VCR's we could TiVo it and it would be a little easier?

Pavan.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

We will be recording all of VCU. We plan on having 2 cameras running so we can have an overview of the match and closeups of certain parts. We will have it all posted shortly after the regional.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Team 1625 will be recording St. Louis if you were still needing a person.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I don't believe you can take in a A/V feed (ie. Anything thats NOT Coax) with a Tivo. Plus, they put DRM on top of anything recorded.

Theres a few things I would do:
1) Record to mini DV tapes. It would take a bunch, but it would be pretty easy. Just plug your mini DV camcorder into the feed and hit record. You can rip and parse the videos later.
2) Use a miniDV cam as a pass through, and use the firewire connection to get the video feed directly into your computer. This will take up alot of hard drive space, so be weary.
3) Use a capture card (preferably one with MPEG2 hardware support, like the Hauppuage cards..) and record straight data to the hard drive. If one really feels adventerous they can do the parsing real time.

Now I believe if you have a good enough computer, you can open a DV stream (very big, like 25 mb/s) and do real time encoding with VLC or somethign similar. I think this is how SOAP does their webcasts. Then, you could save the smaller sized feed to your hard drive.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I'm still waiting for a response from Alex Burman and Rob2713g, but it looks like week one is all set! This should be awesome.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I will be recording the matches of the Boston Regional directly to DVD. I will be willing to share it if there is something wrong with the feed.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

[quote=Tom Bottiglieri;585484]I don't believe you can take in a A/V feed (ie. Anything thats NOT Coax) with a Tivo. Plus, they put DRM on top of anything recorded.[quote]

TiVos can record directly from an A/V input, though it's a little tricky to configure. They do not add DRM to their recordings.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Reminder: I recomend that everyone who is planning on recording a regional to contact the regional director (or someone running the regional) so that they know you need a hook-up from FIRST. I'm sure it makes the A/V guys job alot easier when they know that you are coming and can prepare a connection for you.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Every event I've been to since at least 1997 has had a table set up with lots of A/V feeds for the specific purpose of teams hooking up VCRs or whatever. I'm quite certain this is standard practice at all events.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Here is what I am planning for Wisconsin:

Recording to 4-5 VHS tapes
After event, hooking up to my Dazzle Capture device and doing real time parsing (can I have the week off of work!?!?), saving files as mpeg-2 in low quality (320x240) - 25mb ish per match.
Putting all parsed video onto a DVD and sending it to SOAP....WHERE? Can someone from SOAP PM me with an address? I don't mind sending it overnight to get it there to it can be up ASAP.

If my laptop isn't needed at the competition, I may directly capture with the Dazzle, and then figure out how to parse later.

Either way, Its either going to be done within a week, or not until after all the regionals are done (going to WI, IN, OH, and WM). My guess is people want these BEFORE Atlanta :D

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Hello,

Team 540 will be recording the NASA/VCU Regional.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I don't know specific details since we've got some folks from Microsoft Research's NetCasting group helping us out with this.

I know that we're planning on capturing raw video from the provided feed and writing it directly to a hard drive. We've got an external capture device and a 750GB drive connected through a laptop running Windows Movie Maker or something. We've tested it and it works just fine. We're expecting to collect something on the order of 250GB of raw video -- is this unreasonable?

After the event, the MSR folks will compress it, at the very least, and maybe even parse it into individual matches. It depends a bit on their schedule of events.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Woo. Good old Microsoft.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

It would be good if someone like SOAP could setup an FTP so people who are recording it can dump the files onto their server. I will be recording the Great Lakes Regional next week and hope to get the files ready as early as a few days later (can't promise:rolleyes: ).

Can anyone confirm what kind of output we're getting? (RCA, S-Video, Coax)

Thanks

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

We get a RCA out at the regionals.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I've recorded and encoded the FLR for the first 2 years and it's definitely takes alot of time to do. So unless there's a dedicated process, as SOAP does so well, than it can be done real time but unfortunately I don't think any of the volunteers thus far will have the bandwidth to do it that quickly. The feed we get is typically normal rca or coax I believe.

But This is a great showing to get things standardized - Great Job Joel for initiating this activity. I'll see you next week at FLR!

Ellery

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

This year I will be recording the GM/Technion Israeli regional. Unless we are able to arrange for someone to sit there with a computer and do the cuts on the spot, I will have to find someone to edit the long stream into individual matches (it is a very time consuming process, which is why I didn't finish it last year).

I was also wondering what programs and connections I would need for someone to get the feed on a computer and do the cuts on the spot.

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I'll take care of the Davis/Sac Regional.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I wish our team could speak with every regional director and inspire them to provide a volunteer for making a LiVE archive. Granted we teams benefit immensely, but there are other applications for the video.

My personal commitment is to reach out to NYC and LongIsland next year. (I'm moving to Brooklyn). The Boston committee already 'got the message' - they've given us a personal invite to be there, two years in a row.

I'm glad Joel J. has gotten promises from so many of you. I have given him an ftp user/pass to our movie server. If your name is on his list (in this thread) he should be sending you the info soon. If not, please PM me asap.

Regards,
KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

At Championship, please stop by the SOAP Table, behind Einstein, and chat with Mike Sansone fom Motorola. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to provide "training" and feedback. Careful, he may even put you to work!

RCA is pretty much the standard at all events.

KA-108

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

It was very interesting today at BAE, Dean and a Google executive (who is running YouTube now), gave a speech where they said they wanted every single match this year recorded and posted on the internet. The YouTube person explained exactly how he wants it uploaded to YouTube and tagged. This is great, Dean said what we are doing here is the next step in his homework for us! Thank you to everyone recording and uploading video! :D

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Technology has advanced and, if at all possible, please try to acquire this device which handles 720x480. - http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/O38-1022inset.jpg

The baseline encoder config file for Windows Media Encoder is there also - http://soap.circuitrunners.com/2006/2006.wme
Remember to change the metadata to 2007! ;)

When you're ready we can make an ftp dropfolder for you, or reply with a postal address.

KA-108

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I think you have to ask SOAP this question.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

We've got about 200GB of raw video from PNW, including most of Thursday's practice matches and all of Friday and Saturday. We'll try to get it compressed and split into more manageable chunks as soon as we can.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

IMPORTANT


When you go to encode in Windows Media Encoder, please select the option 'Deinterlace'. It is found in Properties -> Processing Tab.
This helps eliminate "liney" video when objects move rapidly.

Also, turn on Indexing.

See http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2007/2007.wme

Thanks,
KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Why not?

I've read through the thread and I've come to a strikingly different conclusion.

Now, I've uploaded over 80 gigs of raw DV content to Google Video. It's not YouTube, in that it doesn't have the social networking content. Teams will still, I imagine, want to upload individual matches or team highlights onto YouTube. Certainly Dean's speech at BAE. We recorded, on our own, all of our matches, and will likely put that on YouTube.

However, Team 1073 also grabbed video from BAE GSR, straight from the feed. I plan on ripping that video to mpeg at 5120 kbps and uploading it directly to Google Video. They don't put a limit on what you can put up, so why not upload an entire video of comp? The whole flippin' thing?

People could search "Granite State Regional 2007" and watch the entire competition. You can, of course, chapter it by match.

If teams want to host it on their own space, that's fine. It's silly, however, to talk about paying people great sums of money to do what Google will do more reliably and for free.

A more important question that I have not seen addressed:

Does anyone know the legality of disseminating FIRST's official video from the different regionals? I heard a rumor BAE was telling people to not give out the video. Is this accurate?

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Hosting for these videos is being donated, AFAIK.

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I thought I should bring this discussion over here too. Watch the video and you will see how much Google is trying to help us, lets all spend the time to upload the video to YouTube as well as SOAP so we can get more publicity for FIRST. SOAP is perfect for our more 'internal' uses, but its not ideal as a publicity tool. This is where YouTube comes in, there are millions of users of there, many of whom will stumble upon our great competition.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Basically so viewers do not have to download that video, here are all the main key points summed up straight from the video. These are the tags that Dean and YouTube want us to use:

FIRST
FIRST2007
Robotics
______Regional [Fill in the blank with the city where the Regional is held, such as ManchesterRegional, HartfordRegional, or BostonRegional. Do not use names like BayouRegional or BAERegional]
FirstTeam____ [Fill in the blank with your team number, such as FirstTeam228]

As for categories: Howto and DIY.

;)

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

What I'm pushing for is to get everything uploaded to SOAP, and for the other outlets to then get their footage from that one, central, location (SOAP). I really don't want to abandon the idea of having everything on SOAP. With a Mozilla plug-in (Download Them all) its really not that hard to get the footage from SOAP's site, once its up.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

For SOAP, ok. I was referring to other things.

I don't begrudge anyone hosting their own video! I'm just talking about using resources.

Right. I was up in the Sam Adams booth on Saturday talking to Dean about the benefits/problems of integrating FIRST with YouTube. For instance, most high schools block YouTube. And if you want to catch people with a viral meme, than how do you take 6 weeks of FIRST and construct something that will compel the viewer to up and drive to comp in a video that must be less than a minute or two? I'm working on figuring that out but darn if it isn't difficult.

Again--did BAE give you guys the clearance to disseminate that? I'm getting my tape but I need to know this.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Forgive my ignorance, but what are you supposed to do with that code file? I can't figure out what to do with it in WME9. Aside from the couple of options pointed out above, does that take care of everything else, such as naming conventions and all that jazz? If not, thats fine, since I planned on doing it all 2 minutes at a time anyways....so anything above that is gravy. Fortunately, it looks like my Dazzle capture device will work just fine to get those nice 740x480 .wmv files.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

It's a settings file. Double-click and it should launch WME9. There's some settings we prefer like the key-frames, the metadata, the bitrate for audio and video.... It does not take care of naming convention. That is manual. We've tried writting a tool to auto-name but it gets too complicated. Human control is just easier.


Thanks,
KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Regarding YouTube-

Yes, the current SOAP site lacks a search tool. If there's someone out there in the FIRST Community that would be willing to author a php / mysql website to do this, we'll gladly host it on the circuitrunner site.

KA-108 :cool:

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

I use Auto index on my teams website for past and present video. Auto index has a built in search and very small coding.

Mike Aalderink

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Ah, yeah...now I feel silly. I was just opening it online and getting lines of code and thinking....er....???:ahh:

Now I understand!

Thanks,

Kevin

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

If I can orginize some cams, I'll try to capture some matches(probablly it will only be our team's matches, but we'll try to film others).

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Well the FLR is over but it may take me some time to digitize 6 video tapes worth of FLR. Also depends on hor you sort the activities into: Opening Ceremony, Matches, Closing Ceremony. I'll see after I get all the stuff from Ed on Monday night.

Re: Coordinated Regional Video Archiving..
 

Say, does anyone have a video of Dean's robotic arm?