Website that has video's from every match

[Chris Marra]

Originally Posted by Mike AA

Hi guys,

I run firstvideoarchive.com. I have been recording/archiving FIRST robotics videos since before soap and before the bluealliance. The biggest setback each year, someone else said it already and is getting worse as we go on is the man power and time to simply record the videos and parse the videos. I personally record onto DVD and using a pinnacle video transfer which records to USB drive. These are no longer made so we need to come up with a new easy to use "device" to record with other than DVD, which has to be ripped then parsed.

Each competition takes about 20 hours of video which then needs to be split up into individual matches. This takes hours and can be an annoying process. Many of the regionals this year have been recorded. Some teams chose to upload their files to youtube, I have been working on ripping them from youtube and saving them to my site to have ONE CENTRAL LOCATION for the files. Some teams have uploaded the raw video footage to the offline directory of thebluealliance.

If YOU would like to help parse the video please contact me or Greg Marra for logins to thebluealliance.com or firstvideoarchive.com ftp locations. We don't post the log in information freely because we want to know who has access to the directories. There are currently 3 regionals that need to be parsed .

We don't need to keep remaking the wheel. We need to make the wheel better.

As Mike alluded to, recording videos is hard work. The Blue Alliance is primarily run and almost entirely programmed by Greg Marra, with support from Tom Bottiglieri, Chris Jelly, and myself, but admittedly all of us combined don't come near Greg's contributions. Increasingly, each of us has had less and less time as we get farther into engineering studies, or the workforce. Nevertheless, Greg programmed an awesome new modular version of TBA this year with assistance from Brandon of CD and others, and while its not the same as the old site, its meant to run into the future and has behind the scenes support for new features like compiling videos of matches from different sources [team websites, youtube, vimeo, etc.], automatic video encoding, and just general lower maintenance.

However, everything boils down to the content. Each year we rely on teams and individuals to record regionals, split the videos into individual matches, and get them to us - at which point we convert them and get them into the system. It's a very labor intensive process, and in recent years its been harder and harder to recruit people to do it. We try our best to facilitate it by having Pinnacle recording boxes that we ship out to regionals, where all teams have to do is hit Go, but its still very hard.

We're working on our end to improve the organizational tidbits of making sure videos get converted in a timely manner, the website gets brought back up to speed, and Greg has some free time outside of work and writing TBA. But what we really need is you. We need people to step up and volunteer to record regionals, people who can parse matches, and people who can help us organize that effort. It can be as much of a time commitment as people want it to be, but we need people who will commit to helping during the season, because inevitably people will push this off for more pressing responsibilities, and TBA is understaffed already. If you want to help, and you want to see more matches on the internet, get in touch with Greg, Mike, or myself. We'd love to get more people involved and get the community helping the way it did back in 2007 and 2008. The website has continued to grow at amazing rates, even with fluctuating amounts of video each year. Last year we saw over a 25% rise in visits to the site compared to 2009, and there's still lots of room to grow - we're just at the mercy of volunteers.

[XaulZan11]

I'm pretty sure there are 3 complete Michigan districts on youtube. Can't TBA embed those videos on to the site instead of waiting for someone to volunteer to upload them? I'm not the most tech savy person so that may not be possible, but that seems to be a lot easier solution to get more video on TBA and in one central place.

[molnarc]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Are the pinnacle video transfers one time use? I know there are a few floating around online.

I hope to ask a couple local teams who travel if they want to make an investment in it to split the cost so that we record our local regional plus the ones we travel to which is about 3 other events in a year.

I have a Pinnacle video transfer device that you can have for your group, if you'd like. It takes video in from RCA (yellow, red, white)/Svideo ports and converts out to a USB drive. As long as you unload the videos as the disk fills up, you can reuse the device.

If you would like to have the device, PM me with an address to send it to.

[rogerlsmith]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I'm pretty sure there are 3 complete Michigan districts on youtube. Can't TBA embed those videos on to the site instead of waiting for someone to volunteer to upload them? I'm not the most tech savy person so that may not be possible, but that seems to be a lot easier solution to get more video on TBA and in one central place.

If you're interested, any video on YouTube can be linked into FIRSTObjective.org. Not only does FIRST Objective allow for comments and ratings of videos, all videos are now accessible through iPhone & iPod Touch (in beta).

Adding videos to FIRST Objective not only allows all FIRST teams access to competition footage, it also is a great way for the general public (non-FIRST people) to experience a FIRST competition.

I'm not saying to not add videos to TBA, FIRST Objective's intended audience is slightly broader and may encourage more people to get involved in FIRST.

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Can't TBA embed those videos on to the site instead of waiting for someone to volunteer to upload them? I'm not the most tech savy person so that may not be possible, but that seems to be a lot easier solution to get more video on TBA and in one central place.

We want to do this eventually, but we don't have the code written to embed YouTube videos yet.

I've been bogged down with other things and not able to dedicate as much time to TBA during the season as I'd like, but if anyone would like to learn more about how to get involved in hacking on the site or uploading videos, please reach out and we will figure out how to help :-)

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

We want to do this eventually, but we don't have the code written to embed YouTube videos yet.

Ok cool. I thought it was as easy as just copying the embeded video link.

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Ok cool. I thought it was as easy as just copying the embeded video link.

Yes and no. If you embed it does simply show the youtube window. It would be better to simply have the video file it self on TBA. Which I am donloading as we speak. I found some software that downloads youtube files when you view them. I shold have all the regionals that are on youtube in a day or so uploaded to TBA and firstvideoarchive.com The files are flv but I am also in contact with someone from the teams who have uploaded to youtube to get the raw video files.

[Barry Bonzack]

I asked the Video crew from the Florida Regional if we could record the matches on an external device so they could be uploaded online, and I was denied. I was told the matches were being recorded and sent directly to FIRST. What FIRST does with them, I have no clue, nor who the contact person is that has access to them.

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by Barry Bonzack

I asked the Video crew from the Florida Regional if we could record the matches on an external device so they could be uploaded online, and I was denied. I was told the matches were being recorded and sent directly to FIRST. What FIRST does with them, I have no clue, nor who the contact person is that has access to them.

I had that issue last year at West Michigan, then I got ahold of the person running the show and they told the video crew to let me hook on once I explained what I do with the video. I think sometimes they think the video is being sent to FIRST, the only information that I have been able to tell is getting sent is the match information, no video.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Mike AA

I found some software that downloads youtube files when you view them.

Check out keepvid.com

The files are flv but I am also in contact with someone from the teams who have uploaded to youtube to get the raw video files.

Using keepvid, you usually get a choice of FLV or MP4 format, and quality level.

Using Format Factory, you can convert FLV or MP4 to whatever video format you need.

VirtualDub is a quick way to extract the desired portions from the video and save them as separate files.

These are all freeware.

[rogerlsmith]

To add YouTube videos to FIRST Objective, simply login (registration is quick and free) and pick on the video link. Next click on the Upload button and select the "Add a video from an external website". Click Continue and paste the video's YouTube URL into the text box and select the appropriate category. Finish by clicking on Add.

As I mentioned before, you will then be able to watch, rate and comment on videos either from a web browser or from an iPhone / iPod Touch.

[Barry Bonzack]

Originally Posted by Barry Bonzack

I asked the Video crew from the Florida Regional if we could record the matches on an external device so they could be uploaded online, and I was denied. I was told the matches were being recorded and sent directly to FIRST. What FIRST does with them, I have no clue, nor who the contact person is that has access to them.

Looks like FIRST came through with some Florida Regional Videos!
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics...regional-2011/

if you missed me doing the cotton-eye joe on stilts, check out QF-4 video