Archiving Recorded Regionals 2008

[aksimhal]

Has anyone tried SnapStream yet? (I'm downloading it right now)? Any opinions?

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

Has anyone tried SnapStream yet? (I'm downloading it right now)? Any opinions?

I have and my honest opinion is that it is far easier to just record directly with windows movie maker. SnapStream is a good program, but for this application its just too much effort to set up, firing up windows movie maker is just alot easier.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

I think we definitely should try and pick one video format for all the videos.

As I stated above outputting to .mp4, or .mov (h.264) is really easy with all these free ipod video converters. This is what I recommended above:

Format: .mov or .mp4 (.h264 or MPG4)
Resoultion: 640X480 VGA
Video Bit Rate: 1024kbps
Audio Bit Rate: 128kbps Stereo

[aksimhal]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Norris

I have and my honest opinion is that it is far easier to just record directly with windows movie maker. SnapStream is a good program, but for this application its just too much effort to set up, firing up windows movie maker is just alot easier.

But doesn't Windows Movie Maker only output to .wmv?

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

But doesn't Windows Movie Maker only output to .wmv?

And my experience is batch converting out of WMV is very slow.

[Chris Marra]

Two capture programs that ought to be significantly easier to capture with than Windows Media Encoder or Windows Movie Maker are WinDV and VirtualVCR.

WinDV literally records straight from a DV camcorder (90% of these will take video input by buying a composite jack coupler and plugging a feed into the traditional video output port.) Then, spacebar will start and stop recording, automatically splitting the file each time, making it very easy to parse matches. (As long as you don't have it set to capture every 150th frame, like 177 did for Jersey 2007 (Though this is nice for timelapsing)). DV files are not tiny, but capturing only a few hours should not be too large.

VirtualVCR serves a similar function, except it is compatible with any capture device that has a WDM driver, not just DV cameras (that means ~everything). I honestly have not used it much and am unfamiliar with the way it operates, but it could be a great alternative if you cannot capture using DV.

[aksimhal]

Interesting...

What would work best with the FIRST Regional setup?

[synth3tk]

I don't know what I'll be using yet. It's up in the air. Guess I can try to build some inexpensive rig to do a capture on. We do plan on also making our own recordings available.

[Greg Marra]

I put together this graphic explaining how The Blue Alliance plans to record the Boston Regional. Hopefully others can find it of use.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by blakcheez

I don't know what I'll be using yet. It's up in the air. Guess I can try to build some inexpensive rig to do a capture on. We do plan on also making our own recordings available.

for capturing on the cheep I recommend this USB Capture device. It worked well for me last year and it runs off usb. for capturing to DV I would be be worried about hard drive space for most people, I recorded in wmv last year at about 2 mb/s and got about 15GB of footage for a regional. If you got a big external HD go ahead and record in DV.

[aksimhal]

At the regional, the feed will be provided with composite type cable or something else?

Thanks

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

At the regional, the feed will be provided with composite type cable or something else?

Thanks

It is generally a composite feed through RCA cables. You likely will need your own RCA cables.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

At the regional, the feed will be provided with composite type cable or something else?

Thanks

yep you get yellow red and white outputs (otherwise known as composite), I believe there is also a s-video output but I'm not 100% sure. Sometimes they put the box in a weird location around the arena, feel free to ask one of the volunteers where it is if you can't find it.

[aksimhal]

Ok, thanks. Is the usb capture device you recommended reliable? (Also, is ther any thing cheaper.)

Thanks for everything. You guys help a lot.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

Ok, thanks. Is the usb capture device you recommended reliable? (Also, is ther any thing cheaper.)

Thanks for everything. You guys help a lot.

I recorded 3 regionals with it, hasn't crapped out on me yet. It certainly isn't the top of the line, but its a safer bet compared to some of the ones that are $5-10 cheeper. Be aware of some of the no-name brand ones on sites like tigerdirect and newegg, I wouldn't use any of the software that comes with the capture device, but it works for getting the video into your computer. You should expect to pay at least $30...