[WEB4LIB] Re: Video on the Web

[Grace Agnew]

Andrew,

Yes, RealVideo is a good solution for 1999.  RealVideo is a proprietary
vendor standard, but it is in common use, so therefore essentially a "de
facto" standard, the free player is quite good, and the quality has
improved greatly in the latest encoding version.

So, what do you need?

1. First you need an encoding card, which will accept analog video from
your tape player and convert it.  Often analog video is converted to
M-JPEG, which is not an actual standard, and is proprietary to each video
card.  M-JPEG is essentially JPEG images strung together, so that the video
can be edited.  Once a video is encoded, at least for published MPEG
standards, information such as color, etc. which doesn't change much from
frame to frame, will appear only once, in an I-frame, and then pointers in
other frames (p-frames) reference the information.  With editing, you risk
removing an I-frame and losing essential information, so the encoder card
will create the M-JPEG format. Newer cards are actually producing editable
MPEG1, which is probably just I-frames and would be preferable, because
standards-based.  I am currently using a Miro DC30, am not thrilled with
the sound quality and will probably replace it with FutureTel's $400 Video
Sphinx Pro, which does produce MPEG.  Targa is another video card which
generally gets good reviews, and at Educom I saw a very interesting card,
Oomph!, which produced really speedy MPEG1 files because the processor
resides on the card.  It doesn't use the computer CPU.  If you have less
than 250MHz on the computer, you might want to consider this card.

2.  You will need a VCR and, depending on the video card, a monitor.  I
have an Omnivision SVHS VCR and a Panasonic ProLine monitor and am happy
with both.  I also suggest good quality speakers for your PC.

3.  You will want a Pentium II with at least 4 MB of Video RAM, 64 KB RAM
(more if you can get it) and, I would say, at least 250 MHz with at least 2
GB of free space.  However, see Oomph!, above.  Also, a good sound card
(32-bit if you can afford it, but at least 16 bit.). Oh, and at least a
17-inch monitor.

4.  Once the video is initially converted, you need editing capability, as
well as the ability to reconvert the file to RealVideo.  You will also want
to determine frame rate for the web, modem speed, etc.  Most video cards
come with software, either Adobe Premiere or Macromedia.  I use Adobe
Premiere and, currently, a free plug-in from Real to create Real Videos,
which are not otherwise a standard Adobe option for saving your video.  I
strongly recommend training for whichever package you use.  Premiere is
wonderful and easy once you get used to it, but it is not intuitive and you
will never find all the options yourself.  (much like Photoshop!  Also
wonderful.  Also not a day at the beach to learn!)

5. Next you will want to store your video, provide access via the web and
stream it on request to client stations.  
    For RealVideo, I would say purchase the Real Video server,
approximately $600 and pop it on an NT server.  The free RealVideo plug-in
is perfectly adequate.  Put it on the library's public PCs and point
everybody else to the Real download site.

A very exciting encoding format, MPEG-4, has just been adopted, and beta
encoders are starting to show up.  Once it is mature (mid-99?), we should
all move our streaming media to this format.  So don't invest too heavily
in Real Video. Why?

MPEG-4, ISO/IEC Standard 14496, can be encoded over a flexible bandwidth
range of less than 64 Kbps to 4 Mbps, to serve a range of needs from
Web-based video to broadcast.  MPEG-4 is the first standard to go beyond
encoding to also incorporate opportunities for visual object recognition
and metadata.  MPEG-4 encoding is object-based, providing higher
compression for background objects, such as trees and scenery, and lower
compression for foreground objects, such as an actor or speaker--much as
the human eye filters information by focusing on the most significant
object in view, such as the other party in a conversation.  Object encoding
provides great potential for object or visual recognition indexing, based
on the objects themselves rather than an indexing database.  In addition,
MPEG-4 provides a synchronized text track for courseware development and a
synchronized metadata track for indexing and access at the frame level.
 
I am currently collaborating ona state-of-the-art white paper on digital
video on demandm as part of the SURA Video Initiative (SURA ViDe).  We
issued an RFI to vendors to survey current technology and to identify
partners to work with us to develop digital video--very much in its
infancy!--further.  Among other things, the paper will identify what
vendors are currently doing in the video server arena. That white paper
should be available in Feburary, along with a video conferencing cookbook.
I will post those URLs to the list when available.  I will say all the
vendors had plans to support MPEG-4 as quickly as feasible.

Hope this helps!  If you need more, feel free to ask, off list!

Grace




At 10:40 AM 1/14/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Question number three: What are the copyright considerations that need to be
>addressed?
>
>
>
>--
>Thomas Edelblute
>Anaheim Public Library
>
>
>Andrew I. Mutch wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> This is a two-part question:
>>
>> I've been given the assignment of placing a VHS video onto our web site
>> for people to view.  The first step is to convert the video into a
>> digital format.  Next, this digital copy has to be converted into a file
>> that can be viewed by the masses.  The most straight-forward solution I've
>> seen is to convert this into a RealVideo format and to stream it off our
>> web server to interested parties who can view it using the freely
>> available RealPlayer.  So, here's the questions:
>>
>> 1) How does one go about "capturing" a video onto a PC - what hardware,
>> software, etc. is necessary to do this.  More importantly, for those who
>> have done this, what issues do I need to be aware while doing this that
>> would normally go past a newbie?
>>
>> 2) What is the most effective way to make a digitized video available to
>> web visitors?  The RealPlayer way seems the most effective to me but I
>> would be interested in hearing how others are doing this and what their
>> recommendations are.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Andrew Mutch
>> Library Systems Technician
>> Waterford Township Public Library
>> Chater Township of Waterford, MI
>
>
>
>
>

***********************************************
Grace J. Agnew
Assistant Director for Systems and Technical Services
Georgia Tech Library
grace.agnew at library.gatech.edu
(404) 894-8932
(404) 894-6084 (fax)