OK - there is SO MUCH footage for me to play with via the JPL video catalogue that I'm struggling to trim it down to a sensible DVD Video size.

I'm thinking, currently, of ripping it down to 360 x 240 resolution videos, probably Quicktime H264 format...30fps for most live footage, 15fps for press conf's etc. - BUT - some may not like that compression idea - so I'm open to others.

Bottom line - I want to get as much of the 'missing 3 weeks' between Spirit Landing and Opportunity landing, expecially all the live events captured and onto something that we can all share.

Any options / suggestions, much appreciated.

Doug

I'm not too worried about the format provided it's got multiple platform support. MPEG4 would be my preferred format - especially if you take care to put some oomph into the up front processing as the end result can be substantially better if you do multipass encodingt/transcoding with something like DivX and you can still keep the file sizes quite compact.

I'll certainly experiement with different formats and infact I'll provide short samples here before making a final decision.

I've bought a nice USB2 capture device that does a superb job on NTSC video from my VHS deck.

Doug

I would rather like to use ones of Real Player since it offers for all platform including to Linux.

Rodolfo

Unfortunately - that format is out from the start - it is horrid in terms of quality I've found. The players are also fairly horrific pieces of software, virging on bloated spyware in some regards. I certainly wouldn't buy it if it were in Real format

DivX would be a good one actually, but as I said, I'm going to try it on some NTSC video I have here first, do a few sample movies for people to try, and see what happens.

Doug

Experimenting is good.

Just looking at the H264 video that was put on Spaceflightnow.com of the recent press conf - it's 8 minutes long but only 4 meg. Consider all the 60 minute and 30 minute MER press conf's.....I could get a lot of them on at that sort of compression

Doug

Doug:

640 x 480 minimum - and have a look at xVid.

Do several volumes for burning onto current DVDs, and amalgamate them next year onto one Blu-Ray (or whatever). But keep the original quality up as much as you can.

Bob Shaw

Well - they'll be coming on NTSC VHS (otherwise what will be a bill of about 200-300$ would be become more like $1500 or more, then add on an NTSC Digi-Beta deck hire etc ) - and VHS is technically something like 240 lines anyway...A good, sharp, 320 x 240 video would be the best way of getting file size down to maximise how much I can cram into one DVD.

Of course, I could always do some NTSC DVD specials...perhaps just the live landing and first comms past as full res DVD to bolt on.

I'll always have the NTSC VHS origs to return to if I need to - but I'll be capturing at 720 x 480 MPG1 (4mbps) which is DVD quality, technically more than the quality of the VHS itself.

Hows about a two disc set. Disc 1 - DVD-Video (NTSC - region free) of Spirit landing live, + the first comms pass live, and the live egress if there's room. Then Disc 2 - DVD-ROM of 320x240 QT/Xvid/DivX/WMV/whatever of as much footage as I can get of that first two weeks..impact to egress.

Doug

Doug,

1. Thanks for taking on this task. I've watched the Opportunity landing footage posted at Exploratorium, er, more than once, and it will be good to have the Spirit landing available too.

2. I agree with nix on realplayer, but otherwise don't have a format preference, so long as it's supported on the Mac. (And note that .wmv Mac support seems to be fading.)

3. Are there any formats which support chapter stops, preferably separate user-editable chapters? That way the umsf community will be able to index the lot quickly.

4. Is there any support for a version of the actual landing interleaved with the Maas video?


TTT

Current shopping list - but what I'm doing is going through and 'ranking' the Press Confs based on the matching press release for each one - and will cull them until I have more like 15 hours and about $250-300 worth of duplicating fees from the JPL media guys. I have to make the project financially sensible, and price it at a figure that I know will recoop my costs of getting the footage, and burning the media. Currently, I'm hoping for 50-100 sales at £20 per two disk set. It wont include ALL of the below....I'm going to cull probably the 6 least interesting items on the DVD-Rom disk. The press releases and their imagery will all be included for the peroid in question, which is now the title for this project..

"Spirit : Impact to Egress"

Now - before you start going "can't you add this video." etc etc...each clip on that list is costing between $20 and $25 - so I have to be realistic and a little more modest in the scope of this first project - keep the costs manageable. I would love to have every conference etc - but it's going to be too much footage and too great a cost. Perhaps - if this is really succesfull - I'll try and do something like it for Mars Pathfinder, and perhaps all the Pre Launch ATLO footage for MER I can find as well...who knows....depends how worthwhile this becomes

HOWEVER... I2E will include EVERY live commentary session ( including EDL, first images, egress etc ) and the key press confs ( Post landing, post first images, first Pancam postcard, MGS sees Spirit, Post Egress ) plus as much as I can afford / fit on the disc.

Format will be Region 0 NTSC DVD for Disc 1, and then PROBABLY ( but not for certain ) 360 x 240 H264 Movs AND Xvid versions on the Disc 2 DVD Rom.

Only real decision in terms of contents that I need from potential buyers is this...

On the DVD-Video, there will be the 2hrs+ of EDL commentary, plus room for one other 1hr-ish event

Which do you want that to be? The Egress commentary, the first comms pass commentary, or something else. I tried to change this threads poll but I think I borked it up...so just comment below


Doug

Well, the listing of topics looks interesting

First comms commentary.