Feed video via internet?

Canonman

Well-known member
Ok thnaks, however, I have a dvd player and alot of codecs installed and I cant get it to play either! The file was about 50 megs, which was only a minute of video. I will keep experimenting and eventually will find a solution. May have to rent space on a commercial server or something.
If you want, PM me here on the board with a download link. I'd be willing to bet I can get the file to play. I can analyze the a/v stream and see what's going on with it. I might be able to determine why the encoding isn't working for you.

cm
 
WOW, WOW, WOW. This is great stuff!!! I have been looking for info like this for years. But I'm so confused. I need a sure fire that whatever I choose to purchase, it will work. I don't want to use an FTP (too expensive). I'm scratching my head because I'm no computer geek. I just like to shoot video. You guys seem to know so much about this. There's got to be a company out there I could hire to set me up. Anyone??? Jbar seems to have what I'm looking for. I need some help!
 

svp

Well-known member
OK, I admit I did not read all of the responses to this thread and I'm not an engineer by any means but we tried doing this very thing when covering sports at our station for two years. Shoot, edit, and send back to an FTP server. I don't know where the problem was but what aired looked worse than anything on YouTube. We've finally scrapped the system. Once the file got to the station, it had to be converted. Don't ask about bit rates and file sizes or formats cause I have no idea. I simply exported what I edited to the desktop with the setting set up by the Chief Engineer. It was suppose to be broadcast quality but it never made it to air that way. A 2 minute package would also take nearly an hour to send over broadband.

All this being said, I truly believe that we aren't too far away from a day when microwave live shots and satellites will be a thing of the past for local news stations. The technology is advancing so fast that stations will soon be able to execute broadcast quality live shots over wireless broadband, thus eliminating the need for ENG/SNG live trucks. I'm guessing we're about 10 years away if that. Soon, a live shot will mean pulling up to the scene, setting up the camera, and plugging the camera into the laptop via Firewire, and going live. Every news unit will have live capability. What a day that will be.
 

Canonman

Well-known member
SVP, if your station's attempts happened a few years ago, much has changed since then. The cell networks are finally getting broadband speed in their networks, open wi-fi is more available now, and MPEG compression is getting better.

The thing is, now that we are reaching a point where sending standard def video with acceptable visual quality is becoming real, the world is moving towards HD. So once again, you have to transmit more data though the pipe. 10 years sounds reasonable but I wouldn't count out microwave and satellite feeds altogether (especially for remote locations where other wireless infrastructure may not be suitable or available).

AVC-I is a very promising codec for squeezing more quality into a smaller file.

cm
 

Alaska cameradude

Well-known member
It's really not that hard to do...what is hard is to figure out how to get stations to actually use it....they are not sure what to do with the file a lot of the times it seems (for the record you need an MPEG-2 decoder card....just hook the outputs of it up to your deck of choice and voila!) But Bruce over at ENGFTP.com has a great service called VST (virtual satellite transport). You can send him the MPEG-2 file and he puts it up on the satellite for you. I am doing this right now from the Iditarod in Anchorage and there are at least 9 stations taking the feed Bruce puts up on satellite. Great service!!
 

tvnews

Member
I wounder if you guys would be willing to post details on how each of you are feeding video via the net?

I'd be intereted in what hardware you are using including camera you shot with, the way you import the video into your computer, the computer you use, the software you use, what you do with the video once in the computer such as edited it and render it to what, what haedware and software you use to get the video on the net, do you post on your own server for station to download or do you login to a stations server and send your file?

You guys get the idea.

My reason is that I was away for the weekend and a small plane crashed on the beach a little south of were I was. I didn't have my Beta Sx camera but I took my PD-170 down and shot a couple of mins video. used firewire to load into my computer and Sony Vegas to render a mpeg file. The problem was I could not send it back to a station because my ISP (Verizonwireless cell phone card) told me file was too large. So I gave up at that point. Then last night I uploaded it to my space on Verizon server. And I now have an option to invite people to download the video.

I'd like to know how others are doing this.

Thanks
tvnews
 

JacobA

Well-known member
Lots of stuff has already been discussed in this forum and previous forums, but something not previously mentioned that would've solved your transfer problem the other day is http://www.transferbigfiles.com/

You upload an up to 1 gig file to the website for free, and then you enter the receipient's email address. Simple as that. The receipient receives a link to the file download. It is practically seemless. Any file types up to 1 gig.
 

tvnews

Member
Yes, That would have done it. Thanks I'll bookmark that site for future.

Your right on a lot of info already being posted. I'd kind of like to hear about some actual setups like I used xyz camera via firewire into a dell xxx runing such and such software to render a ??? file with these settings. I used www.xxx to upload my big file and a station loged in and took it down.

Kind of stuff that would make for a good "this is how I did it" message.

Thanks
tvnews
 

lbvp

Member
most emails wont let you send huge files as most email accounts are usually set for 10mb (unless you change it to give you more space) you needed some sort of FTP storage site.
one that I've used is www.xdrive.com
you get 5 GB for free and ever the upload is easy

John
 

bluffton

Well-known member
I Love Free

I typically feed through www.youswap.com You don't need to set up an account or password, just type the email address your sending to, and upload the video. I haven't sent anything over 100mb but you can send up to a gig. I use this when work calls me out in the middle of the night and it's near my home (I work about 35 miles from the station) and its great for my clients on side jobs. Some of them even use it now.

I will compress my video to using mpeg2 or mpeg4 @ 720X480, 300kfr 29.97fps,

If its under 1min I will compress using mpeg2 anything over I use mpeg4.

I use quicktime pro 7.1.6 or compressor (I edit on FCP) and I usually set my quality of video between Medium and Good because there really isn't a difference above Good other than more disk space , and anything under medium really looks grainy.
 

tvnews

Member
Cool, so my use of mpg2 was a good choice. I figured that was good since that is what my uplink truck is.

thanks
tvnews
 

Alaska cameradude

Well-known member
I shoot with my PD-150. Firewire into my old Mac 1.5ghz G4 powerbook. Edit using FCP 4.5. Export to MPEG-2 or H.264 (which is a type of MPEG-4). Setting vary depending on how much time I have to encode and feed. Encoding to H.264 is slower than to MPEG-2, but the file sizes are quite a bit smaller and look as good or better, so they feed faster. If you are looking for any specific setting, you can PM me and I can send you some of my settings. I have some presets for both MPEG-2 and H.264, and depending on how much time I have, I will use one of them. I got these by working with Bruce at ENGFTP.com. Compressed video, sent it to him. He'd give me a QC on the file, if it looked good, we'd compress it again and send it to him. After doing so, I kind of figured out what is the lowest data rate you want to use, and above which point you don't see much better quality, just bigger file sizes.
 

BNVN

Active member
If I tell you, I have to... put you under non compete non disclosure.

We do this stuff all the time with everyone and even have a central hub server hooked up to a an OC3 pipe that can push and pull stuff for multiple networks at the same time.

It can be done, but good luck since it is a very competitive side and now with everyone having camera phones, stringers are going to be dead in the water soon.
 

lake4

Well-known member
You're ALL stringers. Just some of you have 401k's the others have SEP's. What local tv station is going to sit by and wait and hope that some loon with a cam phone got enough video of an event and not their feet, to use on tv ?
 

tvnews

Member
Thanks Everyone,

Sorry about asking you guys to disclose something that could hurt you from a business point. After my experience this past weekend of having tape I wanted to get to a station I got tunnel vision and I wanted to hear what you guys had equipment and s/w wise. So I could put together the same setup. It should have been obvious to me that it would not be beneficial for you guys to give away inside info on your operation.

I am sorry, I didn't mean any harm to anyone.

And THANK YOU for all the great info everyone provided.
 

tvnews

Member
If I tell you, I have to... put you under non compete non disclosure.

We do this stuff all the time with everyone and even have a central hub server hooked up to a an OC3 pipe that can push and pull stuff for multiple networks at the same time.

It can be done, but good luck since it is a very competitive side and now with everyone having camera phones, stringers are going to be dead in the water soon.

I don't think the reality is as bad as the fear. The writers and editors hate it now if a stringer doesn't get sound bites, doesn't get cut away, doesn't have all the elements of the story so a decent piece can be put together. I can't see someone with a camera phone sitting in the car for twelve hours and chasing stories all night. I think stringers will always have a place at stations. Heck I started in the seventies with a 16 mm film camera chasing fires and the only thing technology has done is make my stringing easier.
 

BNVN

Active member
You're ALL stringers. Just some of you have 401k's the others have SEP's. What local tv station is going to sit by and wait and hope that some loon with a cam phone got enough video of an event and not their feet, to use on tv ?
CNN - I Report
The Weather Channel, Weather Warrior
Fox News

As I'm writing this I am at my home office working and watching CNN. CNN is using photos of the aftermath of the plane crash this morning in Florida. Think they paid anything for it? No.

Remember the VA Tech Shootings? CNN got an I-Report video from a cell phone that was the top story around the world.

Last year, one of the techs from TWC (Bruce knows who) called to tell me to check out the cell phone video they got from Kansas of a tornado. I've seen a ton of tornado videos and this was shot by someone filling up at a gas station and a tornado came down almost on top of them. The footage was better then a lot of the storm chasers out there could ever shoot.

If you think the CJ's with the camera phones are nothing to worry about, think again. All one news stations GM would have to do is setup a news membership to verify copyright stuff and then blitz the airwaves with "Want to be part of our news team? Sign up at KBFE.com for your CJ Membership and then send us your video"

They would have to send in a signed agreement saying "I dumb arse viewer agree to give KBFE (bum fudge egypt) the right to use in perp anything and everything I supply KBFE and free of charge and hold KBFE blameless and harmless and assume all copyright issues and blah blah blah..."

Just wait, in 2 years time you will see this and it won't be the stringers bitching about gigs, it will be station photogs getting let go. In 2 years time, I predict since so much content will be coming in from viewers wanting to be viral superstars with bragging rights saying "I DID THAT" a few of you may be losing your jobs.
 

Alaska cameradude

Well-known member
CNN - I Report
The Weather Channel, Weather Warrior
Fox News

As I'm writing this I am at my home office working and watching CNN. CNN is using photos of the aftermath of the plane crash this morning in Florida. Think they paid anything for it? No.

Remember the VA Tech Shootings? CNN got an I-Report video from a cell phone that was the top story around the world.

Last year, one of the techs from TWC (Bruce knows who) called to tell me to check out the cell phone video they got from Kansas of a tornado. I've seen a ton of tornado videos and this was shot by someone filling up at a gas station and a tornado came down almost on top of them. The footage was better then a lot of the storm chasers out there could ever shoot.

If you think the CJ's with the camera phones are nothing to worry about, think again. All one news stations GM would have to do is setup a news membership to verify copyright stuff and then blitz the airwaves with "Want to be part of our news team? Sign up at KBFE.com for your CJ Membership and then send us your video"

They would have to send in a signed agreement saying "I dumb arse viewer agree to give KBFE (bum fudge egypt) the right to use in perp anything and everything I supply KBFE and free of charge and hold KBFE blameless and harmless and assume all copyright issues and blah blah blah..."

Just wait, in 2 years time you will see this and it won't be the stringers bitching about gigs, it will be station photogs getting let go. In 2 years time, I predict since so much content will be coming in from viewers wanting to be viral superstars with bragging rights saying "I DID THAT" a few of you may be losing your jobs.
Dude, it's already happening. See here....
www.aksuperstation.com

They've got scrolling text saying:

"Share your cool cell phone pictures and video with all of Alaska. Click here to become a Superviewer now!"

If you click on it it takes you to:
www.aksuperviewer.com

They are doing EXACTLY what you predict. Asking viewers to give them video for FREE! (The page you have to agree to before you send them video reads almost EXACTLY like you said....I started the sign up process just to see what they'd make you sign....but didn't go through with it of course) And there are always people out there that will do it for the "prestige" of having their video seen on TV. Of course, this particular station is LAST in the ratings....by a big margin, so I think they are trying anything they can to get viewers. I bet they figure that if people send in video, then those people will watch their newscast to see their video air....trying to up the ratings. My prediction is that it won't work to get their ratings up, but I also agree that this is going to become more and more common.
But that doesn't change the fact that using the internet to feed video is a good tool for those who want to SELL their video as well. I've actually done this a few times and made decent money off it That being said, the general dumb viewer who gives away their video for free can become a threat to pure stringers. I'm not a pure stringer though, I diversified my video business....TV spots, weddings, freelance news, VNR's, marketing, corporate video, website and internet video, and so on. So I don't have to depend purely on news to make my money....which is nice because I can tell them to go take a flying leap when they ask me to give them video for 'credit'. Reminds me of all the craigslist threads.....'No Pay but will look GREAT on your reel, and get you AWESOME exposure.
 

tvnews

Member
I TOTALLY agree with you! We all know that the use of camera phone video, digital camera photos, and home video in only grew. I just don't come to the same conclusion as you do. Maybe we have a different definition of what stringers do. Here in New York stringers serve two purpus. First, on the over night the stations have no crews working or even on call. We (stringers) chase everything that happens. I limit my work to New Jersey. I can be almost sure of 3 to 5 stores in a week that I sell 6 times over (WABC, WCBS, WNBC, WNYW, WWOR, WPIX). Second, during the day stringers shoot the spot news that gets sent to the stations and either used as a vo, or vosot if we get sound. Or get edited along with the stations crew's video into a package. Third, I happen to have a KU uplink truck, so I get hired to work with a crew and report to do stories outside of microwave range (stations have ku trucks also but assignment editors hate to break a truck from a story they are already on when they can call me and I'll race to the scene. All the stringers here have microwave trucks but only two of us have satellite trucks. So when a big story breaks our sat trucks are guaranteed work because we are available and because a shortage of microwave channels make satellite the best choice at many stories. Heck, I generally don't leave the tri state area here but when Katrina hit Good Morning America begged me to go.

I just do not see camera phones or more correctly the average citizen having the shooting abilities even with a home camera much less a camera phone to meet the standards of the broadcasters.

I should note that stringers can make money on all the camera out their. A couple of weeks ago ATF raided a house in Staten Island for explosives. I was the first news crew on location. A local guy had shot exclusive photos of the perp. I quickly cut a deal to go 50/50 on sales, he downloaded the pictures to my laptop, I call all the assignment desks and sold them.

Yes I see stations using camera phones more and more. But I don't see those photos as even putting a dent into my sales. They will just take the shaky video from the phone of lets say flames, use 10 seconds of that, then edit in my shots of victims crying, chief directing fire fighting, my shots of Red Cross assisting victims, etc and edit it all together.

You may be right in your conclusion, I just have not come to the same conclusion.

tvnews

--






CNN - I Report
The Weather Channel, Weather Warrior
Fox News

As I'm writing this I am at my home office working and watching CNN. CNN is using photos of the aftermath of the plane crash this morning in Florida. Think they paid anything for it? No.

Remember the VA Tech Shootings? CNN got an I-Report video from a cell phone that was the top story around the world.

Last year, one of the techs from TWC (Bruce knows who) called to tell me to check out the cell phone video they got from Kansas of a tornado. I've seen a ton of tornado videos and this was shot by someone filling up at a gas station and a tornado came down almost on top of them. The footage was better then a lot of the storm chasers out there could ever shoot.

If you think the CJ's with the camera phones are nothing to worry about, think again. All one news stations GM would have to do is setup a news membership to verify copyright stuff and then blitz the airwaves with "Want to be part of our news team? Sign up at KBFE.com for your CJ Membership and then send us your video"

They would have to send in a signed agreement saying "I dumb arse viewer agree to give KBFE (bum fudge egypt) the right to use in perp anything and everything I supply KBFE and free of charge and hold KBFE blameless and harmless and assume all copyright issues and blah blah blah..."

Just wait, in 2 years time you will see this and it won't be the stringers bitching about gigs, it will be station photogs getting let go. In 2 years time, I predict since so much content will be coming in from viewers wanting to be viral superstars with bragging rights saying "I DID THAT" a few of you may be losing your jobs.
 

tvnews

Member
MPG Not working

Well................ things are not working.

I have rendered two differant storys now and uploaded to a station and they can not open. Any ideas?

Yesterday I rendered 5 mins of tape as a mpg file and uploaded to station. They could not open it. I then grabbed 1 min of this video and rendered that and uploaded and they still could not open it. In Vegas under meg I have several templetes. I used each one and still no good. Then I did it as a Media Player file and that they could open but it played in a small window.

Any hints?

Thanks
tvnews
 
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