Leader for Episode 1

[ivaradi]

I am going to post a short clip of OL episode 1. It is
the fist 40 seconds of the leader for "Wind Blows Free".

I am working on a scheme to share whatever episodes we all
have. Here are a few suggestions I have.

Encoding standards.

Video should be encoded in MPG format. This is the
form that is most universally accepted, and it is
very easy to convert to whatever other format (.AVI,
.MOV, MPEG2, DVD) from there.

The clip is encoded at 800000 bitrate 352×240 mpeg-1
which will allow two 50 minute episodes to fit on
one 700mb CDR. That translates to 46 disks to store the
whole series. What do you think of the quality of
the picture?

Exchanging.

I have copies of the first 8 episodes which I am willing
to share with the group. There are several very different
possible methods for sharing. One is to develop a tree
for passing the disks or videotapes along to each other.
The idea is for the owner of an episode can send it to
the next person on the list who will make a copy for him/herself
and then send the original to the next person on the list.
This involves being able to make a copy, and so excludes
those who do not have the wherewithall to duplicate media.
A second possibility is to make two copies of each episode, sending
one along to the next copier, and another to someone who
cannot copy.

An entirely different scheme is to share mpg copies on CDR media.
The advantage here is that the media costs are much lower, and
the disks can be sent through the mail at low costs. There is
a much larger advantage to exchanging CD's…the mpg format
is uniform around the world, while television formats are not.
In the US we use NTSC which is incompatible with the PAL format
that much of the rest of the world uses. Sharing VCR tapes
across the Atlantic is problematic, at best.

Sharing CD's could work as described above. If we stuck to
the encoding standard I suggest, two episodes would fit
on a single CD, something like 12 would fit in a DVD (data storage).
I have stored some of my episodes to DVD video and a single disk
will easily hold three 50 minute stories. It is possible to fit more
on a DVD with the best (expensive) equipment, but I do not have it.

Another possibility is to use a peer-to-peer file sharing
network to exchange files, like the famous Napster which no
longer exists. I am investigating some of these and they look
promising.

Is anyone interested in pursuing this with me? I think it is a shame
that the broadcasters have shown so little interest in Onedin.
I think it was a great story. It's too bad that VCR's
weren't invented sooner…there would be copies in circulation,
where now we have precious few.

nautnaut

[liamegan2000]

—– Original Message —–
From: "nautnaut" <nautnaut@yahoo.com>
To: <shiponedingroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 10:42 PM
Subject: [shiponedingroup] Leader for Episode 1

> Encoding standards.
>
> Video should be encoded in MPG format. This is the
> form that is most universally accepted, and it is
> very easy to convert to whatever other format (.AVI,
> .MOV, MPEG2, DVD) from there.

Yes a good idea.

> The clip is encoded at 800000 bitrate 352×240 mpeg-1
> which will allow two 50 minute episodes to fit on
> one 700mb CDR. That translates to 46 disks to store the
> whole series. What do you think of the quality of
> the picture?

> Exchanging.
>
> I have copies of the first 8 episodes which I am willing
> to share with the group. There are several very different
> possible methods for sharing. One is to develop a tree
> for passing the disks or videotapes along to each other.
> The idea is for the owner of an episode can send it to
> the next person on the list who will make a copy for him/herself
> and then send the original to the next person on the list.
> This involves being able to make a copy, and so excludes
> those who do not have the wherewithall to duplicate media.
> A second possibility is to make two copies of each episode, sending
> one along to the next copier, and another to someone who
> cannot copy.

The problem with copying VHS is the rapid degrading of the copy quality and
high cost of postage, I favour an all CD-r based system.

>
> An entirely different scheme is to share mpg copies on CDR media.
> The advantage here is that the media costs are much lower, and
> the disks can be sent through the mail at low costs. There is
> a much larger advantage to exchanging CD's…the mpg format
> is uniform around the world, while television formats are not.
> In the US we use NTSC which is incompatible with the PAL format
> that much of the rest of the world uses. Sharing VCR tapes
> across the Atlantic is problematic, at best.
>
> Sharing CD's could work as described above. If we stuck to
> the encoding standard I suggest, two episodes would fit
> on a single CD,

I can see a problem. I think it would be better to keep 1 episode per CD.
Firstly it would simplify distribution, and it would also improve the
quality. Bear in mind if any episodes come from my VHS tapes the quality is
not great to start with. 50 minutes as 700mb would be watchable, degrade it
any more than that and it would not be very good at all.

Also the price of CD-r is so low I don't think that's a factor either.

something like 12 would fit in a DVD (data storage).
> I have stored some of my episodes to DVD video and a single disk
> will easily hold three 50 minute stories. It is possible to fit more
> on a DVD with the best (expensive) equipment, but I do not have it.

A very good idea I could write them to a DVD at whatever bit rate I could
mange which then could be used to send episodes across the pond or to
mainland Europe for further distribution to other listees or W.H.Y. This all
depend on my capture card when it arrives and my ability to use it!

I don't think we should exclude those of us who for whatever reason cannot
copy discs, I'm willing to do a few extra copies to fill in the gaps for
those people if needed. Anyone who is worried about cost incurred for the
"distributors" could send blank discs?

>
> Another possibility is to use a peer-to-peer file sharing
> network to exchange files, like the famous Napster which no
> longer exists. I am investigating some of these and they look
> promising.

Win Mx could be used, but the problem with all P2P networks is finding the
file you want.

> Is anyone interested in pursuing this with me? I think it is a shame
> that the broadcasters have shown so little interest in Onedin.
> I think it was a great story. It's too bad that VCR's
> weren't invented sooner…there would be copies in circulation,
> where now we have precious few.

Yes absolutely, like I have said before I have every episode on VHS one or
two were recorded from the later series when the program was originally
aired 20 odd years ago. The rest were recorded from BBC repeats of the
series around 1984 and UK gold (many of them on a dodgy VCR) about 11 years
ago. The quality of many of them is reasonable, but a few tapes are not so
good now unfortunately.

Another thought is, is there any point copying the episodes that are already
available commercially on either VHS or DVD unless someone somewhere in the
world cannot obtain them? Should we first concentrate on providing episodes
that are not available on the market now?

Thanks for some really good ideas,

Bill

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