Solutions to the Frustrations of Video? 63
Re-Torque asks: "In our organizations, interviews with perpetrators of crime (child abuse, rape, etc), and with victims, are conducted by expert interviewers and are recorded on videotape or DVD (with back ups). These recordings are legal records. They are archival records, but they are also used in the courts and in other aspects of the legal process.
We have encountered problems with newer VCRs and DVD recorders. As long as the tape or DVD is played back on the same machine, there is no degradation of audio and video quality. However, when played back on any other machine, the quality of the recording is substantially degraded. We have been told that this is to frustrate illegal copying, but in our case, it frustrates the legal process. In your experience, is the problem in fact one of design of the machines or are we doing something wrong (i.e., some settings we should change before recording)? Are there any machines available that are not crippled in this way? Or are there other strategies we might employ to resolve this problem?"
My experiences (Score:4, Interesting)
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Encrypted high frequencies? (Score:4, Informative)
In progressive JPEG, first the low frequencies are stored, and then the high frequencies are stored. This way, you get a blurred preview image before the rest of the data fills in the detail. The consumer electronics-Hollywood complex could make DVD recorders work the same way: encrypt the high frequencies so that any other player model won't be able to play the copy at full quality, discouraging people from using DVD video recorders to record TV and make counterfeit season box sets.
Why would they do that? (Score:2)
How would this be in any way superior, from the "consumer electronics-Hollywood complex" perspective, than simply encrypting all of the content on the disc?
If you encrypt the high frequencies, they still have to be decrypted by 'approved' playback devices
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Damnit, don't give them any more ideas!
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I don't know about DVD recorders, but (Score:3, Insightful)
With proper alignment, professional and even decent quality consumer video recorders should make tapes that are interchangeable without real degradation.
If you're serious about archiving, a professional or at least digital format is probably what you want, also, not VHS.
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Visit your Salvation Army. (Score:1)
Oh, and make a fuss about it. Make sure you speak to politicians about this, especially if it's hindering the legal process. It would be even better if you could get judges and other court officials to complain.
This is beautiful (Score:5, Funny)
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How many legislators and lobbyists are lawyers by profession? Almost all of them. If a problem affects lawyers, they've got the connections to get attention better than any other group.
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The "legal system" (judiciary) is responsible for interpreting the laws, which puts them in the perfect position (as in, their job, bullshit whinging about "activist judges" notwithstanding) to spank some of this crap down.
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Record directly to DVD (Score:1)
Use a computer (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Use a computer (Score:5, Interesting)
Lastly, newer video codecs allow for compression much greater then MPEG-2 used on DVDs. This means that your archive could use less physical space to store more videos. I believe an additional Ask Slashdot coverd this a few days ago. This also helps protect you against technology obseletion. Rather then being stuck with 10,000 VHS tapes in 2015, just do a batch convert from format A to format B as needed, and then stream the resulting video to the courtroom.
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300 GB drive = $800 = $2.67 per GB
Disk space costs 44 times as much as tape space. That means they could make copies on 44 different tapes and pay the same as they would for disk space. RAID setups are for high availability (and nerds' wet dreams). If the current setup is VHS and DVD, I don't think they're looking for immediate fail-over redundancy and high speed I/O.
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It's instant (no waiting for a tape to copy stuff), can be done at *any* time, and the backup drives are completely bootable (assuming it's the boot drive you've backedup).
In any case, is a 300GB drive really the s
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There is the consideration of size, weight, and durability with drives that you don't have with tapes. If you drop a tape, big deal. If you drop a drive, goodbye drive.
Speed's already been covered. We're talking about data they don't even keep on nearline storage. It's on VHS (reading/writing speed: 1x) and DVD. A single tape (that holds 186 DVDs) on a shelf is a much better solution for this situation than three hard drives (140 D
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I also accept that SCSI it the chosen i/f for businesses, but I would suggest that in may cases, SATA would be just fine - I know businesses that use SATA for RAID.
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You need to keep it simple. Perhaps the dvd or vhs recorder has macrovision or other copy protection that it automatically adds to the tape? If so, it must be disabled, OR, a product that has good compatibility must be purchased. I can see vhs tapes not be
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Use a free computer (Score:2)
Why not display the video using a PC with a video card that has composite or S-video output? You should be able to hook up to any modern TV or projector. You could encode the video in whatever format you want: lossless DV, Ogg Theora, XviD, even WMV if you are really sadistic.
Yes, there are many benefits to digital media, but only if it's free. DVDs should have all of the benefits but don't, because the media companies are afraid and they have crippled the hardware. The same companies will provide the
a couple solutions (Score:5, Informative)
if you're running under linux, you've got a couple options. kino (http://www.kinodv.org/ [kinodv.org] will allow you to capture live raw video (plus sound) from a standard dv camera with an ilink (aka 1394a) connection. it takes a little effort to get setup, but it's worth it. you'll then want to use ffmpeg to re-encode the files so that they're less huge and then save the encoded version.
if you have analog cameras, a $50 capture card (we use ati's all-in-wonder) can act as a frame grabber --- it may take a little finagling to get the sound working, but once it's all hooked up you should be good to go. use xawtv to preview and make sure that everything is behaving as expected, then use ffmpeg to capture the video. make sure you encode at fairly high bit rate and be careful about what combinations of codec and containers you choose (in particular, you probably want to stick to msmpeg4v2 encoded
there are ways to do similar things in windows, although i have much less experience doing so and tend to use developers tools (like graphedit) to put together the directshow filters that will capture video and sound from some source, encode, mux, and then output the file. i'm sure that there are pieces of software out there that can do this. if you have access to some it people, writing your own should be fairly easy (there's a handy book on the subject here: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Microsoft/dp/07
if you're not inclined to build your own solution, virtualdub http://www.virtualdub.org/ [virtualdub.org] may be able to help you. i haven't used it myself, but it's a pretty widely used app.
the one thing to bear in mind with all these proposed solutions is that you're going to want to make sure you've got fairly big and fast disks and quite a lot of space free. you're also going to want to make sure you've got a reliable backup strategy in place since you no longer have the luxury of the original tapes. if you have any other questions, feel free to email me: (my slashdot user name) 'at' yahoo(dot com).
PVR-250 does real-time video compression (Score:3, Informative)
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I use mostly relatively old compu
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I am actually looking for a program that will let me capture video from a webcam onto a laptop. I need to set it to come on automatically at a predetermined time, record for a period of time (like maybe an hour or two) and then shut off at another predetermined time. It must work through USB or USB2. I do not need unusual file formats, nor extremely high quality video (it's a webcam, after all
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The good thing is you'll have to install Linux.
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to capture for one hour:
ffmpeg -vd
you can put something similar into a cron job to run when you need it, using some clever shell trickery to generate the filenames for you, eg:
ffmpeg -vd
PlayCap (Score:2)
Likewise several solution suggestions from the Internet. I even installed Vis Basic Express on the off chance there was some simple way to add a video control to a form and manipulate it from there. I'm stumped. You would think this was a common enough task that there would be a million applications o
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Blowing smoke or something special? (Score:2)
Copying tape to tape, or DVD to DVD can be an issue if a player introduces macrovision, but you shouldn't have that problem if the video is as you described.
Unless there is something special about the VCR or DVD players in question that you haven't specified the fact is you should not have a problem playing the videos on other equipment. VCR's, particularly older ones can be temperamental if the tracking is off.
You should have absolutely no difficulties with the DVDs.
Eliminate the Consumer-level equipment (Score:3, Informative)
Step #2 Use digital equipment connected to a PC recording the feed in real-time. A Md5sum/hash will be your (CoverYourAss) proof that the video has not been faked.
Backups then become simple.
Burn it to a DVD and it becomes portable.
What? (Score:2)
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Oh, wait, now that doesn't make any sense at all.
Maybe a PC? (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Send the machines back - they are faulty (Score:4, Insightful)
Whatever they tell you, it is faulty. Send it back and get a refund or working replacement.
Given you are likely to know many friendly lawyers, maybe you could hint that various sorts of unpleasant legal action might be taken if they don't do the right thing...
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And I was using a el-cheapo Benq DVD burner that died after about 1.5 years (wow such quality
Buy professional decks. (Score:2)
That said, I've never seen anything like that. Have you contacted the manufacturer?
one too many d's in there... try dv (Score:2)
Why on earth are you still using vhs tapes? if these are legal documents i would think you'd want them to last, and vhs tapes... don't. DV isn't exactly know for long life either but its easy to operate in real time, then the tech folks can make a dvd archive, tape backup, or whatever (ie digital dv file on a dvd, not a dvd player dvd).
Welcome to the future (Score:5)
Unauthorized footage is prohibited. Think of the goddam starving grips, script writers, and boom operators who you are putting out into the street because you are undercutting their livelihood with your "recordings" for "legal purposes." What a crock. If you really are "law enforcement" you should do things the right way and hire a Hollywood studio to record these things for you. Anything else is the same as shoplifting.
Seriously, you are SOL. There are definitely ways to beat this kind of thing, but you will be breaking the law and/or causing others to break the law simply by inquiring. The operators of Slashdot may even get a nice visit from the FBI if anyone posts methods for how to defeat these copy protection measures.
Welcome to the future, where due process is no obstacle to protecting media companies' profits.
Maintenance required? (Score:4, Informative)
You really shouldn't be seeing issues like this with user-created DVDs.
So far as VCR's go, there's a lot of moving parts in there even for "simple" consumer-level devices. Regular maintenance is essential, especially on high-use equipment. The most common cause of recording/playback/portability problems is due to the back-tension rollers. These are rubber-coated wheels which help to hold the video tape against the head drum to ensure proper reading/writing from/to the oxide layer. These eventually get a smooth sheen on them due to wear and oxide stripping from the tape and thus cause slippage and irregular transport of the tape and glitches in the signal. They can usually be fixed-up on the cheap by removing them, putting them on a machined screw on a dril and using fine-grade sandpaper just enough to remove the sheen. Clean them with alcohol to remove debris and reinsert in VCR. There may also need to be adjustment to the back tension spring on the arm which holds the back tension wheel, but this is usually better left alone. Other maintenance activites also involve cleaning the audio/tracking head and head drums (the heads themselves, actually) to remove oxide and other gunk buildups to ensure proper contact with the tape, and also occasionaly replacing the rubber drive and loading belts - particularly if the unit has been sitting idle for a while. Dai-ichi make a large range of belts for many models, which we get from WES Electronics - far cheaper than "brand" name belts.
If your budgets are anything like police budgets in Aus then you're probably limited to consumer-level devices. You can't go past Samsung VCR's, especially get ones with the "Dub" or "Edit mode" switches as these tend to avoid the Macrovision-style copy corruption (err, protection) techniques employed in a lot of other VCRs. The seems to be getting even more prevalent, even with everyone allegedly using DVDs now or pirating movies from the net.
You are the exception to the rule (Score:1)
Consumer technology just get shittier with age (Score:1)
You move around Video Tapes??? (Score:2)
All of my friends are buying DVD Burners. I know exactly 1 (one!) case where DVDRs/RWs/+/-/whatever make sense: If you do lot's of video production and have to send the data around alot with the mail to various clients. I can't even think why anyone who records on a regular basis would even use VCRs.
In you case it appears that you're moving evidence around that could be important to your clients and that other people shouldn't be able to see without you sanctioning that.
DVDs are a wast
Gold Brick DVD recorders (Score:2)
The PRV-LX1 [pioneerelectronics.com] is a profesional level DVD recorder that should not suffer these problems you speak of. There is also the associated DVD players they offer as well.
The short of it is, the companies are doing something extra to bork over the customers with the stuff. A proper DVD recorder/player and VCR should have no problems playing back something from another machine so long as they both are following the standard.
Macrovision (Score:2)
Mini DV? (Score:2)
Tapes are small (for archiving). A simple camera can be had for ~$300 (with microphone input if you need it). The video can be easily digitized (Windows Movie Maker is more then sufficient and easy to use if you're using Microsoft) and transfered to whatever media you need (or you can just play it over your network if that's possible.
also, you may want to check out nvr devices (Score:2)
my LE perspective (Score:1)