Would you be willing to download an approx 80 meg automag video?

[warpfeedmod]

That basically shows the breakdown/rebuild/how it works of the mags? I've been working with Tom and with his blessings I have recorded the 3 current mag videos to my computer and have been working on a way to get them small enough for people to stream/download.

I was able to take the RT/RTPro video (approx 45 mins) and split it into three parts, Breakdown, Rebuild and How it works. If you've ever seen the video you'll knwo what I'm talking about. Problem is each piece is approx 80 megabytes. I've encoded them in Divx format with mpeg audio and have lowered the audio/video quality as much as I could without losing quality in the video itself. The video is 352x240 in size.

My question is I know some of the high-speed users probably wouldn't have a problem with it if they were hosted on decent servers, but for those of you with 56k or slower dial-up still be willing to sit through the download just to see the video?

Also I've been trying to work out a DVD layout with all three of the videos on it. I've been able to take the classic68 video (well over an hour) and break it down into just the necessary parts of breaking down the marker, troubleshooting, etc. If the DVD thing works out and Tom can get them mass produced cheap enough maybe he could work out something to distribute them. I've also worked out putting just the necessary parts in mpg or avi format onto a CD as data just to give to everyong. Duplicating a CD isn't that hard nowadays and with CD's costing as little as 10cents each in bulk, it wouldn't be that bad. If anyone would be interested in possibly "beta" testing some of these data CDs to offer suggestions and whatnot drop me a PM and I'll make up a list for when I get it finished. Obviously this wouldn't cost you guys anything. So what do you think?

[FalconGuy016]

I download 200+ mb movies all the time
I was actually thinking about doing this too, as I have dazzle and a vcr (and a mac - the ultimate multimedia station)

Id be glad to beta test your cd

[Koosh]

I use 56k and I wouldn't mind it... I would just have to leave it run overnight, or while I'm at school/work to get it done. Heck, I've downloaded 700+meg files on my 56k before, just takes patience and a good connection.

[SIGSays]

if i had cable or dsl.. it would be fine...

[sniper1rfa]

fine by me as long as its on a decent server. my connection crashes when i download slow. :-(

[cletus]

mp3 encoding

I dont know if you have tried this but encoding the audio part in mp3 format makes it a lot smaller. If you want, i can do it if you cant seem to find the codec anywhere.

I have done this with out of our team vids and it took off 30 MB from the final size, but i dont know what the original was encoded in.

[Strider]

I'd be in.

[PsychoBaller]

Sadly.......

No.... many people can barely download sig images on their computers/laptops, let alone more than a Meg +....

~da baller

[darklord]

Get download accelator, people, speeds up DLs greatly. I'd do it then burn it onto a VCD so it wouldn't take up room on my PC.

[madmatt151]

Link...

How about giving those of us with Broadband the links to the videos. Personally I'd like to see the RT one because I do not have it. Thanks.

[angels one]

crazy idea but I'll put it out there. I have a cannon XL-1 high-end Digital video camera and a DV500 video capture card. I could retake the video digitally and convert to any format needed. the only thing that I currently dont have is a DVD burner.

[Skoad]

i download 2.4 gig movies

[joeyjoe367]

Yes, I would actually prefer it. My 17" monitor is bigger than my 13" tv

[SeeK]

Be sure to break the videos into many chapters then have a table of contents that the dial-up users could use to get their small part. The numerous chapters would also be good for the DVD because it's easier than fast forwarding.
A DVD will hold 1 hour of DVD quality video and a CDR will hold 1 hour of SVCD or VCD quality video.

Since the DVD-R holds 4.7 Gig and the CDR holds 650-700 meg you should be able to get 7x more run time (About 7 hours of VCD) on the disk.

The VCD format should play on most DVD players since it's MPEG1 and DVD is MPEG2.

[warpfeedmod]

Re: mp3 encoding

Originally posted by cletus
I dont know if you have tried this but encoding the audio part in mp3 format makes it a lot smaller. If you want, i can do it if you cant seem to find the codec anywhere.

I have done this with out of our team vids and it took off 30 MB from the final size, but i dont know what the original was encoded in.

yeah cletus I've been using the mp3 format for audio.

Also I got the entire RT/RTPro video down to approx 40megs last night. I'll see about splitting it into three chapters and also having the complete file. I'll keep everyone posted.