Video Delivery

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This page is intended to list the protocol and standard video formats to be used for delivery of EcoViz visualization products.

Protocol

Videos for general distribution to web and collaborators should:

  1. Have an EcoViz watermark
  2. Have, at a minimum, a simple credits page (usually at the end) with small white font on black background, listing:
    1. Link to http://ecoviz.csumb.edu
    2. List of authors of:
      1. The visualization itself
      2. The current Tarsier software development team (in cases where Tarsier software was used)
      3. Any models used
      4. Any data sources requiring a citation
      5. Any funding sources / grant numbers requiring a citation
  3. Conform to a standard EcoViz Video Format listed below
  4. Raw video sequenced directly from JPG frames should have a file name as follows:
    1. EcoViz_Title_yymmdd_ii_RawWWWWxHHHHxFF.eee, where:
    2. 'EcoViz' should appear literally
    3. 'Title' should be a brief title for the video with initial caps and no spaces, e.g.: 'LobosPart1'
    4. 'yymmdd' is the date. For subsequent editions on the same date, append letter 'a', 'b', etc.
    5. 'ii' is the lower-case initials of the person who rendered it in Tarsier and created the original .mov file using QuickTime
    6. 'Raw' should appear literally.
    7. 'WWWWxHHHH' is the video width and height in pixels, e.g. '1280x0720' - padded with leading zeroes if necessary
    8. 'xFF' is the frame rate in frames-per-second. (You could choose to omit this if the frame rate is the NTSC standard 29.97 fps. But definitely include it if the rate is something else, otherwise it might go un-noticed, and shimmer could result after compression.)
    9. 'eee' is the file extension, e.g. 'mov'
  5. Video that has been subsequently compressed / crushed using (e.g.) QuickTime or Cleaner XL should have the additional suffix:
    1. _ComWWWWxHHHH_DDDbps-S
      1. where 'Com' is either:
      2. 'Cln' to denote video crushed by Cleaner XL
      3. 'QT' to denote video crushed by QuickTime (e.g. using the 'Export' function)
    2. 'WWWWxHHHH' is the crushed video width and height in pixels, e.g. '1280x0720' - padded with leading zeroes if necessary
    3. 'DDD' is the data rate in bps, e.g. '400kbps', '1.2Mbps', etc.
  6. Video that has been run through MP4Box to ensure fast start during psuedo-streaming should have a filename ending as follows:
    1. .mp4box.mp4
  7. Examples:
    1. EcoViz_LobosPart1_090316_ag_Raw1920x1080.mov
    2. EcoViz_LobosPart1_090316_ag_Raw1920x1080_Cln1280x720_194kbps.mp4box.mp4
    3. EcoViz_LobosPart1_090316_ag_Raw1920x1080x15_Cln1280x720_194kbps.mp4box.mp4

Exceptions:

  1. A separate version without either a watermark or credits may be produced solely for inclusion into video editing pipelines where equivalent attribution will be added later. In such cases, a watermarked and credited version should still be produced for use on the web and in independent presentations

Video Formats

Aspect ratio Codec Extension Compliance Delivery Size Frame rate Data rate Bandwidth EcoViz use Cleaner Suffix Renderer
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 192x108 29.97 fps 32 kpbs-V 56k modem Web thumbnail Yes _0192x0108_32kbps-S
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 192x108 29.97 fps 194 kpbs-V 256k DSL Web thumbnail No _0192x0108_194kbps-S
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 384x216 29.97 fps 194 kpbs-V 256k DSL Web streaming Yes _0384x0216_194kbps-S
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 384x216 29.97 fps 408 kpbs-V 512k DSL Web streaming Yes _0384x0216_408kbps-S
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 448x252 29.97 fps 640 kpbs-V 768k DSL Web streaming Yes _0448x0252_640kbps-S
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 448x252 29.97 fps 819 kpbs-V 1Mbit LAN&T1 Web streaming Yes _0448x0252_819kbps-S
16:9 1.77 480x270 Yes
16:9 1.77 640x360 Yes
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Streaming 709x396 29.97 fps 1229 kpbs-V 1.5Mbit Intranet Web download Yes _0709x0396_1229kbps-S
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Download 709x396 29.97 fps 1229 kpbs-V 1.5Mbit Intranet Web download Yes _0709x0396_1229kbps-S
16:9 1.77 960x540 Yes
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Download 1280x720 29.97 fps 1000 kpbs-V 1Mbit LAN&T1 Presentation No _1280x0720_1Mbps
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Download 1280x720 29.97 fps 3000 kpbs-V 1Mbit LAN&T1 Presentation No _1280x0720_3Mbps
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Download 1280x720 29.97 fps 10000 kpbs-V 1Mbit LAN&T1 Presentation No _1280x0720_10Mbps
16:9 1.77 1366x768 Yes
16:9 1.77 MPEG-4 MP4 NTSC Download 1920x1080 29.97 fps 10000 kpbs-V 1Mbit LAN&T1 HiDef No _1920x1080_10Mbps Yes
2.35 748x318 Yes (special for OFVVEC Splash)
3:2 1.50 720x480 Yes
3:2 1.35 720x534 Yes
4:3 1.33 320x240 Yes
4:3 1.33 640x480 Yes
4:3 1.33 800x600 Yes
4:3 1.33 960x720 Yes
4:3 1.33 1024x768 Yes
4:3 1.33 1280x960 Yes
4:3 1.33 1440x1080 Yes
1:1 1.00 480x480 Yes

Notes:

  • V: The data rates above usually apply to video without audio. When the audio track is not used, standard data rates suggested by Cleaner XL will less than the what is implied by the nominal bandwidth. Cleaner Xl appears to add about 15% extra bandwidth for the audio, and 10% again, probably just for headroom.
  • Cleaner XL defaults to have some video filtering (noise reduction etc.). As of 090319, EcoViz is not using these filters (not sure if we've used them before).

Compatibility issues

Playback of mp4 files on the web

  1. QuickTime plug-in
    1. This is perhaps the most common plug-in player around.
    2. But it doesn't support full-screen view.
    3. And it loads video on page load, which slows the page load down unless you do some AJAX tricks
  2. JW Player plug-in
    1. Seems like a more versatile player, with options like:
      1. - full-screen
      2. - playbar overlay
      3. - play-lists
      4. - many video formats
      5. - load video only after click (?)
    2. Main version relies on Flash Player (using SWFObject), and thus video compatibility is restricted to Flash Player compatibility.
    3. Cleaner XL mp4's encoded using 'MP4' option (not the ISMA variant of this option) seem to work ok. They use H.264.
    4. Cleaner XL mp4's encoded with 'MP4 (ISMA) / MPEG-4 Improved' option don't play in Flash, this seems to be because the codec is unsupported. Some details:
      1. Discover video encoding details using MediaInfo. This reports CleanerXL's mp4 'improved' files as having video codec ID 20, which is apparently not supported by Flash Player.
      2. Using SWFObject 1.5 versus 2.1 makes no difference.
      3. Running the mp4 through MP4Box makes no difference.
      4. Checked ecoviz.csumb.edu server MIME type for mp4 using Fiddler 2 and found that it was serving mp4 as text, so used an .htaccess file on the site to make it serve mp4 as 'video/mp4' (confirmed this worked using Fiddler 2).
      5. Tried Firefox and IE
      6. Tried a localhost server as well as ecoviz.csumb.edu
      7. Got help from this forum: http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/forum/General-Chat/16680/Cant-play-mp4-in-JW-Player#msg113183
      8. For these tests: JW Player version = 4.3.132. Flash player version = 10.0.22.87

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