Video Archiving and Streaming

I have recorded video, what can I do with it?

If you already have video you can do different things depending on what format it is in. There are subtle differences between formats, but essentially there are three main forms of video that you might possess:

    1) videotape (VHS, S-VHS, DV, mini-DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, 3/4", Beta, etc.)
    2) DVD disc (store bought professional or something you have made yourself)
    3) Raw digital video (stored on your PC, external drive, or disc in various formats such as avi, wmv, rm, etc.).

What you need to decide is what you want to do with the video now, and what you might need to do with it in the future. A critical part of those questions is: who will your audience be?

I want to make my video available for people to see

There are several options for video distribution to groups such as students: 1) Discs or tapes for checkout, and 2) Streamed or downloaded video

    1) Discs or tapes for checkout:
    The faculty/staff lounge has self-serve equipment that will allow you to make tapes or DVDs from your VHS tape. If you have a different tape format, please let us know and we will help you connect to this DVD dubbing system. NOTE: copyrighted material has protection built into it to prevent dubbing to DVD from both videotapes and DVDs. Despite fair use laws, our equipment will not allow for copying this material. Newer PCs (and the PCs in the faculty staff lounge) have DVD burners that you can use to make DVD copies from DVDs.

    2) Streamed video:
    Videos that are viewed instantly online are "streamed." The video is being fed over your data connection as you are simultaneously watching it. Video can also be sometimes downloaded to your computer for viewing later. There are several prominent formats for downloading video: (windows media (wmv or asf), RealVideo (rm), Flash video (flv), QuickTime (mov), mpeg (in various flavors), and more.

    • Goizueta Business School has its own RealVideo Server for the Goizueta website. Please download and complete the RealServer Request Form to request space on our Real Server to store and/or stream RealVideo and/or RealAudio content.
    • Flash Video is regularly used to stream video from an internet server.
    • QuickTime video may be streamed from a real server in addition to real video.
    • Mpeg (actually mpg2) is THE format for DVD video.
    • Windows media integrates well when being inserted in to Microsoft office programs such as PowerPoint.

    There are many uses for each format, but the preceding uses are what we have found works best. Please contact Support Desk to request space or for further information.

I want to archive my video for future use

Keep in mind when deciding how to archive your video that technology will likely continue to progress. That being said, you will want to save your video in a format that is higher in quality than what would, for example, currently reasonably stream over the web. The reason is video compression, the process of lowering video file sizes while trying to best maintain quality.

For example, Real video compresses video greatly and is proprietary in its final state. Once created, it can not be edited. Therefore, you might want to first capture the video digitally using a lower compression "codec" such as .avi. From the .avi you can create a RealVideo to stream that meets today's web streaming capabilities. The avi can be stored to DVD as data (not as a video DVD). An external hard drive is also a good way to store these videos which are huge and will often not even fit on a data DVD. Then when streaming capabilities change the archived avi can be used to create new streamed material, or could be converted for use in a video DVD.

Who will help me with these steps?

What Information Services Will Do:
Specify the needed hardware and software and give you (or a TA or RA) the training to capture video or covert it to the format you need.

What You Will Need to Do:
Either obtain the required hardware and software, or be willing to use the equipment in the faculty Staff lounge. Additionally, the Emory Center for Interactive Teaching provides assistance with many of these services.