Aurora Sandman

I'm starting a new thread to keep everyone informed on how the CO4RJ suvenior video project is coming along.

I recieved great news this evening.

A good friend of mine here in town, Kurt, has got a new computer that's set up well for video editing. Sunday we're going to work on making DVD masters! I've got 3 hours of video, so this will be 2 DVDs.

Steve Hunt has volunteered to make copies for us once I get masters to him. (Thanks Steve!) So it looks like everything is falling into place.

A little over 15 people have expressed interest in this. If you haven't already contacted me, and you want to get an e-mail notification when I'm ready to announce a price and means of ordering, please drop me a line at MikeAndDonna_public@WebAccess.net I don't anticipate we'll make any additional copies after this.

My hope is to try and break the DVD up into chapters for individual drivers (still keeping things chronological). That would be sweet! See, if you get bored with Steve's (incredibly slow) crawl, you can just skip ahead to the next driver.

L33T35T 4Runner

I emailed you

i wasnt anywhere near going to this, but ive seen some videos and definately want one!!

AznSky

^same^

Aurora Sandman

I just found out today that the recordable DVD's will only hold an hour of video at the best quality. I'd need at least 90 mins. to get this all on only two discs. You can record with degraded quality and get 90 mins, but I don't want the quality to suffer too much. (I'll try it out.) I may resort to 3 disks, which would still be easy to mail. I just hate to make Steve Hunt go though so much work making copies. (Maybe I could arrange to have some made over here.)

My friend, Kurt, tells me he has transfered all the video onto his hard drive -- it took 60 gigs. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be going over to his house to work on it with him. I'm going to watch the thing and see if there is any way to edit it down without sacraficing "the experience."

Last night I read up on how to create DVD menus with the software, and I'm trying to get a hold of Mojo so he can send me a graphic file of the CO4RJ logo (the one on the sticker) so I can use it as the menu backdrop. (The software also allows for the use of a video clip as a backdrop. Perhaps Steve S. doing the French Creek crawl?)

I found out that the format my friend's DVD burner burns in is DVD+R, which I've read only works on 85% of DVD players (I'm hoping mine included). If these discs don't work on someone's player, I'm thinking I'll just make a tape or two for them. Obviously, I'm hoping that won't be the common case.

Aurora Sandman

Sunday I went over to my friend Kurt's house to work on the DVD. I had begun work on the DVD menu at my house, and had some great pictures and fonts picked out for backdrops.

Kurt had already captured all 3 hours of video onto his hard drive, so that was great. However, when we began looking at it, I quickly realized the image quality was very sub-par. It turns out his video capture device doesn't work worth a crap. ($50 Dazzle unit.) Therefore, nothing he captured was usable.

Just as an experiment, we mastered a short 5 minute video, and discovered that, even with his bleeding edge machine (2.8 GigHz and 1 Gig of memory), it takes about 20 minutes for the software to create an actual disk. Kurt said he wasn't so sure he was still interested in finishing the project, that he didn't originally envision it was going to take a long time.

So, in the interest of not outliving my welcome, I'm just going to resort back to Plan A, which is to make digital master tapes and take them to the local tape duplicator and have them make duplicates on VHS.

I know there are people (including me) that would really like to have this thing on DVD. But I can't make a career out of this, and I know people would like to get this in their hot little hands. So tape it'll have to be.

I predict next year I'll have the computer set up to make a DVD. Maybe even in a couple months. If so, I'll still have the digital master tape, and maybe then, making DVD copies will be very doable. Since blank DVDs can be purchased in bulk for between $1.50 and $2.00, I could probably sell them for $5.00 + postage.

... make it a Holiday offer! :xmas3:

So the next couple nights I'm going to dedicate to making these digital tape masters. Then I'll get a price nailed down (figure how much duplication, packaging and postage is going to cost), and then collect money from everyone who is interested, and then fulfill the orders.

Aurora Sandman

Tonight I finished transferring my Hi8 video to 3 MiniDV (digital) tapes. It clocks in at 180 minutes.

Today Donna, my wife, priced shipping boxes for VHS tapes at Walmart: $1.80 each. I need to get a firm quote on the tape duplication, but based upon the earlier quote I got, it'll pobably be about $6.25 a tape (which it'll take 2 tapes for 180 minutes). So once we factor in postage (which I still need to get prices on), it's looking like this is going to be more like $20.

I really wanted the price to come in lower, but there's not much I can do. For those that attended, I think you'll definitely value having this as a suveniour of the trip. I sure will!

For those that have expressed interest, I will still be sending you an e-mail with a firm price and PayPal information (and a place you can send a check if that is what you prefer). I expect to do that by at least the weekend.

Aurora Sandman

I just spoke with the video duplication shop in town, and talking with the fellow there, a DVD may still be a possibility. I plan to drop the master tapes off for him tomorrow and discuss our options...

Flygtenstein

Good work Mike. Hats off for undertaking this project!

I still think that non-attenders should have to pay so attenders can have a price break???

Aurora Sandman

This morning I took the three digital master tapes over to the duplication place. The guy is going to make a DVD master for me containing all three hours of material. He said I should be able to come in Monday or Tuesday and view it and confirm that the quality is acceptable.

I told him I want this project to come in at $20 or less, including postage. He proposed not charging me for the mastering (which was going to be $50) and instead charge me $14 a copy (+ tax I assume). That would allow me a little for packaging and postage (and maybe recouping my expense for the digital tapes).

So if all goes as I'm hoping, this will end up being $20, including shipping. All I'm waiting for is to see the master he comes up with.

If anyone feels strongly that the $20 is too much, let me know.

This DVD will not be fancy. It'll have three one-hour chapters, cooresponding to my three master tapes. However, I do think it's pretty entertaining. I've seen it a few times now, and even when I was duplicating it to the digital masters, I found myself glued to the screen. Steve's spotting alone is worth the price of admission! "SLOW DOWN!" cried the mighty Arizonan.

Albuquerque Jim

Thanks for doing this Mike. Atleast now you have all of the bugs ironed out and you can do this for every event...LOL Just kidding. I appreciate you going through all of the trouble.

Are you sure $20 is enough?

Flygtenstein

A mere $20 for some of the coolest wheeling and people I have ever hung with? Would that be DVD, or VHS?

If it is DVD, that would be a pretty screaming deal.

Cover your costs, you should at worst break even on this, or so I think.

I have an itchy Pay-Pal finger, just say the word. My roommates are even excited about this.

I watch the teaser at least once a day, this full length stuff might be the end of work for the semester.

Aurora Sandman

That would be DVD.

By the way, if someone wants VHS, they can let me know and I can probalby work something out to make them a couple VHS tapes myself.

BIGMOOI

Sounds really cool how do i go about getting my hands on a copy of this DVD. :pat:

Aurora Sandman

I'll add you to the list of people to notify. I expect to have those details next week.

INsr5runner

Thanks for going to all the extra trouble! I will definately drink one for you tonight!

Aurora Sandman

I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't dropped the ball on this.

Last night I viewed the master DVD the shop made for me. The video quality was somewhat degraded due to the resolution reduction necessary to get 3 hours of material onto one disc, but I found it acceptable.

What I didn't find acceptable was that the DVD wouldn't fast forward or rewind -- at least not on my player. My folks are in town visiting us, and I was showing them the video last night. It was really frustrating not being able to rewind and re-watch particular sections. (How can you watch a 4x4 video without being able to rewind??)

I've really considered it important to make this available to people as soon as possible. However, I don't want to send something out that people are going to have trouble with. So please be patient. (I'm trying to be.)

I have a plan B (actually, by now it's probably "plan F"), and I should know by Monday or Tuesday if it'll work out or not.

On a positive note, the owner of the video duplication place who made the master for me found the footage very entertaining. So much so that he even expressed interest in editing it and marketing it. (He produces and sells various types of travel videos.) Now I wouldn't do that, but I thought it was a good sign that even a guy with no background with us or 4x4'ing found it enjoyable to watch.

Flygtenstein

The rewinding is important.

Is the degradation of quality quantifiable? Could it be overcome reasonably without killing costs?

If he markets it, that would be awesome. I want royalties for the use of my appearance

Jeff the marmot

Attempts A through G failed. Now we're on preparation H.

TDiddy

Damn, good one Jeff! Just don't go rubbing that stuff on the DVD.

Flygtenstein

That is quality Jeff.

When the did that in Austin Powers, I almost fell off my chair. It ranks right up there with the "Allen Parson's Project"