However, getting it installed on Ubuntu can be a bit frustrating (it is primarily designed to run on Fedora). The following guide includes the patches you need to get DSS up and running on Ubuntu 8.04 (and possibly later versions as well, haven’t tested that yet).

http://cwshep.blogspot.com/2008/08/darwin-streaming-server-603-on-linux.html

Why would you choose this over the multitude of free GUI transcoding programs out there?

• Mencoder is super-fast
• Allows the process to be scripted
• Wide range of codecs
• Cross-platform compatible

Once you get the feel for it, you can append videos much quicker with Mencoder than a more “user friendly” GUI program. And, it works on Linux, Macintosh, and Windows machines, so you don’t have to learn 3 different programs if you work on multiple operating systems.

Here’s the basic format of a Mencoder append command:

mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -o 'combined_clip.avi'
'clip1.avi' 'clip2.avi'

Simple as that. The breakdown is as follows:

• -oac
  Tell Mencoder what audio codec to use. For a complete list of options, check out the Mencoder documentation. In this case we have simply used “copy”, which will keep the current audio codec the same without transcoding (this option should only be used if the audio codecs are the same for all the clips).
• -ovc
  Tell Mencoder what video codec to use. Otherwise, same as above.
• -o
  Define the paths to input and output files. First list the output filename, then all the clips in the order which they will be appended.

Knowing this, it is easy enough to script the process. Say I have a whole directory of video files that I want to combine (ex: VID001.AVI, VID002.AVI, VID003.AVI, etc.). I could use the following ruby script to string them all together in their numbered order:

vlist = String.new()
vpath = "/path/to/my/video/directory/"
vdir = Dir.new(vpath)
vdir.each do |v|
  if v.include?(".AVI") == true
    vlist << "\'#{vpath}#{v}\' "
  end
end

cmd = "mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -o \'combined_clip.avi\'
#{vlist}"
system cmd

Save the script as VAppend.rb and run it like so:

ruby VAppend.rb

(you must be in the same directory as the script in order to run it with the above command)

Final Notes
The command in the first code box is all one line, and the line in the second code box starting with "cmd =" is also all one line that continues onto a second for formatting purposes (in other words, #{vlist}" belongs at the end of the previous line).

As a result, the easy Get Info permissions fix was not an option.

So, I dove into the Terminal to make some repairs. A simple chmod command didn’t work either, but here’s what did:

• Open a new Terminal window
  Located in ./Applications/Utilities
• Enter the following into the Terminal
  sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes/<drive name here>
  • If there are spaces in the name you will need to put double quotes around it like so:
    /Volumes/”<drive name here>”
• Change permissions
  sudo chmod 775 /Volumes/<drive name here>

Hope that helps. Permissions problems can be a real pain.

This is done entirely with freeware running on Windows XP.

Important: If you want to modify an existing menu, another post will be made soon to clarify some of the differences.

Contents

• Why?
• Setup
• Create new menu image
• Create menu PGC
• Import menu image
• Import Subpicture
• Edit menu buttons
• Create first-play and root-menu PGCs
• Build ISO / burn disc
• Conclusion
• Sources

Why?

This tutorial is written for anyone looking to replace the menu page on an existing, already authored DVD. This is for situations in which you don’t have access to the original DVD project files (if you have access to these files you should just re-author the DVD through standard processes).

It is also for those who would like to create a menu on a DVD that doesn’t currently have one.

Setup

You will need the following programs to complete this tutorial:

• PgcEdit
• MuxMan
• VobBlanker
• DVDSubEdit
• image editor (recommended: GIMP)
• ImgBurn

Begin by copying the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD to your harddrive.

• You may have to right-click on the DVD icon in My Computer and choose Explore in order to display the folders, then simply drag the VIDEO_TS folder to an internal or external drive.
• If the disc is write-protected you may need to use software such as DVD Decrypter to rip the VIDEO_TS folder from the disc to your harddrive.

From now on, when I refer to a VIDEO_TS folder it is in regards to a folder on the harddrive, not on the original disc.

Create new menu image

Important: The method described here requires that all buttons be drawn as part of the menu BMP image. They will be mapped later on in the process.

• Create a new menu image using the image editor of your choice
• Start with a canvas size of 720×540 (4:3)
• After creating your image, resize it to 720×480 (NTSC) or 720×576 (PAL). This will correct for the difference in pixel aspect ratios between your pc display and DVD
• Save your image as a bitmap (.bmp). You can see my example below.

You must also create a subpicture, which defines where the button highlights are on the menu image.

• Choose two colors (one for background, one for highlights). I use green and black.
• The colors you choose here have no bearing on the color of the highlighted buttons, they are simply for defining what part of your subpic image represents the background and what part represents the highlights.
• Define where your highlights will be using the highlight color on top of the background color
• Here are two examples. The first will change the color of the buttons, while the second will create a square highlight over that whole section of the menu.

Create menu PGC

• Open PgcEdit

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• File > Open DVD
  select the VIDEO_TS folder of your source DVD

The PGCs present in the DVD will be listed on the left side of the interface. The important distinctions (for our purposes) are as follows:

• VMGM = menu
• VTST = video track

If there is no VMGM present then there is no menu. If there is a VMGM, but you want to create a new menu from scratch, then remove it by selecting one of the VMGM PGCs and clicking Menu > Remove Menu.

• Menu > New Menu
  create a new VMGM in the PGC list
• PGC > Edit PGC
  open Edit PGC window

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• Create new cell
  create an empty VOB cell associated with your menu (this is the cell that we will replace with VobBlanker later in the tutorial)

Click OK to return to the main PgcEdit window. Click File > Save DVD to save changes to the source VIDEO_TS files.

Import menu image

• Open VobBlanker

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

To begin with, you must link MuxMan to VobBlanker.

• Settings > Configure Paths
  opens the PATHS menu
• Path to MuxMan
  browse to your MuxMan.exe file and click Open to set the path.

Click Ok to return to the main VobBlanker screen.

• Input Video Manager
  select the VIDEO_TS.IFO from the source VIDEO_TS folder
• Output Folder
  select a new, empty folder to output your modified VIDEO_TS folder.
  (Optionally, you can select Use Input Folder under settings in order to simply overwrite the VIDEO_TS folder specified in the Input Video Manager. This is not recommended unless you have a backup of that folder.)
• TitleSet
  select VIDEO_TS.VOB, should be the top item in the list, then click Menu on the right hand side to open a new window

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• Language Units
  select the menu you want to modify from the list of languages (generally there is only one option)
• Menu PGCs
  select the PGC that corresponds to the menu you want to modify. Most of the PGCs will list 00 Cells, 00 Buttons, 0:00:00.00 Duration, —- Action, etc. These are not what you are looking for. Find the PGC(s) that have data in these categories and click Preview on the right hand side to help locate the PGC that contains the menu image you are looking to modify
• Menu PGCs > Cells
  once you find your target PGC, select it and click Cells to bring up a new window

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• CELLS IN MENU
  select the cell that contains your target menu image, use Prev/Cut to preview
• Still
  select your target cell and click Still to bring up a new window

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• I Frame Selection > dropdown
  set this to “File”. In the following pop-up window, browse to and select the BMP image you created for your new menu (not the subpic file).
  (if you set the path correctly, VobBlanker will automatically call MuxMan to process the BMP into a VOB)
• Browse
  If you need to change the file you selected in the pop-up window above you can use this button to force the pop-up window again and select a new VOB file.

Click OK then click Apply then click OK to return to the main VobBlanker screen.

• TitleSet
  make sure that VIDEO_TS.VOB lists its Action as “Process”. If not, select it and click Process on the right hand side.
• Skip
  (optional) to cut down on the processing time you can select the non-menu VOBs under TitleSet and click Skip to ignore them during processing (assuming no changes were made to the audio/video tracks)

Click PROCESS!! to create your new DVD files.

• The new VIDEO_TS files will be exported to the specified output folder. These are the files that will appear in the VIDEO_TS folder of the final DVD.

Import Subpicture

• Open DVDSubEdit

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• File > Open VOB File(s)
  select the VIDEO_TS.VOB file in your new VIDEO_TS folder.
• Subpic Color / Transparency > dropdown
  select “Use automatic CLUT” from the dropdown menu.
• Subpic Color / Transparency
  • set b and p to the background color of your subpic BMP (must be exact color)
  • set e1 and e2 to the highlight color of your subpic BMP (must be exact color)
• File > Replace current subpic with .BMP file
  select your subpic BMP file
• File > Save all modifications
  save your project and quit DVDSubEdit.

Important: You must set the Subpic Color / Transparency settings before importing the subpic BMP. This is how DVDSubEdit knows which elements of your BMP represent the background and which represent the highlights.

Edit menu buttons

• Open PgcEdit

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• File > Open DVD
  select the VIDEO_TS folder of your source DVD
• PGC
  select the VMGM that you created at the start of the tutorial.
• Menu > Show/Edit Menu Buttons or BOVs
  select the target VMGM on the left hand side then click this menu option to bring up a new window

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

Create / modify buttons:
This will show you how to map buttons on your BMP image. It will not allow you to create new visual images, but simply to define the areas occupied by image elements that are intended to be buttons. This is similar to creating image maps in HTML.

Also, by defining rectangular areas for the buttons, any part of the subpic image that is within a rectangular boundary will appear as a highlight when that button is selected.

• Edit
  The first time you click this it will ask if you want to create a new button, say yes.

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• Button > New button
  create a new button. Use this to create all the buttons you need, you can edit the parameters of each by toggling between them with the Edit button slider.
• X position / Y position
  set the horizontal or vertical position of the button
• Width / Height
  resize the button to fit your background image
• Adjacent Buttons
  set what button will be selected if a given arrow is pressed on the remote (generally, set position 1 to the button above or to the left of the selected button, position 2 to the button to the left or above the selected button, position 3 to the button below or to the right of the selected button, and position 4 to the button to the right or below the selected button)
• Use color scheme
  set this to 1 for all.
• Edit Color Schemes
  click this to bring up the Color schemes Editor window.

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• Color for Selected button
  you only need to edit these colors for a basic menu.
• Background and Pattern > Contrast (Opacity)
  set the Contrast (Opacity) of these to 0. Color doesn’t matter.
• Emphasis 1 and Emphasis 2 > Color index in PGC lookup table
  set these to the highlight color of your choice (both should be the same, though I think Emphasis 1 is the active one).
• Emphasis 1 and Emphasis 2 > Contrast (Opacity)
  set the transparency of your highlights.

Click Ok to return to the Menu Editor window.

• Click it to open the Command Editor.

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

I am assuming in this case that you are simply targeting video tracks with your buttons rather than other menus.

In the Command Editor:

• Jump to… > VTST Title > JumpTT
  select this to target a video track
• Jump to the entry PGC of title
  enter the number of the VTST that contains the video track you want to target. To find this you may have to return to the main PgcEdit screen and preview the VTST entries on the left hand side by selecting them and clicking Preview > Preview PGC

Click OK and OK again to return to the Menu buttons window. Now repeat the above steps (from Create/Modify buttons through to here) for each button on your menu (creating new ones as necessary).

When you are finished editing the menu buttons, save your changes with File > Save DVD.

Create first-play and root-menu PGCs

This step is only recommended if you have added a menu to a DVD that previously had no menu.

This will make the DVD start out on the new menu, and return to it when you press the menu button during the video.

• Keep PgcEdit open
  or re-open it if you closed it after the last section (and load your project)

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• VMG, First-Play PGC
  select the first-play PGC. This will be the first PGC in the list, and is always present because PgcEdit will add it if it is not.
• pre commands
  the right hand window will show the current first-play commands, probably something like “(JumpTT) Jump to Title 1″. This means that the DVD will begin by playing the first video track. Select this command
• Edit Cmd
  this will bring up the Command Editor window

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• Jump to… > VMGM Menu > JumpSS-VMGM-pgc
• Jump to VMGM PGC
  enter the number of the VMGM PGC that contains your new menu (this is the VMGM PGC that you modified earlier in the tutorial)

Click OK to return to the main PgcEdit window.

Each video track (represented by VTST in the PGC menu) should have a corresponding VTSM. Some may not, in which case you will have to add them.

To add a VTSM to a VTST, select the VTST and click Menu > New Menu. Do this for each VTST that doesn’t have a VTSM directly preceding it in the PGC list.

By default, newly created VTSMs should contain the following pre command: (JumpSS) Jump to First Play PGC

Check each of your VTSMs, if their command looks like this then you can leave them be (pressing the menu button on the remote will repeat the first-play action, which we already set to the menu).

If a VTSM contains different commands, select it and do the following:

• Edit Cmd
  this will bring up the Command Editor window
• Jump to… > First Play PGC > JumpSS-FP

Click OK to return to the main PgcEdit window.

When you are finished editing the VTSMs, save your changes with File > Save DVD.

Build ISO / burn disc

• Open ImgBurn
  Upon opening, select “Write files/folders to disc” or “Image file from files/folders” to start a new project. Alternately, select Build from the Mode menu.

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

• Source
  select the folder you set as the output folder in VobBlanker (this is your new VIDEO_TS folder). You can also set this through the File menu.
• Destination
  select ISO file or Disc as target using the Output menu, then select the specific ISO location or Disc in the Destination section of the interface
• Labels/Advanced
  You can also change some of the other settings on the right hand side, particularly under the Labels and Advanced tabs. These will allow you to make changes to the disc metadata such as the disc label that will appear by its icon on your computer. You can even force specific creation/last-modified times. Of course, all these right-hand settings are optional.

Click the Folder > Disc/ISO button to build.

• If ImgBurn builds without errors then you have successfully created a new, modified version of your source DVD (either in disc or .ISO format).

Conclusion

There is certainly a lot more you can do to modify existing DVDs. You can create submenus, create motion menus, remove the menus and/or autoplay the main video, modify subtitles, loop videos, combine multiple DVDs, and even add brand new audio/video content (which you will then need to create new menu buttons for).

If any of these topics, or related ones, are of interest to you, drop me a line at ben@backstar.com and I will see about putting together another tutorial.

If you have a project that you need assistance with, please let us know via my e-mail (above) or the Contact-Us section of our site.

Sources

• http://backstar.com/blog/2009/09/01/edit-video-on-an-existing-dvd/
• http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=99306
• http://wencas.profitux.cz/downloadmonitor/download.php?nazev=replace_menu_2&url=http://wencas.profitux.cz/vid/replace_menu_2.rar

However, there is a much simpler, free method of capturing still frames using VLC. If you don’t already have VLC on your computer, download it now (in fact, download it even if you don’t need to grab still frames, it’s a great piece of software).

Still frames can be created in 3 super simple steps:

• Open your video in VLC
• Pause the video on the frame you want to capture
• Click on the Video dropdown menu and select Snapshot*

* the hotkey is “shift-s” by default on Windows, and “option-apple-s” on Mac

You have now created your first still frame. But where is it?

On a Mac it will be saved to the Desktop by default, while on Windows it is saved to the “My Pictures” folder. You can change these defaults in the VLC Preferences menu, which is also where you can specify png or jpg image formats (png is the default).

If you still can’t find the image in either of the above default directories, run a search for “vlcsnap” on your harddrive. This is the prefix VLC uses for all still frame captures.

Compressing video for the web is something that we deal with daily at Backstar. As a result, I have become familiar with many free video hosting websites, and with their respective best-practices for compression. Here’s a bit of what I’ve learned…

A Leveled Playing Field

The technical differences between such sites as YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, and others have been reduced dramatically with recent developments.

• High quality 720p modes like YouTube’s HQ and Vimeo’s HD have brought up the level of quality seen in both SD and HD resolution videos
• Flash support for the H.264 codec has solidified it as the codec to use for online video

Thus, the differences have been distilled to file size / duration limits and non-technical considerations such as target audience, video player customization, and embedding features.

I will only be dealing with the technical considerations here.

Compression Settings

These settings should serve you well when uploading to almost any video hosting site. The exceptions to this rule are true streaming sites (see the note about CBR/VBR below) and sites that do not recompress your videos upon uploading (such as when hosting videos on your own website).

In general, if the service is free then these settings will work just fine.

Other Tips

(in no particular order)

• If the source video is interlaced, deinterlace it or risk having jagged edges and other artifacting.
• Always use the source file for compressions (do not, if possible, recompress an already compressed file). Each time you compress a video you lose some of the audio/image quality.
• 2-pass VBR is always better than 1-pass VBR. If you have the option, and a bit more time, take it.
• If you have to reduce the resolution, try to use multiples of 16 (ex: 320×240). I believe this has to do with the size of the macroblocks used by H.264 codecs.
• If you are hosting the video on a site that offers real streaming (not the pseudo streaming offered by YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and others like them) then you will want to use CBR (constant bitrate) rather than VBR (variable bitrate).
• If audio quality is really important, bump the audio bitrate up to 196 Kbps.

File Size / Duration Limits

Here are the resource limitations of some of the major free video hosting websites:

Yeah, I know Facebook isn’t often seen as a video hosting platform, but it’s up there in the top 5 most visited sites on the internet, and it hosts video, so it felt necessary to include it.

This is done entirely with freeware running on Windows XP.

Contents

• Why?
• Setup
• PgcDemux
• Edit Audio and Video
• MuxMan
• VobBlanker
• ImgBurn
• Conclusion

Why?

Why would you want to do this? There are a variety of possible scenarios, but this is the most common:

• you have a DVD that has already been authored (a menu has been created, the disc has been burned) and you do not have access to the original project files, but want to edit some of the DVD content. This process retains the original menu, and does not result in any loss of audio/image quality as a result of recompression.

Setup

You will need the following programs to complete this tutorial:

• PgcDemux
• MuxMan
• VobBlanker
• ImgBurn
• video editor (recommend: Avidemux, VirtualDub)
• audio editor (recommend: Audacity)
• VLC

Begin by copying the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD to your harddrive. 

• You may have to right-click on the DVD icon in My Computer and choose Explore in order to display the folders, then simply drag the VIDEO_TS folder to an internal or external drive.
• If the disc is write-protected you may need to use software such as DVD Decrypter to rip the VIDEO_TS folder from the disc to your harddrive.

From now on, when I refer to a VIDEO_TS folder it is in regards to a folder on the harddrive, not on the original disc.

PgcDemux

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

Settings:

• Input IFO
  select the .IFO file in your target VIDEO_TS folder that corresponds to the track you want to edit
  (to preview the .IFO files to find the one you want, open them individually in VLC)
  (make note of the VTS file you select, you will need this information later)
• Output Folder
  select a new, empty folder to output your demuxed audio and video files
• Demux video stream
  by default unchecked, if you want to edit video as well as audio then check this box
• PGC Selection – Domain
  set to Titles
• PGC Selection – dropdown
  select a specific PGC (effectively a subtrack) of your .IFO file, if applicable/available
  (make note of this also, unless there is only one PGC in the dropdown list)

Leave everything else at the defaults and click Process! to begin demuxing.

• The audio (.ac3) and video (.m2v) files will be exported to the specified output folder.

Edit Audio and Video

Edit the audio and video files you created with PgcDemux using the audio / video editing software of your choice.

• Video
  I recommend Avidemux and VirtualDub for video editing because when running in “copy” mode they will not recompress your source files.
• Audio
  I recommend Audacity for audio editing because it is free and able to handle almost any common tasks.

MuxMan

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

Settings:

• Video
  select the edited video file.  Ideally this should be in .m2v format, though MuxMan accepts a variety of file formats (the underlying video should always be MPEG-2)
• Audio
  select the edited audio file.  Ideally this should be in .ac3 format, though MuxMan accepts a variety of file formats, including .wav.
• Destination Folder
  select a new, empty folder to output your remuxed VIDEO_TS files.

Click Start to begin remuxing.

• A variety of .BUP, .IFO, and .VOB files files will be exported to the specified destination folder.

VobBlanker

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

Settings:

• Input Video Manager
  select the VIDEO_TS.IFO from the ORIGINAL SOURCE DVD (this file is located in the VIDEO_TS folder you copied off the DVD at the very begining of this tutorial).
• Output Folder
  select a new, empty folder to output your modified VIDEO_TS folder.
  (Optionally, you can select Use Input Folder under settings in order to simply overwrite the VIDEO_TS folder specified in the Input Video Manager.  This is not recommended unless you have a backup of that folder.)
• TitleSet
  select the VTS file that you edited (hopefully you made note of it during demuxing)
• PGCs in Selected TitleSet
  select the PGC you specified during the demuxing process.
  (if you aren’t sure what VTS or PGC you edited, selecting a PGC from the list will bring up a preview of the video in the upper right hand corner of the interface)
• PGCs in Selected TitleSet – Replace
  select the VTS (.IFO) file that you created with MuxMan
• Size
  In the upper right hand corner beside the video window, VobBlanker lists some file size information.  The important elements are the Initial size and the Final size.  Depending on what sort of editing you’ve done, it is possible that these will be the same, however if you have trimmed or added to the length of the original file this should be reflected by a similar change to the Final size (in relation to the Initial size).

Click PROCESS!! to create your new DVD files.

• The new VIDEO_TS files will be exported to the specified output folder.  These are the files that will appear in the VIDEO_TS folder of the final DVD.

ImgBurn

Upon opening, select “Write files/folders to disc” or “Image file from files/folders” to start a new project. Alternately, select Build from the Mode menu.

settings addressed in this tutorial are highlighted in red

Settings:

• Source
  select the folder you set as the output folder in VobBlanker (this is your new VIDEO_TS folder).  You can also set this through the File menu.
• Destination
  select ISO file or Disc as target using the Output menu, then select the specific ISO location or Disc in the Destination section of the interface
• Labels/Advanced
  You can also change some of the other settings on the right hand side, particularly under the Labels and Advanced tabs.  These will allow you to make changes to the disc metadata such as the disc label that will appear by its icon on your computer.  You can even force specific creation/last-modified times. Of course, all these right-hand settings are optional.

Click the Folder > Disc/ISO button to build.

• If ImgBurn builds without errors then you have successfully created a new, modified version of your source DVD (either in disc or .ISO format).

Conclusion

This is the best, cleanest, and possibly quickest way that I have found to make changes to the audio/video content of an existing DVD (unless I have the original project files, of course). Hope this helped, if you need further assistance with your project please drop us a line in the Contact-Us section of our site.

A routine transplant was in order.

Here’s how…

Materials:

• Original VHS cassette (patient)
• New VHS cassette (donor)
• Screwdriver (scalpel)

I use new VHS cassettes to insure that they are in good working order, but you could use any old tape for the donor so long as you know it will play and you are willing to sacrifice it in order to save your patient tape.

Now it’s time to scrub in.

1.

Begin by removing the screws on the underside of both cassettes. There are five screws for each.

2.

Flip the cassettes so they are right-side-up and remove the tops.

3.

Remove the reels from the donor cassette.

Note that these three cylindrical posts (2 silver, one white) must be in place on the bottom half before continuing (sometimes they get stuck on the top half when it is removed, so look there if you can’t find them on the bottom half). Their locations are marked on the above image.

4.

Place the left hand reel from the patient cassette in the left hand spot of the now empty donor cassette.

Thread the tape between the white and silver cylinders.

On the right hand side, thread the tape around the silver cylinder and between the silver tab and it’s peg counterpart. This last part can be a bit tricky, just pull the tab aside, slip in the tape, and release.

Place the right hand reel from the patient cassette in the right hand spot of the donor cassette.

Get rid of any slack in the tape by tightening the reels.

5.

Place the top back on to the bottom half of the cassette. To do so, lift up the flap at the front and be sure the various pegs are aligned as you place it down. It helps to put the back in first then ease the front down.

Flip it over and replace the screws. The operation is complete, and (hopefully) a success. Pop the cassette in a player and give it a test run.

The reel from the donor and the shell from the patient tape can be discarded.

More.

For a more entertaining (though perhaps less informative) video tutorial, check this out http://vimeo.com/1702416

Backstar webcasts can feature multiple remote presenters with synchronized slide controls, fully customized players and interfaces, polls, quizzes, games and promotions, syndicated web sites/content, VNRs, LIVE interactive Q & A and metrics beyond your imagination including live updated google maps of your audiences for live and on-demand applications.

We provide short-notice turnkey SD/HD production including cameras, sound, lighting and of course crew. Within the webcasting system, opportunities such as sponsorship and advertising are endless with unlimited options for size, movement and duration of content…with custom programming, clicking on an ad can spawn a targeted array of complementary ads or direct a user to an outside website following the event. Consider pre and post roll sponsored content including downloads of any documents.

Video can be pre-produced to simulate live and then delivered LIVE including a LIVE interactive Q&A chat with LIVE video responses by multiple presenters, households, anyone with a webcam and a decent internet connection invited with or without a password. CLEARLY, a professional production crew with serious gear, lighting and sound will come off better than a Logitech webcam and camera mic in an unlit office. The fact we can bring a remote presenter (including clients, subjects of a focus group, the deposed, etc.) into an event without any special technical requirements beyond a camera (which often include a decent mic that we can control) and a broadband internet connection is unique among large LIVE event webcasting tools. We can effectively direct a live event from a reliable web control panel switching between presenters as one would usually with expensive, complex video hardware.

If firewalls or an IT dept. stonewalls, we can ALWAYS install our encoders on the inside of a clients networks. Archives can be made in less than an hour following most events. You may use your existing merchant account for pay-per view/participate. We have enduring relationships with many of the Chicago hotels, phone/internet carriers, other production companies and certainly with our dozens (not hundreds) of highly-served corporate, government, organization and entertainment clients. Certainly on the audio/visual side of production, post, animation and especially sound, we partner with expert technicians and gifted artists, often both.

In 2007 our resident sound engineer and programmer Billy Dalessandro was #6 in the Time Out Chicago Magazine’s top 20 people to watch in 2007 (as an Electronic Music Producer for his label Siteholder.net). *Guess who was #16? A guy from Chi is all but why I am so very lucky to this day. The rest of the crew is equally amazing…it takes a village everywhere in life, especially when actively integrating emerging technology for a living

In terms of producers, directors, technical directors, 2D/3D animators, engineers and all on/off camera talent, Backstar has a very rich pool of talent both on-staff and on-demand. Mitchell Norinsky, founder and streaming evangelist, is personally available to consult with and assist in conceiving creative with you. We have a unique perspective, as many of our contractors are also our clients. While we also produce content and production services for non-webcast events, our REAL focus is on producing and supplying enhanced platforms for content destined for internet or disc use. We do high-level authoring on BD and DVD including games, but the true value these days is spent on web-based media. Questions? Ping us here > solutions@backstar.com

*In case you were curious on #16….it was our #44 President of The USA

The effect has been in use by digital media artists since at least 2005, though exactly when it was first produced intentionally is a matter of some debate. It seems likely that someone was doing this before 2005, after all, there were poorly compressed DVD rips to inspire them. Regardless, it recently hit the mainstream in the form of music videos for Chairlift and Kanye West, so there has been a lot of digital press on the subject.

To understand datamoshing, you need to know about I- and P-frames. Digital video files are made up of sequences of different types of frames. I-frames (also referred to as keyframes) are full representations of a single frame of the video. Effectively, they are still images containing all the color and luminance information of that frame. P-frames, on the other hand, are reference files that inform the video player of changes in the image since the previous frame. Thus, only areas of motion or changing luminance values are described in a P-frame, making them more like a set of instructions than an image.

I-frame	P-frame

Naturally, P-frames contain less data than I-frames, so they take up less memory. This is their attraction for video compression codecs: the higher the P-frame to I-frame ratio the smaller the file size.

(note: There are also B-frames, these are similar to P-frames but a B-frame references both the frame before AND after itself. These can be used to create datamoshing effects also, but the effects are less predictable so I’ll leave that up to you to experiment with.)

Following are some examples of normal frame structures.

So, how do we use our knowledge of I- and P-frames to datamosh? Basically, the technique is to insert P-frames from Clip B after an I-frame, or a series of I- and P-frames, from Clip A (to put it another way: remove all the I-frames from Clip B). The result is that the movement from Clip B, as described in its P-frames, is translated to the image from Clip A. Clip B’s P-frames act on the pixels in Clip A according to their original instructions.

When you skip ahead in a poor quality DVD rip, you may jump into the middle of a bunch of P-frames. Until the video hits an I-frame you will unintentionally be datamoshing the frame you skipped FROM with the movement of the frames you skipped TO. This is a result of setting the compression codec to produce fewer I-frames (thus, more P-frames) in order to save on file size for distribution over the internet or on CDs.

Another way to get some crazy effects is to copy the same P-frame over and over again in sequence. This results in color drifts and smears as the same pixel moves and manipulations are repeated over and over on top of themselves.

If you want to clear the mess of datamoshed nonsense partway through your clip, just insert a new I-frame. Since I-frames are effectively still images, this will snap the image back to whatever is described in that I-frame.

The technique is really quite fun to play with, certainly one of the most organic and unpredictable approaches to manipulating video I’ve happened upon yet (that and video feedback loops).

A great tutorial of the process and the most accessible tools to do it with can be found in this 3-part tutorial (the link is to part 1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYytVzbPky8

You can find Paper Rad’s pre-packaged “One Stop Datamosh Kit” here: http://www.court13.com/datamoshkit.zip

(note: If you run into problems with avidemux crashing all the time, be patient, don’t move too fast, and I’ve found it helps to have another clip already placed after the one you’re currently editing… I don’t know why that is, but when copying and pasting lots of P-frames it is less likely to crash if it has that buffer)

Finally, for some inspiration, check out this clip by Takeshi Murata. I know it’s been posted alongside other datamosh articles and tutorials, but that’s because it’s just that awesome. I mean really, even if you’ve already seen it, stop complaining and watch it again. You’ll be happy you did.

Finally, you can find my own first experiment with datamoshing here:
http://understolenstreetlights.blogspot.com/2009/04/supermosh.html