"A Study in Preserving Moving Images" blog

"A Study in Preserving Moving Images

A forum for posting journal articles, reports, activities, and musings generated by an independent reading course I'm doing this summer at IU in preservation and access issues for moving images. I will survey the preservation & access literature related to audiovisual technologies and their carriers, such as film, videotape, videodisc and the digital files which hold both images and sound; as well as digital strategies for enduring access."

http://preservingvideo.blogspot.com/

in particular:

http://preservingvideo.blogspot.com/2005/05/video-and-videotape-readings.html

on video formats and preservation.

via Agathe Jarczyk.

media matters white papers on jpeg2000

On "Lossless Video Compression for Archives: Motion JPEG2k and Other Options":
http://www.media-matters.net/docs/WhitePapers/WPMJ2k.pdf

And the "Research Report on JPEG 2000 for Video Archiving":
http://www.media-matters.net/docs/WhitePapers/IansWhitePaper.pdf

The MXF Format - Video File Wrapper

http://videopreservation.stanford.edu/dig_mig/index.html#TheVideoSignal

in the "migrate digital" section, bottom of the page:

"The Material eXchange Format (MXF) is an open file format intended for the interchange of audio-visual material with its associated data and metadata.

It was designed to improve file based interoperability between servers, workstations and other content-creation devices. These improvements should result in improved workflows and in more efficient working practices than is possible with today's mixed and proprietary file formats.MXF was designed by the leading players in the broadcast industry – with an enormous amount of input from the user community – to ensure that the format really meets their demands. It is being put forward as an Open Standard which means it is a file transfer format that is openly available to all interested parties.

It is not compression-scheme-specific and it simplifies the integration of systems using MPEG and DV as well as future, as yet unspecified, compression strategies such as JPEG2000. This means that the transportation of these different files will be independent of content, and will not dictate the use of specific equipment. Any required processing can simply be achieved by automatically invoking the appropriate hardware or software codec."

Videotape identification and assessment guide

extremely helpful guide from the Texas Commision on the Arts (2004), author Mona Jimenez.

"Museum staff are increasingly faced with the identification, care, and conservation of videotape formats found in their collections and archives, some of which are many decades old. Staff must inspect the works to assess condition - often without the use of playback equipment - and catch problems before they compromise the works. Videotape has particular storage, housing, and handling needs that when addressed, will substantially prolong its shelf life. At some point in its lifecycle, more drastic measures, such as cleaning and re-formatting, will be necessary to allow future generations to experience art works created through the use of electronic tools. This guide was created to answer questions commonly asked by custodians of video materials:"

Guide can be downloaded

http://www.arts.state.tx.us/video/

magnetic tape museum

http://www.useddlt.com/magnetband_story1.0.html

Umspulen von Tapes (German only)

Report by MEMORIAV (Switzerland) on the preservation of video material
(the whole report is really good!)

"In alten Ratgebern zum Umgang mit Videokassetten findet man
öfters den Hinweis, die Kassetten müssten regelmässig umgespult
werden. Heute gehen die meisten Experten aber davon aus, dass
dies bei einer sachgemässen Lagerung nicht nötig ist, dass damit
im Gegenteil sogar mehr Schaden als Nutzen angerichtet werden
kann.
Nach langen Transporten hingegen ist es empfehlenswert, die
Bänder vor Gebrauch oder vor der langfristigen Einlagerung vor und
zurück zu spulen, damit das Band wieder fest und korrekt auf der
Spule sitzt.
Wichtig ist, dass die Videos nach jedem Gebrauch zurückgespult
werden, da sich sonst Druckstellen bilden, die zur Beschädigung
des Bandmaterials führen."

Quelle: http://de.memoriav.ch/dokument/Empfehlungen/empfehlungen_video_de.pdf

H.264 vs jpeg2000

Comparison between jpeg2000 and H.264,

"Performance evaluation of Motion-JPEG2000 in comparison
with H.264/AVC operated in pure intra coding mode" http://www.f4.fhtw-berlin.de/~barthel/paper/spie03_marpe_et_al.pdf

Excerpt of the conclusion

"Motion-JPEG2000 seems to be most suitable for high-quality, high-resolution digital video coding in the field of film postproduction, archiving and distribution, commonly referred to as the ‘Digital Cinema’ chain. In addition, there might be a good chance for Motion-JPEG2000 to be applied in the field of high-resolution medical or satellite imaging.
H.264/AVC, on the other hand, will find its way into applications, where video transmission over potentially error-prone channels with rather limited transmission capacities is the primary task and where the random access of each individual picture is of subordinate importance."

H.264

short summary of features:
- ISO standard: mpeg-4/AVC (advanced video coding)
- compared with mpeg-2 and same quality: 1/3 of the datavolume, but longer rendering (2-3 times higher)
- integer transformation (4x4 pixel blocks) --> reduces artefacts
- scalable
- multi-picture inter picture prediction
- spatial prediction
- differs from Sorensen3 only in details
- entropy coding: CAVLC and CABAC
- inter- and intraprediction (prediction uses spatially neighboring samples of previously coded blocks)
- multiple reference frames
- 1/4 pixel motion estimation acuracy
- slice types: I, B, P, SI, SP
- used for example with: HD-DVD, Blu-ray, Apples iPod, and Flash Player 9 (since Dec. 2007)

"Der Flash Player 9 soll so mit H.264 kodierte Videos in Form von .mp4-, .m4v-, .m4a-, .mov- und .3gp-Dateien über das NetStream-API wiedergeben können, das schon heute zur Darstellung von .flv-Videos genutzt wird." (http://www.golem.de/0712/56356.html)


(work on that some more!)

Media Matters Seminar @ argos

"the Media Matters Seminar: overview" (written by Barbara Dierickx) of the Media Matters seminar held @ argos featuring Chris Vastenhoud (PACKED), Alain Depocas, Agathe Jarczyk + Christoph Blase is online + dealt w/many issues relevant to MediaArtHistories such as archiving, preservation, restoration, collection + documentation Media Art:

http://argos.xio.be/blog/?cat=7&paged=2

+ video is available here:

http://argos.xio.be/blog/?p=50

MXF - material exchange format

summary of the MXF features:

- open, non-proprietory format
- for exchanging A/V material incl. metadata between servers, tape streamers, digital archives
- file wrapper / containerformat
- metadata about: length, codecs, TC, file format info, ...
- SMPTE 377M
- operational patterns
- self-contained
- essence (video, audio, program data) and metadata budled + placed in the wrapper
- metadata are frame-based --> interleaved media file
- supports mpeg, DV, uncompressed, open for other compression technologies
- wide industry support
- essence files must be contained by the MXF file

jpeg2000 - a promising format for digital video preservation

- scalable
- lossy and (mathematically) losless compression
- uses wavelet transformation
- can include metadata
- fileending: .jp2 (for fileformat; for codestream it is .jpc or .j2k)
- ISO standard ISO 15444 (15444-12 --> containerformat for video)
- datavolume reduced by 1/3

archive formats, exceprt from "Digital Production" (German only)

Für die Ewigkeit
Aus "Digital Production", 05/07

"Festplatten kommen bei den anfallenden hohen Speichervolumina recht teuer und müssten
auch alle drei Jahre ersetzt werden.
„Bänder wie DIGIBeta sind gegenwärtig immer noch die beste Lösung.“ File-basierte Systeme seien eine Alternative, aber noch sehr teuer. „Das macht sich eher für TV-Sender bezahlt. Für die meisten Archive dürften sich Kosten von mindestens 100.000 Euro kaum rechnen“, erklärt er: „Zumal der Zugriff auf die Inhalte von Software und Formaten abhängig bleibt, die auch einmal obsolet werden.“

table of video- and filmformats

a comparison of formats, including:
DV, DVCam, DVC Pro, DVC Pro 50, D9 Digital S, 35mm, 16mm, BetaSP and DigiBeta, Betacam SX, D1, D2, D6, 24p-HD

http://www.7media.de/film/filmformate.php
http://www.7media.de/film/filmformate-1.php
http://www.7media.de/film/filmformate-2.php

Digital Preservation Formats for Video

http://www.danceheritage.org/preservation/DigitalVideoPreservation1.pdf

short summary:
This is a case study about different formats and file wrappers for digital video preservation.
They recommend jpeg2000 (a lossless compression, scalable) as the codec and either MXF or AAF as wrappers.

preservation of different formats

national film and sound archive - film preservation handbook:
http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au/preservation/film_handbook/index.html