Past DEF CON Conference Content

[The Dark Tangent]

So we are finishing up encoding the DC-13 speeches, and I had a wacky idea. I'm going to re-encode all past content in .m4a and .m4v format for podcast style download! Free! My data-bits want to be free!

I'll stop updating the realmedia server, and move to downloads of content instead. Now this presents a couple questions I would like feedback on:

- Bandwidth usage may be high initially. I was thinking of using The Coral Content Distribution Network (http://www.coralcdn.org/), but they limit file sizes to 50megs, and that about 1/2 of the videos will be over that size. Instead of Coral, I could seed with eMule/Donkey files and just set up an old laptop in the office to seed them. Then there is the standbay BitTorrent. If defcon gets a slashdot effect, I want a plan that will cope.

- I am thinking of a way to brand the videos with "www.defcon.org" or some title to help out when people rename the files and share them around. Does anyone have experience with any good batch processing video tools that can do this?

- I plan to start with the oldest files and move to the newest. Older conferences had less speakers, and will be faster to work on, providing feedback on my process faster. Once done, where do you recommend distributing them? Google Videos may be a good place to park copies at. Ideas?

- Is this a waste of time? Do you think people care that much about past content?

Thanks guys!

The Dark Tangent

[noid]

I think it would be a great way to preserve something thats become part of the culture. Along those lines, I have the programs from Defcon 1-6 scanned as well.

[converge]

...seems like a lot of folks have been using archive.org to break free of the bandwidth woes, so that may be an option to consider.

[Deviant Ollam]

this is just me being me... but why not a format that everyone can enjoy, instead of just those who drink steve job's kool-aid? =) i suppose those of us who wish could just convert them to XviD and MP3 for playback on our own hardware... but i say it's time that apple people do that sort or work themselves if they want to use hwith their own special formats! hehe

[converge]

lets just say the idea of xvids and bittorrents of these jingled my balls... I'ma grab them from whatever source and conform them though.. so then we'll see which torrent wins :p

in the words of a wise man I know ... "fuck apple"

[Voltage Spike]

why not a format that everyone can enjoy, instead of just those who drink steve job's kool-aid?

Perhaps I am wrong, but aren't the m4a and m4v formats just the MPEG-4 container format ... in other words, a non-Apple (although Apple-derived) standard? A standard that current open-source tools (e.g., mplayer, VLC) understand? A standard that is often implemented using codecs (e.g., MPEG-4, H.264, and AAC) that current open-source tools understand?

Granted, I'd like to see the use of non-proprietary codecs, but given the choice between a closed codec everything can use and an open codec that I have to convert to the closed codec to use, I'm going to have to be a pragmatist.

[The Dark Tangent]

Perhaps I am wrong, but aren't the m4a and m4v formats just the MPEG-4 container format ... in other words, a non-Apple (although Apple-derived) standard? A standard that current open-source tools (e.g., mplayer, VLC) understand? A standard that is often implemented using codecs (e.g., MPEG-4, H.264, and AAC) that current open-source tools understand?

You would be correct!

[Twigman]

a watermark on the videos is definately a good idea. I would make sure this was done as a top priority. other wise people are bound to claim it was them/they were there etc.
once they are encoded how big are they going to be? how much bandwidth do you predit they will need at peak? maybe someone in the business has a spare pipe that could be used?

[The Dark Tangent]

a watermark on the videos is definately a good idea. I would make sure this was done as a top priority. other wise people are bound to claim it was them/they were there etc.

Yeah, that way if people transcode them at least some of the data will go along with the conversion.

once they are encoded how big are they going to be? how much bandwidth do you predit they will need at peak? maybe someone in the business has a spare pipe that could be used?

Well, I am planning to make them the same size or smaller than the real media files. So anywhere from 30megs to 130. Average seems to be in the 50s for video. I haven't paid much attention to the audio files, they are so small by comparison.

One quick move would be to just release the real audio and video files. They already contain the metadata. My nokia phone comes with a real player built in, and the real player seems to be available for almost every operating system.. just not the iPod or other personal video players.

So it comes down to a mega project to re-encode all content to a new format (h.264) and then create text overlays with all the speech data for every speech video, then do the correct meta data for all of the audio files. Then when that is all done create the "pod cast" friendly html for every file so people can auto-import it all with itunes.

[converge]

please please please don't put filters on them.

you can make them 16x16 animated ico files, drop 90% of the frames, play tricks with the metadata and slap banners all around it .. then name the files with additional defcon tagging.. fine. please don't put filters on them. filters are the reason I don't watch satellite tv. filters are the reason I fall asleep to the sound of my own tears and the reason catholic priests touch young boyscouts.

at worste, tag the beginning.. but not the absolute worste video habit ever created, thought of as a means to protect IP.. crappy filters. somehow society has deemed that it is now acceptable to lose 5-20% of your viewable video for these hapless, unsightly, proc intensive waste of pixels. they make the baby jesus cry and piss off buddha.

..imo..

I think folks would be happy with the .rm media just as well.. and it sounds like it would save a lot of work/time on your end.. if people want them transcoded, I say let em deal with it.

[Deviant Ollam]

filters ?= text overlays at the edge of the screen

if so, then i agree 110% with converge's comments. in fact, as i just mentioned in a PM to tierra, i've reencoded all of the DCMC filler content (the second time i've undertaken this project, since the drive upon which i was doing this to the clips a month or two after DC13 died on me) and one of the things i did in the remastering project was the removal of all self-advertising URLs that people stuck on the funny bits of news, stupidity, and music videos they found online. if you really really want, i'd say it's acceptable to have a small text note fade in and then after five seconds fade back out at the beginning and end of a clip, sort of like how MTV or VH1 will tag a music vid with the artist's name, etc. really, however, i think that a simple insertion of credits at the end noting the who, when, where is sufficient. (i've actually added a credit roll to my lockpicking lecture videos... all of which will be online very soon, actually.)

[The Dark Tangent]

Content Encoding

So I'm working backward, and am finishing up DC 10 this weekend. When I compare file sizes to the real media video files, the new h.264 files are a bit larger.

The rm files are encoded at 128kbit, and the h.264 files are at 192kbit for better quality. This makes them larger! If all of DC 12 encoded in rm is 2.84 gigs, then in h.254 it is 5.45 gigs.

Not too big a deal but it overwhelms the remaining storage on the media server, so that will have to get upgraded from 160gig disks to 500gig disks to allow room for growth.

Anyway, the question is: At what size does downloading speeches become inconvenient?

[Edited to add]
OK, well with no opinions I'll continue at the 192k rate.

[The Dark Tangent]

DC 13 file encoding complete

OK, so all the DC 13 files are done, the RSS entries made by Nikita and a little by myself.

It's a bitch getting it to play nice with iTunes, though. I've been hammering on it all day trying to get the formatting nice, file times correct, etc.

I figure if I am going to post this stuff once, I may as well try to get a bunch of it right. So once the rss entry is all groovy I'll post a link to it here and you guys can start playing with it. Then from there I'll put it on-line onthe web site and the iTunes store, etc.

The one thing I don't have experience with is torrent seeds. I'm deciding if I should figure that stuff out and run it on the media server as well, or just stick with http download. That's what I am leaning towards. I think I'll let others do the torrent thing.

Anyway, I wanted to have it done today, but it might be a late night!

[The Dark Tangent]

DC-13 mp4 video now on-line!

OK, give it a try...

You'll need an rss reader at first before we build the html pages.

http://www.defcon.org/podcast/defcon-13-video.xml

That file will change as some missing content is located and uploaded. Please let me know about any glitches, etc.

[converge]

A torrent of the initial 69 videos has been set up at http://defcon.lostboxen.net/forums/

It won't be as fast as direct download until more seeders hit (I'm currently pretty bogged seeding CoWF hash tables until I get a torrent client issue resolved). If you have the fileset then just the just grab the nfo and the torrent, any seeding help much appreciated.. this is really cool content that will only expand as more years are encoded and released.