PE video files and storage

[timbo343]

How are others managing video files that are required for PE lessons that Moderators need to view?

 

Basically our lot have come to us with a couple of 4k cameras and asked us that they want to show the footage that's on them to a moderator - these files are HUGE!!!!! A 3min video is a mp4 and is 1.65GB! Okay we can compress them down and tell the staff until we are blue in the face to change the settings on the camera however i guess once the camera is flat, the settings revert back to the defaults which will be 4K again. Putting the video through Any Video Converter has brought the Data Rate and Total Bitrate from:

 

4K video:

Total size: 1.63Gb

Data Rate = 61754kbps

Total BitRate = 61882kbps

 

Converted / compressed video:

Total Size: 58Mb

Data Rate = 2008kbps

Total BitRate - 2137kbps

 

Next comes the storage of these files, where if you are in the same position as us do you store the files?

 

I was thinking of uploading them to MS Stream so the teacher can then organise the videos based on lesson and they can be viewed by others in the department via a youtube like interface.

Edited April 2, 2019 by timbo343

[NetworkServices]

I include Handbrake on all machines. I've also produced an idiots guide on how to use it with a custom template included. The staff have had it drummed into them that they need to run all videos through this software or "the moderators won't be able to play them".

 

As for storage we have an old server that was turned into a dedicated video storage server once it was past its prime.

[timbo343]

Okay i can see what you've done there .

 

Is this data backed up at all?

 

Do you ever have a scenario where students may have footage on their devices which could be used as evidence for PE moderation?

[NetworkServices]

It is but I only afford the entire contents of that server one backup at the end of each month. Each backup overwrites the previous. The staff understand this and seem willing to tolerate it. I don't have the space to back this up each day like the rest of the site.

 

We have a mobile phone ban at this place so students don't bring their phones/tablets etc into school. Not a problem I have come across yet.

Edited April 2, 2019 by NetworkServices

[caffrey]

We use Google for PE Video storage, they can play the videos from there except usually they come in weird and wacky formats

[timbo343]

We use Google for PE Video storage, they can play the videos from there except usually they come in weird and wacky formats

Do you let your staff upload the video from the device or do you / staff interveen with making them smaller so upload is quicker?

[caffrey]

No they upload from the device, we have a leased line luckily so it's not so bad, but yes I've seen 4GB video files - usually from Apple devices

 

The PE dept. has done a really good job of organising them too

Edited April 2, 2019 by caffrey

[timbo343]

No they upload from the device, we have a leased line luckily so it's not so bad, but yes I've seen 4GB video files - usually from Apple devices

 

The PE dept. has done a really good job of organising them too

 

Having a leased line really does make it easier.

 

What about students that have videos of evidence, what do you do about those? Are they encouraged to upload their own and share with a member of staff?

[caffrey]

They upload from their BYOD into the PE folder structure. The only time we get involved is if there is a problem playing any or that they have managed to film upside down etc. We've had a few weird sources lately with 4k too that we have had to convert.

[FN-GM]

They upload from their BYOD into the PE folder structure. The only time we get involved is if there is a problem playing any or that they have managed to film upside down etc. We've had a few weird sources lately with 4k too that we have had to convert.

Are you using personal devices to record children? If so that's a safeguarding isn't isn't it?

[timbo343]

Are you using personal devices to record children? If so that's a safeguarding isn't isn't it?

I think he is stating the students use the BYOD network rather than the staff to upload videos.

[DrCheese]

Hi - We have a script that runs nightly on any video files it detects & compresses them down to 720p/30fps with HandbrakeCLI (You can do any handbrake profile tho) & then copies the orginal file to an area I don't care about/don't backup that works pretty well (This is in case of any encoding errors or if the orginal file is needed for some reason/usual delete after a few weeks)- I'll try and dig it out this evening for you.

[DrCheese]

Hi - Please see attached.

 

It basically hunts down all video files, re-encodes whatever it finds, then renames the extension to .m4v so it doesn't get picked up again (& very few things if any natively set the extension as m4v) - Then copies the original to another drive that I dump out once in a while.

 

It's worked very well to keep disk usage low here.

VideoConvertV1.ps1

[Warwick_Tech]

Hi - Please see attached.

 

It basically hunts down all video files, re-encodes whatever it finds, then renames the extension to .m4v so it doesn't get picked up again (& very few things if any natively set the extension as m4v) - Then copies the original to another drive that I dump out once in a while.

 

It's worked very well to keep disk usage low here.

 

Sorry to necro an old thread, but this looks great - I'm guessing we set it as a scheduled task and then change the path roots to our fileserver?

 

 

$TVShowsFolder = "E:\staff Workgroups - Multimedia"

$MoviesFolder = "E:\Student Workgroups - Multimedia"

$TVShowsBackupFolder = "F:\Backups\Staff Workgroups - Multimedia"

$MoviesBackupFolder = "F:\Backups\Student Workgroups - Multimedia"

 

Does it scan the entire drive, or just what's in E:\staff Workgroups - Multimedia\?

[DrCheese]

Hi - Yes just set it as a scheduled task & change the paths - No it won't scan the entire drive unless you put the entire drive

[Warwick_Tech]

So decided to try and implement this script, however two issues;

 

It seems to delete the old file, well not exactly but it appears in the repository with 0kb

 

second is there any way of forcing the owner of the new file to be the owner of the old file? At the moment it changes the owner to Administrator which throws off our quota settings.

[DaveTheTech]

Sounds as though it is creating an empty file.

I would make sure that you can open up the folders and handBrake CLI as they are listed in your script.

[mavhc]

My program edits the metadata of the file so it knows next time it's been compressed, works well, worth adding.

[Warwick_Tech]

My program edits the metadata of the file so it knows next time it's been compressed, works well, worth adding.

 

Hi Mav,

 

I don't want to ask too much as I know it's all voluntary;

 

However it looks like your script may work better as if it only edits the metadata; in theory the files all remain .mp4 (so no breaks in premiere projects if they've imported before the compression)

 

But it would still create a new file so bypasses the quota settings; can you think of any way to generate the new MP4 files as the original owner?

 

Sorry to ask, but if you can help we may be able to get this working.

[mavhc]

I had a look, windows file ownership stuff in python isn't easy. It's possible, but not a 10 min job

 

One option would be to run the script as each user, or after it's run use a fix permissions type script