Tag Archives: movies

Archive supports subtitles now!

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Our flash-based player supports “SubRip” files (files with “.srt” extension). About a month ago, we updated our video pages to automatically support subtitles.

One simply needs to upload a file with a “.srt” extension (in the SubRip format) along with the video file to get started. If the item includes multiple video files/tracks, you can make multiple .srt files, example:
cow1.avi
cow1.srt
cow2.mov
cow2.srt

We support multilingual subtitling as well. Our suggested naming of .srt files for language-based tracks for the best display on our site is like:
cow.mov
cow.en.srt (english)
cow.fr.srt (french)
cow.hu.srt (hungarian)
and our site will show a selector for the three different languages
subtitle: [ en | fr | hu ]
next to the video track in our player.

Example short video with subtitling.

Enjoy!
–Tracey Jaquith

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Audio and Video improvements

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Hi Patrons,

Yesterday we made live a large update to the way we create the audio and video displayed on our site.  Most folks might not notice the changes, so here’s a rundown:

For Audio:

  • We can now read and make mp3s from 24-bit Flac files. This has been requested for many years and we are thrilled to get it working.
  • The Ogg audio files that we create from audio files will now be using an updated “libvorbis” library.  (The library we were using before today was from 2001! 😎 )
  • We are no longer making 64kb MP3s (or zips or m3u playlists of those files).  This was a judgement call — given how poor the sound quality is for these files and the fact that most people are getting more and more bandwidth to their devices and computers.
  • Simplified back-end system, relying more and more on “ffmpeg” for format conversion.
  • We will now (try to) make derivatives from “.aac” (Advanced Audio Coding) files and “.ra”/”.rm” (Real Audio) files.
  • General ability to read more kinds of audio files more reliably.

For Movies:

  • The Ogg Video files that we create from movies files will now be using an updated “libvorbis” library for their audio.  (Previously we were using the “non reference” library ogg encoder.  Now we are using the much asked for and newer “libvorbis” library).
  • Updated ffmpeg to v0.5. This allows for a much wider range of source audio/video containers and codecs.  We will be able to derive HD-quality video formats like DV-50 and DV-100.   (For those interested in ffmpeg, changelog).
  • Better detection of widescreen movies (so less of our movies on our site will incorrectly appear “squooshed”).
  • General ability to read more kinds of video files more reliably.
  • Noting the prior point, we were able to get streaming videos for about 170 TV archive items that we could not process previously.

Enjoy!

–Tracey Jaquith

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Rederiving our movies to Ogg Theora and more!

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[reposted and edited with generous consent from John Gilmore]

The Internet Archive has a collection of about 185,000 moving images,
including many cartoons and full-length movies that have fallen into
the public domain.  They offer full downloads in the best format they
have, as well as “re-derived” versions in other (typically smaller)
formats.  They also added a Flash-based video player in the last year
or two.   The “One Laptop Per Child”, or OLPC, software supports the Ogg Theora video
codec, but few movies had been uploaded in Ogg Theora, and none had
previously been re-derived into it.

The Archive actively supports the free software ecosystem, and is now
busy re-deriving copies of all their videos into both Ogg Theora and
H.264 (mp4) codecs.  So far they have more than 40% of the videos
converted, and hope to have the rest done by December 2008.
This makes each of these videos easily accessible on the OLPC XO, by
looking in the left margin for the download/stream link for the Ogg
Video version.  As each is converted, it immediately becomes
accessible at www.archive.org/details/movies.

The Archive is also noticing that the “OLPC” browser
is connecting, and replaces the Flash player with a direct link to the
.ogv Ogg Theora file.  This allows stock XO’s to play videos by
clicking on the big Click To Play image.  For example, try:

http://www.archive.org/details/merry_melodies_falling_hare

For the kids, they’ve already converted all 84 cartoons in this collection:

http://www.archive.org/details/classic_cartoons

You can also search their moving images collection for
format:”Ogg Video”
to restrict your search to movies that have a copy available in Ogg (Theora).

–tracey jaquith