Proposal Submitted/Approved

I've received the go-ahead to start building (rather, at this point, figuring out how to start building) TUTV's broadcast server, as outlined in the proposal. We're waiting on a temporary computer to try stuff out on, and then we should be off and running.

Once we get a temporary computer, loaded up with LAMP, I can start to address the backend issues. I'll need to do quite a bit of searching and find out what tools are out there to transmit and finely-control output of mpeg video to a video card. I suspect it will probably be pretty easy to just export a single file to a video card, but then what? How do you know when it's done being exported? We'll need to know right down to the correct frame so we can start outputting the next MPEG file to video.

Ideally, it will be entirely gapless, but it may be impractical to have the first frame of the next clip ready (considering hard drives spin up, and a host of other factors) after the final frame of the previous clip had been shown for exactly 1/30th of a second. Fortunately, clips almost always start and end on a black frame (usually a fade out, fade in) so that a minor delay in switching clips won't be noticed (this would tend to imply that even professional broadcasters expect a delay in between programs). There are shows/episodes at TUTV though, I've been told, that are split into multiple MPEG files, yet represent consistent video and are always shown sequentially. I'm not sure what we'll do with these - it might make sense to combine them into one file.

We should also figure out the optimal settings for the MPEG files we'll be using, so that all future MPEG files can be exported in this format.

We also need to look into whether the video card that comes with this new computer can actually be used to test video output. On our final server, the broadcast output video card will obviously not be the same video card that is used to view the console. On the temporary server, we would probably have to opt to forgo console access just to access test video. That's a rather unfortunate tradeoff. We may have to buy an additional video card to test everything out, but it will probably have to be a PCI video card seeing as the AGP slot will be taken up. To further complicate matters, Linux isn't known for it's support of a wide variety of video card drivers. We will, for obvious reasons, need to make sure that whatever video cards we use work well on Linux. The video card we ultimately buy will need to support a resolution equal to or better than the video that will be shown on home/dorm room TVs. We may also want to look at other options than a video card for outputting the broadcast content. They could include firewire output which would then be passed through a converter box.