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Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

switchcam.com

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Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#51

Post by ianbishop »

This is really cool.

I went to add a concert with time/date but landed up getting lot of videos that didn't meet the criteria. The concert was part of Osheaga (a festival in Montreal) but the listing shows up as Parc Jean-Drapeau, where the festival is held. I think including the ability to indicate what event it was part of might narrow down your search a bit.

Since most of the 300 videos found were unrelated, I decided to go through manually and select only those which were relevant. By default, all 300 videos are checked with no easy way of unchecking them. Your average user isn't going to be able to just use a jQuery one-liner like I did, so this is something else you should consider!

Overall, great job and I look forward to seeing how you guys progress with this idea!

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#52

Post by jeswin »

baddox wrote: post #37

Cool idea, but I was sad that it wasn't finally an implementation of an idea I've had for a long time. My idea is to actually use video and audio information from distinct sources to create a single video/audio stream that is of better quality and/or completeness than any of the constituent parts. Essentially, my idea would do to video what Photosynth does for photos. http://photosynth.net/

That is just so much harder; though I haven't looked at the website yet, seems to be overwhelmed right now. Besides, I would want one consistent audio signal instead of one that varies in noise, volume, whatever. Video from different sources is alright though, since we are used to switching scenes and cameras all the time.

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#53

Post by OoTheNigerian »

Really cool stuff!

A little suggestion.

The first video I picked had only one camera angle for the first two tracks of the concert. So it was an effort for me to understand how it works. I would suggest you have a prominent link to a 'model video' that has multiple camera angles so new visitors can easily see it in action.

Very good job lads!

Of course, I presume the bigger play is for switchcam to be the default app that people use to record at concerts and other events. Smart!

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#54

Post by baddox »

jeswin wrote: post #52
baddox wrote: post #37

Cool idea, but I was sad that it wasn't finally an implementation of an idea I've had for a long time. My idea is to actually use video and audio information from distinct sources to create a single video/audio stream that is of better quality and/or completeness than any of the constituent parts. Essentially, my idea would do to video what Photosynth does for photos. http://photosynth.net/

That is just so much harder; though I haven't looked at the website yet, seems to be overwhelmed right now. Besides, I would want one consistent audio signal instead of one that varies in noise, volume, whatever. Video from different sources is alright though, since we are used to switching scenes and cameras all the time.

The idea I'm talking about should provide a single consistent audio signal. I know nothing about audio processing, but it seems like it should be possible to take multiple bad audio signals and combine them into one signal that's better than any constituent audio source. Perhaps one audio source captured low frequencies well, while another captured higher frequencies better.

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#55

Post by jdunck »

brettwelch wrote: post #34
angusgr wrote: post #3

Wow. Many thoughts arose: - Is this more, less, or equivalently legal (copyright-wise) to just posting the youtube videos on youtube in the first place? It seems like the act of compositing them in this way would be significant, but maybe not? - The normalisation of audio could use some work. SwitchCam seems to do something (the youtube volume on each clip was different for me), but it didn't quite work. - I'd be rea…

Thanks! - I'm no lawyer, but the advice we've received is that we're good on the legal side. - You're on the money re: audio. It's miles better than it was 1 month ago, but we're still not 100% yet. - There is a human curation step (~5% of the process), but that is mostly for removing really crappy videos. Searching/Synching/Sequencing is automatic. - I dunno about next step(!), but i agree the idea is super interest…

How do I invest? :)

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#56

Post by brettwelch »

jdunck wrote: post #55
brettwelch wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! - I'm no lawyer, but the advice we've received is that we're good on the legal side. - You're on the money re: audio. It's miles better than it was 1 month ago, but we're still not 100% yet. - There is a human curation step (~5% of the process), but that is mostly for removing really crappy videos. Searching/Synching/Sequencing is automatic. - I dunno about next step(!), but i agree the idea is super interest…

How do I invest? :)

... with as much money as you can ;)

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#57

Post by brettwelch »

baddox wrote: post #37

Cool idea, but I was sad that it wasn't finally an implementation of an idea I've had for a long time. My idea is to actually use video and audio information from distinct sources to create a single video/audio stream that is of better quality and/or completeness than any of the constituent parts. Essentially, my idea would do to video what Photosynth does for photos. http://photosynth.net/

We've actually thought about this, but it's a low yield proposition until we've shown there's a market for what we have now. It's not impossible, but it is very hard to do :)

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#58

Post by angusgr »

brettwelch wrote: post #34
angusgr wrote: post #3

Wow. Many thoughts arose: - Is this more, less, or equivalently legal (copyright-wise) to just posting the youtube videos on youtube in the first place? It seems like the act of compositing them in this way would be significant, but maybe not? - The normalisation of audio could use some work. SwitchCam seems to do something (the youtube volume on each clip was different for me), but it didn't quite work. - I'd be rea…

Thanks! - I'm no lawyer, but the advice we've received is that we're good on the legal side. - You're on the money re: audio. It's miles better than it was 1 month ago, but we're still not 100% yet. - There is a human curation step (~5% of the process), but that is mostly for removing really crappy videos. Searching/Synching/Sequencing is automatic. - I dunno about next step(!), but i agree the idea is super interest…

Thanks for taking the time to reply Brett. It's a really cool technology, can't wait to see where it goes.

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#59

Post by brettwelch »

ianbishop wrote: post #51

This is really cool. I went to add a concert with time/date but landed up getting lot of videos that didn't meet the criteria. The concert was part of Osheaga (a festival in Montreal) but the listing shows up as Parc Jean-Drapeau, where the festival is held. I think including the ability to indicate what event it was part of might narrow down your search a bit. Since most of the 300 videos found were unrelated, I dec…

Thanks Ian, for the feedback and also for adding an event. I just saw those come through on the back end. We've put the processing on hold for the moment until the load becomes manageable - hope that's cool. We'll email you when they're up.

Re: Show HN: Entire concerts algorithmically "reconstructed" from YouTube videos

#60

Post by rhizome »

baddox wrote: post #37

Cool idea, but I was sad that it wasn't finally an implementation of an idea I've had for a long time. My idea is to actually use video and audio information from distinct sources to create a single video/audio stream that is of better quality and/or completeness than any of the constituent parts. Essentially, my idea would do to video what Photosynth does for photos. http://photosynth.net/

This is CD Audio with two different camera sources, edited and synced. Is that what you're talking about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4UVjROQdw

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