Quote from Becky Rose :

I actually think wmv is one of the first things Microsoft have ever got right. No other codec gives such small sizes, good quality, and works on all PC systems without installing un-trusted extras, and works on Mac's with 1 download from Microsoft (which is at least guaranteed to be safe). WMV is actually quite good, in my personal opinion. It certainly beats divX - believe me, I wasted weeks and weeks rendering stuff in DivX and throwing it away just to start over and the installer now comes with malware (yahoo toolbar).

the only reason why its that small is because it has very few keyframes which makes it almost impossible to jump through the file and causes nasty quality ... cant think of any codec which has blocking issues as bad as wmv
plus id consider wmp10 (or whichever version theyre at) untrustworthy software
and yes divx has gone downhill ever since they got the idea to make you pay for it

conclusion of all this is use xvid for smaller resolutions and x264 if you want high res at a sensible filesize

although i understand that wmv has advantages when it comes to reaching a larger base of not necessarily computer literate viewers

Quote from LRB_Aly :

which is when I rememebr right around 150Hz - 3kHz or 4,5kHz don´t remember

300 - 3.4k

lol safety car in lap 32

oh and i agree with tweak on keeping the cam with one pack for a while
if you find the time maybe you could scribble down a timeline so the commentators could talk about events off screen and cut to a replay of those later on instead of jumping to them instantly

Quote from Shotglass :

300 - 3.4k

yes you're right

Quote from Tweaker :

Oh by the way. Teamspeak can work just fine if you use the 25k codec. And don't have one of the commentators recording you two. You need a third person recording so you don't have the record-overlapping of voices... but rather be able to hear each other talking at the same time with no problems. And the quality should sound just find if you use a better codec

I don't think the codec is the issue particularly. I personally think the racetrack audio should be the strongest sound, and the commentators should be almost shouting to be heard over the track. That adds a sense of excitement which is hopefully imparted to the viewer, but also reduces the requirement on the vocal audio to be of higher quality.

There is a problem with Teamspeak in respect of audio latency though. The way that Teamspeak functions means that two people cannot speak concurrently, effectively. A conversation between two people in the presence of each other is uninhibited in real-time. In Teamspeak, the packets of data arriving at each of the two participants in a conversation are still far too delayed to enable confident banter. The key word being confident. After a few moments of conversing with someone on Teamspeak, you begin to lose confidence that what you're saying is being heard when you say it (and you know damn well there's a second or 2 before it will be). You can't interject with confidence when you don't know at what point in someone else's sentence you'll be interjecting.. and over a 45 minute period this becomes more and more something you subconsciously desperately want to avoid, rather than become immersed in. In other words, Teamspeak diminishes the very thing that the STCC is trying to achieve, with its commentary.

Quote from Shotglass :

plus id consider wmp10 (or whichever version theyre at) untrustworthy software

I don't get that. I mean, I understand what you're saying.. I just don't get the basis upon which you're saying it. Is there something I should know, about the WMV format and WMP? Is there a current security issue that I'm unaware of? I'm up to date on security updates, but is there a security flaw that Microsoft hasn't dealt with, in WMP?

Quote from SamH :

I don't get that. I mean, I understand what you're saying.. I just don't get the basis upon which you're saying it. Is there something I should know, about the WMV format and WMP? Is there a current security issue that I'm unaware of? I'm up to date on security updates, but is there a security flaw that Microsoft hasn't dealt with, in WMP?

i dont know of any security issues wmp currently has its more about the untrustworthyness of drm software with a habit to phone home

Ahh.. I follow. Yep, I'm not happy about DRM calling home. It's not legal to do so as yet, though, right?

There is currently no anti-DRM legistlation in the UK that I am aware of unless you are a modem user - in which case the phone home would be telephone fraud. However broadband is not a telephone line, so it doesn't count. This is totally off topic though

EDIT: I'm not sure what the regulations on ADSL would be.

Stunning
More topview cam (shift+u, v) would be nice I think.

I think the bumper/side panel cams definitely added to the coverage. I'd like to see more use of them, although I don't know where in the coverage you'd have done so without compromising coverage. The action was so packed in to a very short race that even though the camera shots were cool, it would have been almost guaranteed to have been at the expense of coverage of other crucial action.

OffT: I'm on Telewest and my phone comes in on the same cable as my internet, so in literal terms, the phone home is occurring on my phoneline. Same goes for ADSL. Phone tapping shouldn't distinguish between the phoneline and the wire that the phoneline uses (hence "wire tapping").. but I'm not volunteering to test my own theory!

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with this broadcast. As much as I loved the first one, this one didn't have the touch. It almost felt rushed IMO.

Here are some few points that base my dislike of this broadcast.
Where was the intro? No intro thing .
What's with Johnson's voice? Almost sounded like a voice modifyer. If it's real voice though... Sorry lol.
The sound just wasn't good. I think that is the major thing that killed this broadcast. None of the sound sounded constant and there was a lot of lags, blips, and all sorts of strange things that didn't follow.
Finally, the camera filming seems rather less fluid than last time's broadcast (user-controlled that is).

There were good things though, like the carcams and the skycams.

For some reason, I was expecting much of this video after being so greatly please and amazed at the first release (which I watch so many times), but this one was (IMO) quite far back.

Top notch production on the video, i quite liked the cameras messing up sometimes...made it seem more realistic. The standard of driving in the race was what dissapointed me, I was expecting better. Some cars would spin then pull back on track infront of 3 cars and crash them.

You also have to remember QS, this has been the first race where People have been banned, so it should be expected that the standards of driving would be lower. I admit that it was my fault when Sam lost his position, but I was trying to move my car away because it was in a danger area.

I'm watching it again and one thing that I see (actually hear ) a lot is people honking all the time. I have always found honking disrespectful towards other racers and I'm a bit surprised that STCC allows it in this scale.

And other thing that always gets my attention is those in-car shots where those oldish cockpit textures are used. There are better ones available for these (at least RB4 and FXO): http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=8785 and http://www.lfs-database.com/

Its not allowed, but I think it was justified where I heard it, Namely when James Rowe was pulling those noobish moves.

Quote from SamH :

...In other words, Teamspeak diminishes the very thing that the STCC is trying to achieve, with its commentary.

Thats right, and I'd recommend you try using Skype for next time. Its ridiculously easy to setup and use, sound quality is really great and there is virtually no lag at all, so you can really talk normaly, almost like being in the same room.

I really admire the huge effort Becky and Co. put into these broadcasts. So much that I don't check your forums so that I only see in video for the first time what happened in the races. I just sat and watched just like its a race on TV and cheered for Hannu when I saw he's on the grid.

I think I'm a little late but here is another mirror for MQ (270MB) version.

Edit: File removed!

It's worth uploading a HQ version to www.gigasize.com as it's very simple to use and doesn't have waiting times

PS. I'd just like to add that once again great video, and I really wish I was a driver taking part in this fine series.

did you use 16 bit to capute that video ?

Yes obviously... Look at the smoke at the end (when everybody drives into the "pits"), it's that unique smoke you get when you run LfS with 16-bit colours...

Brilliant stuff once again, and it obviously gets better every round Too bad we have to wait over 3 weeks till the next one comes out.



Love racing this series, but watching it is almost as thrilling!

Quote from bbman :

Yes obviously... Look at the smoke at the end (when everybody drives into the "pits"), it's that unique smoke you get when you run LfS with 16-bit colours...

the smoke is the very reason why im asking ... was wondering if its 16 bit or some weird fraps issue

Quote from Becky Rose :

I'm not really sure on your other points Tweeker, I did record lots of custom cameras, including a passenger seat camera looking toward the drivers - although the race was so short and frantic the onboard shots didnt get used much, there just wasnt the opportunity.

The camera focal length, or fov, was constantly changing using all zoom speeds. I dont think I left a camera with a static fov once !

I will do my best to improve the starts though, and where possible I will use more of the onboard footage.

Well the passenger camera was more in the middle. Believable if there was a rollcage, hehe. But I don't just mean do only this type of camera. You could do one like setup on the roof looking forward, or even better looking back. If you did do some of those, sorry I forgot, just got back from a vacation, so only doing this from memory. But heck, even a helicopter camera with a chopper noise dubbed in, that would be cool. Just lock onto a car in Shift+U mode and make sure the move speed and smoothness is able to keep up with the car and not be so jolty. And it really looks like a real heli camera. Would be nice to see some cars being chased like that.... especially for rallycross when there is a cramped track and many cars taking wide lines and side-by-side action.

Getting better than the South City one at least, I had difficulty watching that one because of the FOV angles used. This was a bit wider FOV, but you should control the zoom more (5 & 6) when moving the camera and doing driveby shots (zoom out quicker as cars get closer to make the turn feel like it is "quickly approaching")

These two broadcasts are excellent, it reminds me so much of the BTCC coverage its unreal. The only thing that would make it complete would be proper conversation between the commentators with no lag to get proper banter and hopefully some great differences of opinion (actually think there was one in the first vid cant remember exactly). That imo would make it much more like real TV coverage!

Nice job on a very professional looking series looking forward to the next round

I do control zoom Tweaker, constantly, but it only moves so fast :/ Not as quick as some native cameras