Upload Here

Jarred Land

Jarred Land

President/Founder
Staff member
LARRY R has been designing our new upload system, so for all of you who are a little early, you can upload your film here:

http://www.nrestudios.com/dvxfest/

let me know if you have any problems, and post here when you are finished uploading so i can check it out.

Thanks Larry and Narrow Road Studios for rolling out the new system.

:)
 
...and it begins. :)

good luck! this seems to be the hardest part of the competition.

"Compression" :)

/j
 
Yeah, I had it last fest. It's called 'Compression Depression' or 'Compression Aggression'.

And there seems to be a lot of questions regarding the mpeg2. Maybe Jarred or someone could shed some light on the mpeg2 format required. I thought it was for the Dramafest DVD, so the mpeg2 should be like a mpeg2 DVD render?
 
i'm getting an error message that says the following when i try to upload the zip.

sorry uploading files in this format is not allowed. please ensure you file name follows this format... blah blah blah.

any ideas on what up?
 
Sorry about that...my testing entailed uploading only .mov and .mp4 files. Initially the page was only going to be used for testing purposes. As it has gone live, I need to add ".zip" to the allowable extensions. I'll post here as soon as that is resolved.

Ok, again, sorry about that...but it should now accept ".zip" files. Let me know here, or via PM, or e-mail (larry at nrestudios dot com) if you come across any other issues.

Peace,
Larry
 
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well heres what i tried to upload

Michael_Petro-Michael_Petruzziello_Alone.zip

apparently there is a 32 Character limit to the upload

so i renamed my file

Michael_Petro_Alone.zip

Hope thats ok... let me know if i need to change something or re-upload

*** Also thats a pretty cool browser based upload Program I would be interested to know what it is....
 
Michael_Petro said:
apparently there is a 32 Character limit to the upload
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Yea, there currently is for the purpose of browser compatibility. Until I have a chance to test longer filenames out with more systems, I'll leave this restriction in place.

so i renamed my file "Michael_Petro_Alone.zip"

Hope thats ok... let me know if i need to change something or re-upload
Click to expand...
No worries, as the upload program actually uses the data you enter into the form fields to properly name the uploaded file based on the requirement set forth by Jarred and Barry S. So, it technically doesn't matter what you name your file, because it will be properly named on our end.

*** Also thats a pretty cool browser based upload Program I would be interested to know what it is....
Click to expand...

Thanks, it is a custom program I built, but is based on Uber Uploader. If you ever want to include similar functionality into a web page, this is a free script that works very well (uses Perl and PHP).

Glad you liked the uploader, hope it makes things easier for everyone. This is just the phase one of the system. But is the bulk of what you, as the entrant, will see. The rest of the system makes it easier for the admins to process these fests.

For those that haven't uploaded yet, please be sure to fill in all the fields. They are necessary for the contest, but also the system uses some of the data to properly name the uploaded files.

And, again, if you encounter any problems/issues/etc, just PM me or e-mail me (larry at nrestudios dot com).

Peace,
Larry
 
this is cool and right along the lines of what I recommended last time, with automated file naming, etc.

But man, i'm totally pulling a Jack Stanley on this one and getting it in at the last minute. Well, not exactly a Jack Stanley because mine will actually be on time, but you get the point...
 
Another nice feature is that if you upload your film then realize that you need to re-upload you can use the same form and just upload it. On the server we will get a new file, correctly named, with an incremental counter added to the end.

For example, if I uploaded a film called "Test Film", the first time it would create a file called:

LarryR-LarryRutledge-TestFilm.zip

The next time it would create a file called

LarryR-LarryRutledge-TestFilm-1.zip

Then we will know to just throw out all but the one with the highest number.

Peace,
Larry
 
next, would be something that you could configure with the mirrors, so that the films are automatically propagated to the mirrors when uploaded. :)

I had imagined something that could open the zip and do some measure of automated validation on the files too. But I'm not exactly sure what kind of automated validation you can do without looking at them, know what I mean?
 
That is all in the works, exactly as you describe plus more. It will be a very streamlined, automated system that gives the admins control over the release/movement of the films. Once films are approved they will automatically move to all the mirrors.

There is also a load balancing system in development so that when the viewing is underway, the system will automatically balance how frequently each mirror is hit for the download (this includes taking into consideration mirrors with smaller bandwidth allotments that can only be hit occasionally).

It will also allow the mirror owner to control his/her mirror within the system. Adding/removing mirrors, activating/deactiving their mirror, changing the allotment (how frequently they are accessed in the load balancing), etc.

It should be a great system once it is complete. This is just the first phase :)
 
Yeah. The only problem with that though, is Larry is going to just be transferring the H.264's to the mirrors. As opposed to the entire zip. That would kill everyone's bandwidth I think :) More work for Larry, but less for everyone else. Including the folks who are mirroring. That's why Larry's so awesome :thumbsup:

Jason
 
Agreed, the mirrors will only contain the "mov" files. When the full system is online (hopefully by the next fest) it will automatically extract the files from the archives and do what checking it can (file size, etc). Then it will notify the admins who will have a console that allows them access to the files. When they select a film to review, it will download to their system where they can do more extensive review (if necessary). When a film has been approved they mark it in their console. This causes the system to move the "mov" file to all the mirrors automatically. The DVD files will be archived to Jarred's system only (for later use).

I haven't checked into ways to validate the QT portions of the film...if that is possible we will implement that. At the moment, the only plans are basic checks (file size, etc). Anything beyond that will require human review.

If anyone knows of a way to automate the QT validations within a unix server, please let me know and I'll work on implementing it as well.

Peace,
Larry
 
Hey Larry, one more thing, I am doing a screening of some DramaFest films in March, and was considering a webcast for the site. Do you have any experience with the Darwin streaming server? Good? Bad? was going to try that as a set-up.
 
Jason Ramsey said:
Wow. My brain just fell out of my ears.
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HA HA...I hope that is not a debilitating issue :grin:

I am a computer programmer by day, have been programming computers since I was in the third grade, roughly 27 years. So, this is pretty easy stuff for me and is a way I can give back to this great community that has helped me so much with film/video. Since I am fairly new to the world of making films, I can't offer a lot in that arena (though I think I am getting pretty good with writing). This gives me a chance to repay all the kindness/help/friendship from the site.

Mark Harris said:
Do you have any experience with the Darwin streaming server?
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Sorry, unfortunately, I've never worked with any of the streaming systems (including Real Player's). If I get a chance, I'll look into it and see how it stands up from a technical viewpoint.
 
Yeah, I'm a software developer too, so don't waste your time looking at it. I can do that. Just wondered if you'd had any real world experience with it.
 
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