Sveriges Television (SVT) releases video archive on internet

[ronnylov]

The Swedish public service broadcaster - Sveriges Television (SVT) has released parts of their video archives on internet available for broadband users free of charge.

(In Swedish)
http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=29768

About the open archive:
http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=29728&a=336222

In SVT: s archives exist materials from 1896 and ahead, in total more than 200.000 hours.

With the aid of our news clips can you review big world events. Our access to old SF-journal films shows you Sweden over time. Enjoy, laugh, shake your head or cry with us in this first concentration of historical back flashes in the open archives.

In this stage because of copyright reasons there are no video clips with music and no drama productions or other elements where actors are involved in the open archives. Exceptions when it comes to the music are the journal films, where we have got the music rights.

We have decided to launch the open archives now, despite that many copyright questions not yet is solved. We know that we can to offer you that visits svt.se an attractive service with the aid of that material we have rights to today and we hopes to come further in the negotiations with the copyright holders to get rights to put out more materials on the web.

We do that step for step and a lot of work lies ahead of us. Of those 200.000 hours that exists in the archive is today only about 10 percents digitized, the rest exists on old tapes or film. In order to publish the material on the web the material must first be digitized and then converted to web format. We works on so quicklily we can in order to open the door and make more material available for you that visits svt.se

(Freely translated by me)

About SVT:
http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=7830

Edit: Added a link to "about the open archive" and made a quick translation to english.

[honorarybrutha]

could be interesting...anybody speak Swedish

[AlecWest]

I seem to recall that the BBC made a similar promise ... to release parts of their video and audio archives on the internet, available for broadband users free of charge. Did that ever happen, is it still in the works, or was it just a pipe dream?

[ronnylov]

I added a quick translation to English (edited my original post).

Seems that they use Windows Media or Real Media as streaming. Itried windows media format but the quality was bad, only 61 kbit/s and very low framerate. Why can't I download it in mpeg2 at DVD bitrates...

[mats.hogberg]

Probably 'cause they can't provide all that bandwidth they'd need, if half of Sweden suddenly started DLing DVD quality material... But it's a good start, having access to it at all. After all, we've already payed for it with our tax money!

/Mats

[raffie]

Why can't I download it in mpeg2 at DVD bitrates...

That's an easy one

actually, i just watched some of the clips (old ones about some bankrobbery or somethin in b&w), and they're at 800kb/s, looks pretty good.

[energy80s]

I seem to recall that the BBC made a similar promise ... to release parts of their video and audio archives on the internet, available for broadband users free of charge. Did that ever happen, is it still in the works, or was it just a pipe dream?

Yes, the BBC are still planning on releasing material onto the net to be played on their iMP player, but it was really Greg Dyke's baby, and once he was fired over the Hutton report last year, the project lost some of its momentum. Trials using 500 BBC staff members took place last autumn, but I have heard nothing since.

[ronnylov]

I had set my player options to telephone modem connection. But changing it to higher speed did not help. Maybe the network was too busy at the moment. I guess the quality is auto-adjusting to network speed somehow.

We have payed it with TV-license money in addition to the tax money. But you can call the TV-license a tax if you want to because it is a mandatory thing if you own a TV-receiver in Sweden.