Campaign to launch a high-frame-rate video sharing site

[houstonian]

I'm a web developer and video hobbyist in Houston, TX who has started a campaign on Indiegogo.com to try to raise funds for launching a site similar to YouTube where people can upload videos from 48 fps to 120 fps and preserve the framerate. I'm planning to offer two playback quality settings for each video to begin with: one SD version up to 60 fps and one 720p HD version up to 120 fps which users should be able to toggle between. I'd like to eventually offer a 1080p version if the revenue supports the bandwidth requirement.

Please see my campaign here: http://igg.me/p/452815/x/3811011

I bought the domain name hfrvideo.com for this purpose.

[DB83]

I must ask what $10K is gonna buy.

If you are asking people to invest you need to provide more than a simple 1 page campaign. There needs to be a detailed buisiness plan as any investor needs to see what they are getting out of their investment.

[houstonian]

I must ask what $10K is gonna buy.

If you are asking people to invest you need to provide more than a simple 1 page campaign. There needs to be a detailed buisiness plan as any investor needs to see what they are getting out of their investment.

$10K is to get the site up and running and provide for potentially high hosting costs until the site generates stable advertising revenue. I don't know if you are familiar with crowd funding or not, but others don't seem to have a requirement to see a detailed business plan as you do. They are not investors, but donors who are donating, in many cases, small amounts and don't require the detail of a business plan in order to donate.

[DB83]

Even so IMHO it is pretty ambitious to expect even small donations as you put it - I suspect the $60 is yours

But at the end of the day, this site becomes a business since by your own admission it is intended to attract advertising. It may be easier to generate the funding by standard commercial means than by the generousity of strangers.

Just my 2 cents and best wishes for your venture.

[houstonian]

Even so IMHO it is pretty ambitious to expect even small donations as you put it - I suspect the $60 is yours

But at the end of the day, this site becomes a business since by your own admission it is intended to attract advertising. It may be easier to generate the funding by standard commercial means than by the generousity of strangers.

Just my 2 cents and best wishes for your venture.

Thank you for your well-wishes. You can suspect all you want, but the $60 is from strangers through the crowd funding website. I would recommend that you take a look at some of the other campaigns on there so you can see for yourself how easy its seems to be for people to raise funding for ideas that contributors like. It seems to me that those in the web video community may appreciate the demand for high-frame-rate video on the web more than investors in the business community. I have already spoken to one such investor and he wasn't convinced that there is enough demand for high-frame-rate video sharing. That demand is difficult to quantify and I am assessing it through the crowd funding, although I intend to launch the site in some form even if I don't reach the $10,000 goal.

I am not denying that the site is a business venture and I never said otherwise. Many crowd funding ventures are business or commercial ventures.

Thanks again for your well-wishes.

[poisondeathray]

Are you using Adobe Flash ? It's not very conducive for high frame rates, even at low resolutions . Forget about HD. It's too poorly coded and inefficient. WebM isn't much better right now. So are you looking at other alternatives ?

[houstonian]

Are you using Adobe Flash ? It's not very conducive for high frame rates, even at low resolutions . Forget about HD. It's too poorly coded and inefficient. WebM isn't much better right now. So are you looking at other alternatives ?

Please have a look at http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/28/editorial-48-fps-hobbit-preview-high-frame-rates/

That page features a 50 fps video in engadget's flash player, which I was able to play smoothly. 120 fps would be experimental on the site I'm planning and the site would probably initially launch in a beta phase, using an existing script such as PHP Motion. If we have to seriously rework things I'll have to look for more funding at a later date.

[houstonian]

Viddler also reportedly offers 60 fps videos in a flash player, although their image quality is reportedly not good.

HFRvideo.com would be a niche site, so not everyone would have PC's fast enough to play the 120 fps content. That is why I'm planning to have SD versions of all videos capped at 60 fps with a toggle control for SD/HD.

[filmboss80]

Speaking as a Texas resident in the Gulf Coast area, I just want to go on the record as saying most Houstonians possess a good amount of common sense, and have a solid grasp on reality. Just in case this thread made you start wondering...

[DB83]

Speaking as a Texas resident in the Gulf Coast area, I just want to go on the record as saying most Houstonians possess a good amount of common sense, and have a solid grasp on reality. Just in case this thread made you start wondering...

I have not questioned the OP's sense of judgement but I am sure he is also aware of potential pitfalls with video sharing sites.

One site (not yt) which forum rules prevents me of quoting invites all users to share their HD content and the site is now full of warez.

To 'police' such a venture could be a full time occupation in its own right.

[smrpix]

I wonder if any of it WON'T be game screencaps?

[houstonian]

Speaking as a Texas resident in the Gulf Coast area, I just want to go on the record as saying most Houstonians possess a good amount of common sense, and have a solid grasp on reality. Just in case this thread made you start wondering...

I have not questioned the OP's sense of judgement but I am sure he is also aware of potential pitfalls with video sharing sites.

One site (not yt) which forum rules prevents me of quoting invites all users to share their HD content and the site is now full of warez.

To 'police' such a venture could be a full time occupation in its own right.

Yes, policing the site could probably be a full-time occupation, but if the site generates enough revenue it could warrant it.

[houstonian]

Speaking as a Texas resident in the Gulf Coast area, I just want to go on the record as saying most Houstonians possess a good amount of common sense, and have a solid grasp on reality. Just in case this thread made you start wondering...

What is it that I've written that makes you think I don't have much common sense or a solid grasp on reality?

[smrpix]

What is it that I've written that makes you think I don't have much common sense or a solid grasp on reality?

One clue is that you're foolish enough to ask this question in an open forum.

[houstonian]

There must be some forum policy against such insults.

What's the problem with asking such a question in an open forum? The poster didn't cite any evidence so I'd like to hear it. If he/she is going to make such inferences about me, then he/she should be prepared to back them up.

[Baldrick]

There must be some forum policy against such insults.

Nope. Especially when smrpix uses a .


And this is not any latest news. Moving you.

[houstonian]

In re-reading the comments, I was apparently taking them too seriously and I think that there was no ill-will intended so I'll forget about it.

I've updated the campaign on IndieGoGo.com with a new logo, which may be revised later on. I'm also considering paying for some PR help for the campaign.

[TreeTops]

houstonian AKA Terry Parks have you picked a web host yet?

[houstonian]

houstonian AKA Terry Parks have you picked a web host yet?

Terry Parks is actually my father in whose name the domain is currently registered. I haven't picked a web host yet, why do you ask?

[Steve(MS)]

This is a sucker born every minute, perhaps this venture will prey...

[filmboss80]

From what I can see, it appears houstonian’s name is Dan.

So Dan, now that I have a minute, let’s address the gaping holes you have in your scheme. First, there is the issue of content. From where do you expect to get it? Be it a movie like the Hobbit or a clip from a video game, there will be the issue of licensing. As far as movies go, you can forget about receiving any generosity from Hollywood. It’s not much different for game distributors. They may have no problem with users posting low-quality clips on YouTube for tutorial purposes, but it’s a whole new ballgame once you start lifting their copyrighted material in all its glory. Really, your safest source for material will come from hobbyists, but who among them is shooting or capturing 120FPS video?

Secondly, there is the issue of market demand, which still needs to be explored even if it is a tightly-targeted niche market. For movies, the jury is still out on audience acceptance of the “live TV” aesthetics of high framerate video. Certainly, the technology has great potential for sports, but I doubt that the NFL, MLB, NBA, or other organization is going to allow you to stream their events on your site without paying lots of cash for the right to do so. Even if you find a project or two that will generate audience interest, will viewers really want to see it if they have to shell out their hard-earned money for it?

Thirdly, there is the issue of the competition. Technology is advancing, and it may soon be feasible to easily deliver gorgeous HD video at a high FPS over the internet; but once there is any sort of demand for it, you can expect Hulu, Vimeo, Netflix, Amazon Video, and YouTube to get in on the act. They already have the infrastructure in place. They already have the capital to put it in action. They already have their audience bases established. Once they get into the act, who is going to prefer your site overt theirs, and why?

Fourthly, there is the issue of getting advertisers. Businesses don’t randomly throw ads all around just anywhere. They target the specific audiences that are most likely to buy their products or services. The question is, what types of businesses are most appropriate and appealing to the demographic sector potentially subscribing to your site? And will you have sufficient audience numbers for ad exposure?

There are also issues to consider in the area of technical implementation, but I’ve already written a long piece here. Suffice it to say, I am not trying to insult you or rain on your parade. I love entrepreneurs; I support and mentor them. Moreover, I am one myself. But what I cannot abide is someone who has their head in the cloud and will not address the hard questions. Your apparent unwillingness to write a business plan (which needn’t be the Magna Carta; just a starting point), and your choice to panhandle on the internet, give the impression that you are lazy and flighty. It also gives the appearance that you have not thought things fully through. (I don’t know you. I could be completely wrong. But that is definitely the image you are putting out.) It is difficult to back someone who is ill-prepared and likely to bolt at the first sign of hardship.

Well, that’s enough of my yammering. Some of us have to go to work. Hopefully, this will give you food for thought.

[DB83]

Even so IMHO it is pretty ambitious to expect even small donations as you put it - I suspect the $60 is yours

But at the end of the day, this site becomes a business since by your own admission it is intended to attract advertising. It may be easier to generate the funding by standard commercial means than by the generousity of strangers.

Just my 2 cents and best wishes for your venture.

Purely out of curiousity, I thought I would revsit the campaign one month on to see its progress.

From the funding point-of-view, the 'net being such a large place, get 10,000 people just to donate a buck. Piece of cake.

And what, these days, can you do with 10 bucks ? Even easier.

Well it seems that two donors is company and three is yet to be a crowd.

Now it seems from reading the OP's posts that this is a pure donation with nothing but an email recieved when the site is on line. But over here there does seem to be some similar schemes with actual investment taking place and I read an article the other day that people are plowing their savings in to such schemes in the hope that they get a better return than the poor interest rates currently on offer. But more often than not they are misguided and lose all their money.

[TreeTops]

Or outright scams.

[houstonian]

I have created a development version of the site at a subfolder of the domain "hfrvideo.com". You can upload HFR videos and play them back in SD at up to 60fps or HD 720p at up to 120fps. I'd like help from others in adding HFR videos to the site. Please PM me if you would like access. The site is bare-bones right now and has not been rebranded from "PHPMotion".

[Clockwork]

Game caps.

That's what we're talking about essentially, correct?

[Selur]

You can upload HFR videos and play them back in SD at up to 60fps or HD 720p at up to 120fps

How? When I look at hfrvideo.com there is no option to upload or view content.
btw. such a side might be interesting to GoPro users,..

[DB83]

You can upload HFR videos and play them back in SD at up to 60fps or HD 720p at up to 120fps

How? When I look at hfrvideo.com there is no option to upload or view content.
btw. such a side might be interesting to GoPro users,..

The OP did say that you have to PM him for the full link/access.

Still no advance on $60. Lots of bandwidth available then

[houstonian]

While my development site is still restricted to access by request, I have made two HFR videos public on their own webpages to try to get some attention for my funding campaign. They are both 120 fps videos featuring demonstrations of multiple frame rates at the same time. Please change your monitor's refresh rate to 120 hz or else as high as possible before viewing these videos:

http://hfrvideo.com/video_iframe.htm ("Train")

http://hfrvideo.com/animal_kingdom.htm (Disney's Animal Kingdom ride)

There is some pixelation in the Animal Kingdom video so I'm planning to experiment with re-encoding and replacing it. I may have to also increase the bitrate from 5000 kbps to something higher. If you don't notice the pixelation, it's probably already been replaced.

I'm now allowing videos with surround sound tracks to be uploaded to my site as well, up to AAC 7.1. Just about anything to get an edge over YouTube. I just wish that the JWPlayer that my site uses had 3D playback functionality. I guess for now people can upload side-by-side 3D videos. Please PM me if you'd like access.

[DB83]

Well I (tried to) watch these videos.

Monitor refresh rate is NOT the issue. There simply is not enough bandwidth to actually play them. Well not on my connection atleast.

And. Am I missing something here ? If you show 4 videos with different frame-rates in adjacent screens don't you actually quadruple the bandwidth requirements and more?

[houstonian]

Well I (tried to) watch these videos.

Monitor refresh rate is NOT the issue. There simply is not enough bandwidth to actually play them. Well not on my connection atleast.

And. Am I missing something here ? If you show 4 videos with different frame-rates in adjacent screens don't you actually quadruple the bandwidth requirements and more?

The bandwidth was fine on my connection, but I don't know how many people have been trying to watch the videos simultaneously and that may be an issue. I've publicized the links to both videos on Twitter and 120hz.net, as well as including one link in an HFR wikipedia article. I don't know how much simultaneous bandwidth my shared hosting account can deliver. The 4 videos are not on adjacent screens. They are all part of the same video and each have one quarter the resolution of a full-size 1280x720 video, with a total bitrate of 5000 kbps.