editing over the net
 

i have a friend of mine who wants me to assist him in some projects of his,
and he thinks it is to time consuming to mail the tapes to me, so he wants me to remotely edit on his computer.
normally when i use remote assistance with him i can't view pictures and video shows up to slow, is there a faster connection or software that we can use to do this?

i have dsl and he has cable.

any help would be appreciated.

What you want to do is impractical on a small, independent scale since you would need a fiber OC3 connection to even approach enough bandwidth to stream video from his machine to yours to remotely edit it and that would have to be setup on both ends. FYI, an OC3 link is EXPENSIVE. We're talking tens of thousands of dollars per month. I can't even begin to imagine the nightmare of remotely editing. You'd need bandwidth upwards of 50Mbps up and down.

Why not just use UPS, FedEx or DHL next day air and be done with it because that's infinitely easier to deal with than what you describe. At most it'll cost $25-$30 for that service to get it by 3pm the next day.

My God... Just editing on your own PC can be awful slow at times. I can't imagine trying to do it remotely.

Even if you were to do exports of your work and FTP them to one another it would take so long that boxing and shipping tapes is much more pracitical.

i have trying to convince him to go that route but not successfull yet, now he wants to ftp the footage to me and i told him it would take forever, but hard heads make for soft *****. i am going to forward this thread to him maybe that will help me.

thanks guys for your replies.

This wouldn't really let you edit remotely, but would give you faster file transfer times. See if Verizon FIOS is available in your area. They run fiber right into your house and you can get a very fast connection for a reasonable cost:

http://www22.verizon.com/content/con...and+prices.htm

They just installed this in my old town right before I moved, but now I'm out in the middle of nowhere with a satellite dish! :-)

Wow. I'd kill for 30Mbps down and 5Mbps up. That's crazy fast for a home connection. Granted, it costs $150 per month but that would be worth it for handling video stuff. If only FiOS were in Louisville but it's not and doesn't look like it'll be here anytime soon. :( Of course, it won't help the poster unless his friend has access to that kind of service as well since you're only as fast as the slowest link on your connection.

So, paying for overnight delivery is far more economical unless your friend wants to foot the bill for a fatter pipe. :)

Cheers

Have you tried setting up a "remote desktop"? If you used this method (as opposed to something like a VPN, HTTP or FTP), instead of sending/recieveing actual media files (which will be HUGE) across the Internet, your computer will only need to send/recieve a screenshot of the host computer and control data (ie. mouse and keyboard) at a regular interval. You'll need to set this interval to something like the equivalent of 60 Hertz, if you plan to view the video in real time. You'll want the quality of the screenshots quite high as well. Maybe keep the resolution of the computer down to something like 800x600. Its a fair wack of data, but not unrealistic. I think, although I haven't tested it personally, it should be do-able with a DSL/Cable connection. I've used the Windows version on a LAN very successfully (although not for video editing). I've never used the MacOS equivalent, but I'm told it works in much the same way and is very stable. VNC is another alternative; just type it into Google and you will return millions of results. The only limitation of this solution would be your friend wouldn't be able to use his computer while you edit, as you will be controlling it as if you were there. Good luck!

Links:
For Windows Users
For MacOS Users
RealVNC

Actually, thinking about it some more, you'd need to really test drive a few different software solutions. The only way it could work effectivly is if the screenshot transmission algorithm was good. I know some versions of VNC only send screenshot data which has changed. For example, it will send an initial screenshot, and then only send information on pixels that have changed, thus reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. If you're on a Windows PC, the Start button only changes when you click on it or hover over it (and "Click here to begin" pops up). Therefore, you don't need to keep re-sending that data over and over again. You also don't need to re-send images with a mouse cursor over the top, as the screenshot is capture without the mouse shown. But yeah, to cut a long story short, I'm fairly sure, with the right software, you could make it work. Both computers (yours and your mates) will have to be pretty fast too (as they will be constantly calculating data). Hope this helps...!

DV video takes up 13 GB (13,000 MB) of storage space for one hour of footage. Assuming your friend had just a half hour (6.5 GB) of footage he wanted to FTP to you, and that he had the typical broadband connection with a 384 Kbps upload speed, it would take 39.4 hours to transfer the files. Of course, it is unlikely that either of you have a Web server with that much space, anyway.

-Christopher

Well this is topical:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060718/verizon_fiber.html?.v=2