Tech Forum

I've been asked in the past, and again for the upcoming YSA devotional to record the session and display it later. In the past, for CES devotionals, I'd record the session with OBS, but in order to ensure maximum "playability", I'd convert it to MP4. That can take quite a long time for a two-hour session, even 720p, on an i7 running @ 4.4 GHz with SSD and 32GB of 1600Mhz ram. I've been auditioning Snagit and Movavi, and they render much faster; part of the conversion is being done during recording. I'm leaning to Movavi because of better audio. I do all of this at home and run a USB stick to the building as soon as I can. There is an old 2-head VCR in our satellite rack back at the Stake Center, however, in testing, the resultant recording is pathetic.

Is anyone else ever asked to be the Stake DVR? What do you use? Do you just say, "the VCR is what the church provides... it is what it is?"

Kim

We have a DVD recorder in our rack that we use to record from the satellite broadcast. The results are SD, but it is what it is. If we were to watch via satellite, that's the quality we'd see.

If the devotionals are posted by the time you need to play back, you can try and stream direct. But you're taking your chances.

Is the DVD recorder, standard issue now?

This devotional carries the disclaimer:

Shortly after the live event, a recording of the devotional will be archived on devotionals.lds.org and on the Gospel Library app. That recording may be streamed or downloaded at any time.

In the past, "shortly" means about a week. So, I'm under the gun to make a recording available. Since it's The Lord's work, and since I'm simply following my leader's instructions, I'm not too worried about it. I just want to make sure I've done all I can do, before turning the rest over to The Lord.

~ Kim

Hagothsen wrote:Is the DVD recorder, standard issue now?

No idea. FM could have picked it up locally.

Hagothsen wrote: This devotional carries the disclaimer:

Shortly after the live event, a recording of the devotional will be archived on devotionals.lds.org and on the Gospel Library app. That recording may be streamed or downloaded at any time.

In the past, "shortly" means about a week.

From what I've seen, the CES devotionals are there a lot sooner than that. As in a few hours. But I don't know if it's soon enough for your needs.

russellhltn wrote:

Hagothsen wrote:Is the DVD recorder, standard issue now?

No idea. FM could have picked it up locally.

It is a good question, though. What is the Church-approved device for recording broadcasts? And does the FM group furnish it, or does the local unit have to pay for it?

lajackson wrote:It is a good question, though. What is the Church-approved device for recording broadcasts? And does the FM group furnish it, or does the local unit have to pay for it?

No idea. The best I could find in the Help Center is this page which really doesn't answer your question. This may be one of those "depends on the FMG".

I do recall chatting with someone at CHQ that indicated they they do try to eliminate the need for recording by having rebroadcasts.

Oh, the interesting things you find in the Help Center. Did you know there's a LDS Broadcast Post Event Survey? Take a look at the last item of the checklist.

russellhltn wrote:I do recall chatting with someone at CHQ that indicated they they do try to eliminate the need for recording by having rebroadcasts.

I believe the quick availability of a broadcast at LDS.org is a good method, but it does not cover the small subset of folks who need to time shift an hour or so, or two and there is not a rebroadcast.

I haven't needed all of the broadcasts, but I have never waited more than two days to find one I did need was available for streaming or download. And many of them have been available within the hour.

The trouble is, you just never know if you will be able to get it or not.

russellhltn wrote:Did you know there's a LDS Broadcast Post Event Survey?

Of course. I have used it several times. As with most surveys, it is adequate but does not ask the questions I would like to answer.

It also says, "You should not fill out this survey for local webcast events such as stake conferences. A separate survey will be sent at the end of local webcast events." Now that survey would be interesting to see.

In fairness, there is some kind of a survey that shows up after a webcast. The trouble is, I never have time for a survey then. I am clearing the chapel for the next meeting, or going to the next meeting myself, or putting away the broadcast equipment, or turning the WiFi back on in all of the meetinghouses, or involved with troubleshooting receive sites or other important things immediately after the broadcast that cannot wait.

And it seems there is no way to get back later to the survey. If I even notice it while I am shutting down my laptop.

lajackson wrote:

russellhltn wrote:Did you know there's a LDS Broadcast Post Event Survey?

Of course. I have used it several times. As with most surveys, it is adequate but does not ask the questions I would like to answer.

I created the broadcast survey, collaborating with the broadcast team. PM me on what you think should be on the survey, and I will bring it up with the team for any modifications.

If you have a modern NVIDIA graphics card (GeForce GT 430 or newer), one way to greatly speed up the conversion process is to use a program that can take advantage of NVIDIA CUDA and NVENC. Of course, newer cards will outperform older ones, so YMMV.

Over the weekend I used a very fast GTX 1070 video card to encode our stake conference webcast. I was amazed during testing on how it shifted a huge load from my i7 to the GPU cores.

Hagothsen wrote:
I'd record the session with OBS, but in order to ensure maximum "playability", I'd convert it to MP4. That can take quite a long time for a two-hour session,

Just installed OBS Studio last night and was able to change default recording filetype to MP4. Recorded a 20 minute video from browser window. Played it back in VLC - no conversion needed. Worked great!