Management and use of multiple video formats and resolutions in ROVs

A variety of cameras have been, and presently are, mounted on remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) owned by JAMSTEC. Usages of this video data is varied ― from front-mounted cameras for research and research-related observations, to rear-mounted cameras for checking for tether cable entanglement, and pen cameras to check sample canister contents or dial readouts. For biological research it is mostly the high definition video camera data that is used for studies where species identifications are a prerequisite. In 2012, “Ultra High Definition television” was presented as a new digital video format. The most popular format at present is what is termed “4K”, which has a resolution four times that of regular HD resolution. These movies are not only beautiful but reduce the need for zooming to identify organisms and thereby allow a stable, wider field of view for in situ field investigations. Therefore, 4K technologies are slowly being introduced into the arsenal of ROV-mounted cameras. In particular, one camera capable of capturing video at 4K resolution, the “GoPro” camera, is cheaper than almost all other 4K-capable cameras and has begun to be used widely experimentally. The large file sizes of ultra-high definition video files presents something of a problem concerning how the movie files can be best managed, archived and used. With the arrival of the “era of ultra-high resolution video” at our doorstep, we have to explore different integration techniques and analyze their advantages and disadvantages, particularly with the dual perspective of “how to take advantage of ultra-high definition video resolution” and “dealing with legacy video data”. Consequently, we have developed a method to integrate multiple video camera streams synchronously and output them as a single 4K video file. For this pilot study, video collected by the uROV PICASSO during a dive on November 13, 2013, was used. Video generated by the broadcast quality HDTV camera, two GoPro HERO 3⁺ cameras, and three NTSC “standard definition” cameras, as well as video captured from PICASSO's Logging System computer were captured and converted to .mov files. These were edited in Quicktime Player Pro and output as 4K video files with embedded timecode. In this paper, we discuss the full scope of the method development, as well as a protocol for naming video and video frame capture files. A step-by-step manual for the methodology is attached as an appendix.