In-House Digitization with the Lossless FFV1 Codec At the University of Notre Dame Archives. AMIA Poster

In-House Digitization with the Lossless FFV1 Codec At the University of Notre Dame Archives. Erik Dix and Angela Fritz, University of Notre Dame Archives. AMIA 2018. Poster. [pptx].
     An interesting poster at AMIA which shows their digitization workflow and processing steps from accessioning to preservation system.
WHY FFV1 as a codec for Digital Preservation Masters?
1. Lossless compression (no quality loss)
2. A Standard Definition FFV1 file is ca. 46 % of the size of the uncompressed file.
    A High Definition FFV1 file is ca. 57 % of the size of the uncompressed file.
3. FFV1 is part of the FFmpeg project and open source
4. It is safe for long term preservation.
5. Encoding into FFV1 can be done with low cost Windows PCs.
6. The video is captured in FFV1 in real time.
7. Standard definition FFV1 files can be played with the VLC media player

Digitization Workflow

Accessioning as Processing:

• Archives conducts a preliminary inventory, assigns collection code,  creates CMS record 
• AV materials transferred to AV Archivist for a preservation and digitization assessment
• Descriptive and technical metadata gathered
• Analog materials reorganized and stabilized for long-term storage.

Basic Metadata Creation:

• AV Archivist creates item–level metadata
• Descriptive and technical metadata promotes access and discoverability
• Descriptive metadata added to finding aid and uploaded to the Archives, the IR, and ILS

Inspection & Prep of A-V materials:

• Only requested AV items or at-risk items will be digitized 
• Videotapes often require baking or splicing

VCRS without SDI output:

• The digitization capture card uses SDI [Serial Digital Interface] connections. 
• VHS, Betamax, and older professional formats, e.g. 1” type C, U-matic don’t have SDI outputs. 
• A DPS-575 frame synchronizer is used to create a SDI signal from the S-video or output of these items
• Basic color correction is done at this step if necessary. 
• The SDI signal from the frame synchronizer is then split in two to feed a Windows PC for the creation of the FFV1 preservation file and to feed a Mac computer to create an Apple ProRes 422 mezzanine file.

VCRs with SDI output:

• They have VCRs for the DV tape family from Mini DV up to DVCPro HD, DVCam, and HDV, as well as the Betacam tape family from Betcam to HDcam that can output an SDI or HD-SDI signal. 
• The signal is also split in two to simultaneously create a FFV1 file on a Windows Pc and an Apple ProRes 422 file on a MAC.

Digital Preservation System:

• Use an LTO tape library for the storage of our digitized files. 
• Currently, the Archives is evaluating digital preservation systems for implementation. 
• Archives capabilities will be expanded to provide digital preservation micro-services to ensure continued access to its digital collections.

Digital Preservation Matters.