2003 World Championships on DVD

A friend of mine in England videotaped the 2003 FIE World Championships
off of Eurosport and mailed them to me. A relative of mine has just
started a digital video business, so I can get an excellent deal on
converting these tapes to the US video format (PAL to NTSC) and
transferring them to DVD. If people here in rec.sport.fencing are
interested, I'd be willing to do this and burn copies for people. This
is merely a service to the fencing community rather than a profit-making
venture, so I'd like to find out how many people are interested and then
set a price per DVD so that I can break even.

I have about 9 hours of footage available. I think the easiest way to do
this would be for me to have it converted to NTSC, captured into digital
format, and then I can edit it down to six DVD's, one for each weapon
and gender (MF, WF, ME, WE, MS, and WS). Each disc would contain about
90 minutes of footage, both individual and team events. (Women's Sabre
would only have about 60 minutes of footage since the bouts were so
short; however, that would still include two full semi-final DE's, the
full gold medal bout, and half of the gold medal team event.) Most discs
could also include medal ceremonies and event intros, space permitting.

Quality should be decent, perhaps a bit better than the analog
videotapes which we've ordered in previous years. The original was taped
off of digital cable so the image quality is good, and it has stereo
sound with English commentary by James Chambers. The venue had a blue
floor, however, so it can be difficult to see the bladework on the long
shots. It looks a lot like the 1999 WC's, as opposed to the 2000
Olympics coverage which had a black backdrop behind the strip. As with
previous years, the video quality is affected somewhat by the conversion
from broadcast to tape, and then PAL to NTSC.

I think if I charged around $15 per DVD I wouldn't lose money. Payment
could be done through PayPal (including their secure credit card payment
option) to simplify the process. I believe shipping would be around $5
per order to most locations in the US. If you're interested in one or
more DVD's, please indicate how many copies of each DVD you might order
by sending me an email at:

jtwernbold (at) yahoo.com

If you reply to this message using your newsreader, note that you'll
need to remove the obvious anti-spam munging of the email address. I'll
be out of town this weekend so you may not receive an immediate response
(including to any questions here in the newsgroup), but I'll try to
check my email remotely before I return Monday night. Assuming we have
enough interested people to make this work, I'll begin the
conversion/editing process next week. I'll follow up with another
newsgroup message in a couple weeks with final details including payment
info, and hopefully send out the DVD's shortly thereafter.

In years past we've been fortunate to have Eric Dew and Peter Gustafsson
distribute videotapes of FIE World Championships or Olympic fencing. I
haven't seen either Eric nor Peter lately, however, and didn't receive a
response a couple months ago when I asked if they'd be able to repeat
the service this year. At this point I'll assume they're not available,
but if either of you sees this, send me a message. Perhaps we can
consolidate our tapes or something.

--
John Twernbold
jtwernbold (at) yahoo.com

In article <Xns9440A9C1D5600jtwernbold@24.94.170.87>,
John Twernbold <jtwernbold@remove-this.yahoo.com> wrote:

> A friend of mine in England videotaped the 2003 FIE World Championships
> off of Eurosport and mailed them to me. A relative of mine has just
> started a digital video business, so I can get an excellent deal on
> converting these tapes to the US video format (PAL to NTSC) and
> transferring them to DVD. If people here in rec.sport.fencing are
> interested, I'd be willing to do this and burn copies for people. This
> is merely a service to the fencing community rather than a profit-making
> venture, so I'd like to find out how many people are interested and then
> set a price per DVD so that I can break even.


This is still a copyright violation, even if you aren't making a profit.
If your friend had GONE to the event and videotaped it himself, that
would be different.

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

Harold Buck wrote:
> This is still a copyright violation, even if you aren't making a
> profit. If your friend had GONE to the event and videotaped it
> himself, that would be different.

I understand your concerns, and I agree this is no different than the
tape distribution from the last five years. However, this footage is NOT
broadcast anywhere in the United States, and this may be the only way US
fencers here at rec.sport.fencing will be able to see the 2003 FIE World
Championships.

If you and others have philosophical objections to this practice, I
recommend you not participate. I merely made the comment about not
profiting so that people will realize I'm doing this to support the
fencing community, not to make a fast buck.

If you're concerned about the lack of televised fencing in the US, I'd
encourage you to write to ESPN and other stations (as I have done in the
past) in an effort to get them to cover this sport, especially the World
Championships.

--
John Twernbold
jtwernbold (at) yahoo.com

In article <Xns9440BD04BFA9Ejtwernbold@24.94.170.88>,
John Twernbold <jtwernbold@remove-this.yahoo.com> wrote:

> Harold Buck wrote:
> > This is still a copyright violation, even if you aren't making a
> > profit. If your friend had GONE to the event and videotaped it
> > himself, that would be different.
>
> I understand your concerns, and I agree this is no different than the
> tape distribution from the last five years. However, this footage is NOT
> broadcast anywhere in the United States, and this may be the only way US
> fencers here at rec.sport.fencing will be able to see the 2003 FIE World
> Championships.


And the only way I may be able to see the concert I want to see is to
buy a bootleg video, but that doesn't make it right.

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

Morality is a the bourgeois way of saying 'We've got the high ground'.
We proletarians just want da vids!!!! :-)

In all seriousness Harold may be right, but I, for one, want those
vids. John you just keep on keepin on!

Thumps on table with silverware: Vids Vids Vids Vids!!!!!!

John I emailed ya!

Magni

Harold Buck <no_one_knows@attbi.com> wrote in message news:<no_one_knows-6E03CB.21483227112003@comcast.ash.giganews.com>...
> In article <Xns9440BD04BFA9Ejtwernbold@24.94.170.88>,
> John Twernbold <jtwernbold@remove-this.yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Harold Buck wrote:
> > > This is still a copyright violation, even if you aren't making a
> > > profit. If your friend had GONE to the event and videotaped it
> > > himself, that would be different.
> >
> > I understand your concerns, and I agree this is no different than the
> > tape distribution from the last five years. However, this footage is NOT
> > broadcast anywhere in the United States, and this may be the only way US
> > fencers here at rec.sport.fencing will be able to see the 2003 FIE World
> > Championships.
>
>
> And the only way I may be able to see the concert I want to see is to
> buy a bootleg video, but that doesn't make it right.
>
> --Harold Buck
>
>
> "I used to rock and roll all night,
> and party every day.
> Then it was every other day. . . ."
> -Homer J. Simpson