U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 2004-1101

DVD-Video Disc Set of Seafloor Transects During USGS Research Cruises in the Pacific Ocean, USGS Open-File Reports 2004-1102 through 2004-1188

By Henry Chezar and Ivy Newman

2006

Introduction

Many USGS research programs involve the gathering of underwater seafloor video footage. This footage was captured on a variety of media, including Beta III and VHS tapes. Much of this media is now deteriorating, prompting the migration of this video footage onto DVD-Video discs. Advantages of using DVD-Video discs are: less storage space, ease of transport, wider distribution, and non-degradational viewing of the media.

The videos in this particular collection (328 of them) were made on the ocean floor under President Reagan's Exclusive Economic Zone proclamation of 1983. There are now five copies of these 328 discs in existence: at the USGS libraries in Menlo Park, Calif., Denver, Colo., and Reston, Va.; at the USGS Publications Warehouse (masters from which to make copies for customers); and Hank Chezar's USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology team archives.

The purpose of Open-File Report 2004-1101 is to provide users with a listing of the available DVD-Video discs (with their Open-File Report numbers) along with a brief description of their associated USGS research activities. Each disc was created by first encoding the source video and audio into MPEG-2 streams using the MediaPress Pro hardware encoder. A menu for the disc was then made using Adobe Photoshop 6.0. The disc was then authored using DVD Studio Pro and subsequently written onto a DVD-R recordable disc.

You may download a file, in PDF format, of the complete citations for all 328 DVD-Video Open-File Reports (about 259 kb: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1102-1188/of2004-1102-1188.pdf). The 328 reports listed here are now available for purchase through publication-on-demand at the USGS Publications Warehouse. (Further information: 888-ASK-USGS or 888-275-8747)

Instructions

How to use a disc in this collection

Users can view the discs in this collection in most standard DVD-Video disc players. Upon loading the disc, a title menu similar to this will appear:

Since the START button is the only button on this menu, it is already selected. To begin, press the "PLAY" button on the DVD deck or remote control. If you are viewing the disc in a software player such as Apple DVD player, you may begin by clicking the mouse over the START button. You will then be brought to a menu similar to this:

Each disc contains approximately 1 hour of footage. Markers are usually placed in 10-minute increments throughout the video for ease of navigation; the buttons seen on the above menu are linked to these markers. The first button is already selected. You may press play (or click on the button with the mouse) to start from the beginning of the video. If you wish to go to a different segment of the video, navigate to the closest button and then play. Once the DVD is playing, you may fast forward and rewind (speed dictated by your player), as well as move forward and backward to markers (usually by using the "Previous" and "Next" buttons).