Old 8mm clips of Portobello

ColinMcFadyen · Post by **ColinMcFadyen** » 25 Feb 2005, 16:15

Hi all.

My father has a box of old 8mm films taken mainly during the early 60s and 70s. Many old weddings, christenings and birthdays and holidays back in Edinburgh.

I figured that I would surprise my family and transfer them to DVD. Turned out not bad and they were definitely surprised as they had not seen the films for many years.

Anyway, there were a few grainy clips of Portobello that I trimmed from the raw input and thought may be of interest to folks here. They can be downloaded from http://www.carleton.ca/~colinm/Portobello.

FarrerTerrace-1965.avi (24.5Mb)
Farrer Terrace is just down Parker Rd. off of the Portobello Road. Yes, that's me running around in my wellies. How about those 1965 new home prices? Nice little Hillman Imp too, eh?

PortobelloHighSt-1979.avi (5Mb)
Taken from in front of the town hall.

PortobelloProm-1978.avi (36Mb)

Enjoy!

ColinMcFadyen · Post by **ColinMcFadyen** » 25 Feb 2005, 16:20

Darn!

Sentance period is appended onto the URL.

Try...

http://www.carleton.ca/~colinm/Portobello

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 25 Feb 2005, 17:55

Colin,

Can't seem to get these clips to play at all.

Lizzie · Post by **Lizzie** » 25 Feb 2005, 18:28

No I can't either

Post by **wangi** » 25 Feb 2005, 18:44

Well, I can.

Thanks Colin - very interesting!

ColinMcFadyen · Post by **ColinMcFadyen** » 25 Feb 2005, 18:58

Sorry,

I'm looking into it.

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 25 Feb 2005, 19:13

ColinMcFadyen wrote:Sorry,

I'm looking into it.

OK - thanks, Colin.
Looking forward to seeing these clips. My Dad was a member of the Parker Road Bowls Club adjacent to Farrer Terrace. I spent a lot of time down that way in the summer months during my childhood.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 25 Feb 2005, 19:19

I can't see these clips either, but I'm looking fwd to them. Any idea what the problem is wangi? I don't usually have a problem with .avi files but Windows Media Player seems to indicate I'm missing a codec?

Post by **wangi** » 25 Feb 2005, 19:47

Bob Jefferson wrote:I can't see these clips either, but I'm looking fwd to them. Any idea what the problem is wangi? I don't usually have a problem with .avi files but Windows Media Player seems to indicate I'm missing a codec?

Yup, it's a codec issue I think - I had no problems viewing all 3 at work, but I don't use Windows at work

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 25 Feb 2005, 20:14

So can we download a different player that will work or where do we get the codec? You're supposed to be the techie here - what's the solution?

Post by **wangi** » 25 Feb 2005, 20:19

ColinMcFadyen wrote:I'm looking into it.

Solution is to wait on Colin

If you really want to see them ASAP then I can successfully view them using mplayer, I've not verified them on the Windows version, but if they work on Linux...

ColinMcFadyen · Post by **ColinMcFadyen** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:00

wangi wrote:
ColinMcFadyen wrote:I'm looking into it.
Solution is to wait on Colin

If you really want to see them ASAP then I can successfully view them using mplayer, I've not verified them on the Windows version, but if they work on Linux...

Ok, sorry about that. These files were originally created as MPEG, then converted to AVI.

Windows Media Player states the following:
Audio Codec: MPEG layer-3 Decoder
Video Codec: XviD MPEG-4 Video Decoder

There is no audio, so that really should not be a problem.

GSpot v2.21 says that the following codecs should be able to process these avi files:
XviD MPEG-4 Codec (http://www.xvid.org)
DivX decoder filter (http://www.subtitles.ro/codecs.php)
3ivx D4 video decoder (http://www.subtitles.ro/codecs.php)

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:05

Thanks, Colin.

It's all double-dutch to me I'm afraid but I'll get Ali onto it shortly.

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:06

All sounds a bit too technical for most of us. I'm happy to host the files if that will help.

ColinMcFadyen · Post by **ColinMcFadyen** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:16

I have uploaded one of the original MPEG files:

PortobelloHighSt-1979.mpg (8Mb)

Due to the MPEG format, it may appear rather grainy with lines with some versions of media players.

MrSpoon · Post by **MrSpoon** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:25

Yea, just a general geeky thing:

.avi is not specifically a format itself, it can actually represent a number of 'compression' methods.

.avi's are split into two parts, a video part, and an audio part. The different method of compression for each is decoded with the appropriate 'codec'. You should just think of codec as a decoder

There is a terribly handy pack of codecs somewhere on my pc.. I will hunt it down and get a link. You should be able to easily install it, then enjoy these clips

MrSpoon · Post by **MrSpoon** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:44

Ok, this should be easy enough to install:

http://www.sargoth.net/random/klcodec234s.exe

Sincerely hope it has all the right stuff though!!!!! I haven't checked!

ColinMcFadyen · Post by **ColinMcFadyen** » 25 Feb 2005, 21:45

One more time.

Files have been converted to .WMV format and should be viewable with the standard Windows Media Player.

Quality is not as good, but file sizes are much smaller.

http://www.carleton.ca/~colinm/Portobello
prom-1978.wmv (7.7Mb)
farrer-1965.wmv (4.4Mb)
highst-1979.wmv (1Mb)

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 25 Feb 2005, 22:07

managed to view a couple - funny how things stay the same.. apart from the cars and buses...

DG · Post by DG » 25 Feb 2005, 22:08

This is great footage, Colin! I didn't reolise that Porty had these ?ducks-worth (I think) boats. Wish they were still here

Big thank you for sharing this one!

DG

CatzVP · Post by **CatzVP** » 25 Feb 2005, 22:41

Nice one Colin...

Short..... but so many memories

Anymore

Bob Jefferson · Post by **Bob Jefferson** » 26 Feb 2005, 07:38

Glad we got the technicalities sorted out. Great footage, I'm sure your family must have been delighted to see it again after all these years. If anyone else has old video film, 8mm etc footage of Portobello please let me know. Transferring it to DVD is fairly straightforward and it would be geat to get some more clips online.

For those of you who haven't viewed Colin's footage yet and are still a bit confused, here are links that will work with Windows Media Player:

Farrer Terrace, 1965

Portobello High St, 1979

Promenade, 1978

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 26 Feb 2005, 09:44

Great clips, Colin.

I can remember the old Dobbie's nurseries and green houses that stood on the Portobello Road site before the flats and houses were built.
I remember the old Cash and Carry too.

Imagine buying a new house for Ã‚Â£3 or Ã‚Â£4k? It wouldn't even cover legal fees these days.

foxy · Post by **foxy** » 26 Feb 2005, 11:15

DG wrote:This is great footage, Colin! I didn't reolise that Porty had these ?ducks-worth (I think) boats. Wish they were still here

Big thank you for sharing this one!

DG

These boats look brilliant fun DG. Don't remember seeing them either. Wonder what happened to them. The prom looks like such a hive of actiivity

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 26 Feb 2005, 14:07

I still can't see them

I use 'Quicktime' and the clips still don't work with that.

MrSpoon · Post by **MrSpoon** » 26 Feb 2005, 14:10

Marya wrote:I still can't see them I use 'Quicktime' and the clips still don't work with that.

Quicktime only plays .mov

Are you or a pc? If a PC. right click and choose save-as for the ones Bob posted, then open them with Windows Media Player.

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 26 Feb 2005, 15:03

I've got an iMac

MrSpoon · Post by **MrSpoon** » 26 Feb 2005, 15:20

Marya wrote:I've got an iMac

Oh dear

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 26 Feb 2005, 18:16

Don't knock it until you try it MrSpoon

MrSpoon · Post by **MrSpoon** » 26 Feb 2005, 18:19

Marya wrote:Don't knock it until you try it MrSpoon

What was that??? I was too busy watching these video clips to read that last one

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 26 Feb 2005, 18:24