Royalty Free AV Data for Benchmarking?

Foredecker asks: "I'm developing some audio and video encoding benchmarks. (yes, they will be open source), and I need royalty free high quality audio and video. Unfortunately, I can't simply rip CD's and DVD's for distribution. I need to distribute the content with the benchmark to provide a consistent data set. I'd like both stereo and 5:1 audio and regular and high-def video. Anyone have any ideas where I can get such content?"

Comments

Ask

[m0rph3us0]

Ask a filmmaker, musician or other copyright holder if you may use their work. There are alot of producers of music and film, eventually one will say yes.

Make your own

[squiggleslash]

A low-end DV camera (firewire output, MiniDV tape) will cost you about $500. It'll allow you to create a full DVD-resolution movie, and will last you years, be usable for more than just making home movies (most include digital still cameras, for example, and they can be used as webcams and all that fun stuff too. I personally use mine as a reliable way to dump video into my PC, turning old videotapes into lasts-a-lifetime VCDs, using the analog input feature that's common on them.) Even if you don't want to buy, they're so popular these days that you should be able to find someone you can borrow from. A firewire card from Yahoo, Amazon, or MacSales will cost about $20 and up, assuming your system doesn't already have such a thing built in (most modern Macs do, and they run iMovie too...)

If you're stuck for something to film, you can always shoot out of your car window or something similar. You don't need to hire actors.

This way, not only is there no ambiguity concerning copyrights, but you'll be able to get footage that matches exactly what you need out of the film. Want to benchmark scenes with different levels of motion and different types of motion? Just film that.