Split-Screen Youtube Videos

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

Hey everyone,

Came across a pretty cool video player called "Youtube Doubler." It allows you to pull up two videos side-by-side. So if you have a video of yourself hitting on Youtube you can compare yourself to Roger Federer, etc. Here's one I did of Federer's forehand vs. Verdasco's.

http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?vide...c&video2=http://www.youtube.com/v/LetxCiRKSh8

Generally interested to hear of what everyone thinks of this functionality. We've considered putting something like this together -- let me know if you think a similar player w/more features (freeze frame, for example) would be cool.

10ACE · Nov 11, 2009

I think that's very useful. Highly beneficial when showing comparisons. Would be great for personal use, and especially for teaching.

I had that done at a Golf school I went to. Teacher placed my swing up against pros, and other handicaps.

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

10ACE said:
I think that's very useful. Highly beneficial when showing comparisons. Would be great for personal use, and especially for teaching.

I had that done at a Golf school I went to. Teacher placed my swing up against pros, and other handicaps.

Ya Golf is way ahead of tennis in this regard. Did they superimpose a pro over your golf swing (as opposed to split-screening)?

Power Player · Nov 11, 2009

Will, I loved the email lessons in which you used the split screen to show forehands. It was real nice to go over that 5 point checklist again because I do that out on the court when my shots feel off. I just kind of made mine up in my head and while it is close to yours, seeing the different strokes and remembering the Pivot part of the shoulder turn should really help out a lot of people.

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

Power Player said:
Will, I loved the email lessons in which you used the split screen to show forehands. It was real nice to go over that 5 point checklist again because I do that out on the court when my shots feel off. I just kind of made mine up in my head and while it is close to yours, seeing the different strokes and remembering the Pivot part of the shoulder turn should really help out a lot of people.

Yo -- glad the email course helped. We really tried to hammer home the fact that the fundamentals are what most people should be focusing on vs. random, smaller details. Hopefully split-screening the pros vs. the 3 amateurs of varying skill levels made this point very vivid.

10ACE · Nov 11, 2009

wihamilton said:
Ya Golf is way ahead of tennis in this regard. Did they superimpose a pro over your golf swing (as opposed to split-screening)?

Not so much the pro but, they created the lines of my head, shoulders hips and swing path and then placed those over a pro, or handicap.

They also did this with Tigers swing and placed those marks, sort of like a stick figure, over mine. The swing line down from your top position in the swing should match up with the head of the club into contact. It was cool to see how constant a pro, or Tiger was with staying on that line or just in of it. Also how level the shoulders are. Not dipping drastically etc

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

10ACE said:
Not so much the pro but, they created the lines of my head, shoulders hips and swing path and then placed those over a pro, or handicap.

They also did this with Tigers swing and placed those marks, sort of like a stick figure, over mine. The swing line down from your top position in the swing should match up with the head of the club into contact. It was cool to see how constant a pro, or Tiger was with staying on that line or just in of it. Also how level the shoulders are. Not dipping drastically etc

Did it help you improve your golf swing?

zapvor · Nov 11, 2009

i think its a great idea. there is a company that does this for tennis too. i forget the name at the moment.

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

zapvor said:
i think its a great idea. there is a company that does this for tennis too. i forget the name at the moment.

Hey zap. Is it a piece of software you can control or do you have to email / mail them your strokes?

FaultsNAces · Nov 11, 2009

Dartfish (software that runs on your computer). Pretty easy to use, comes in a lot of different versions, but it's only affordable for a team, etc. (Not aimed at individuals.)

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

FaultsNAces said:
Dartfish (software that runs on your computer). Pretty easy to use, comes in a lot of different versions, but it's only affordable for a team, etc. (Not aimed at individuals.)

Ya I'm familiar with Dartfish. Not particular impressed by it, however.

Mike Cottrill · Nov 11, 2009

wihamilton said:
Hey everyone,

Came across a pretty cool video player called "Youtube Doubler." It allows you to pull up two videos side-by-side. .

http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?vide...c&video2=http://www.youtube.com/v/LetxCiRKSh8

Generally interested to hear of what everyone thinks of this functionality. We've considered putting something like this together -- let me know if you think a similar player w/more features (freeze frame, for example) would be cool.

Will,
Looks like this doubler is truly a beta. It does not appear to work with a time offset.

What I would like to see is views sync’ed and a feature of stepping frame by frame.
Something like this but with the feature of stepping frame by frame:

http://www.vimeo.com/2263300
and
http://www.vimeo.com/2310730

Forehand views sync’ed
http://www.vimeo.com/2580663

Maybe you can talk YouTube into adding a frame by frame step..
What do you think?

Rambler124 · Nov 11, 2009

wihamilton said:
Ya I'm familiar with Dartfish. Not particular impressed by it, however.

Not impressed with Dartfish? Do tell why?

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

Mike Cottrill said:
Will,
Looks like this doubler is truly a beta. It does not appear to work with a time offset.

What I would like to see is views sync’ed and a feature of stepping frame by frame.
Something like this but with the feature of stepping frame by frame:

http://www.vimeo.com/2263300
and
http://www.vimeo.com/2310730

Forehand views sync’ed
http://www.vimeo.com/2580663

Maybe you can talk YouTube into adding a frame by frame step..
What do you think?

Cool syncs. That kind of thing is pretty easy w/some basic editing software. Problem is you can't do it on the fly on a web player. Don't think Youtube is going to listen to me, heh.

I suspect there will be advancements in the next year or two in terms of doing this kind of thing w/out having to edit stuff offline. The kind of features you're talking about are good ones and I think a lot of people would find them helpful.

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

Rambler124 said:
Not impressed with Dartfish? Do tell why?

Meh I guess it has to do with my view on what this type of software / interface should do and what Dartfish actually does. It's limited. For example, the screen recording feature seems a little amateur. This isn't really Dartfish's fault in the sense that it's really difficult to get a high fps recording your desktop w/a piece of software. Video cards can do it but they run 1k+.

Rambler124 · Nov 11, 2009

wihamilton said:
Meh I guess it has to do with my view on what this type of software / interface should do and what Dartfish actually does. It's limited. For example, the screen recording feature seems a little amateur. This isn't really Dartfish's fault in the sense that it's really difficult to get a high fps recording your desktop w/a piece of software. Video cards can do it but they run 1k+.

I've never used it thats why I ask. So are you basically saying that it simply is such a high cost involved with software/hardware that it probably isn't worth the investment perhaps?

wihamilton · Nov 11, 2009

Rambler124 said:
I've never used it thats why I ask. So are you basically saying that it simply is such a high cost involved with software/hardware that it probably isn't worth the investment perhaps?

I wouldn't buy it. You can do a lot of the same stuff w/Windows Movie Maker. Dartfish allows you to render a video of your real-time edits and give it to a student. That's one of the reasons it's so pricey. Obviously, you don't need this feature if you want to do something like what Mike did above.

chalkflewup · Nov 11, 2009

Best I've seen yet is ultimate pro compare (www.ultimateprocompare.com).

Mike Cottrill · Nov 11, 2009

wihamilton said:
I wouldn't buy it. You can do a lot of the same stuff w/Windows Movie Maker. Dartfish allows you to render a video of your real-time edits and give it to a student. That's one of the reasons it's so pricey. Obviously, you don't need this feature if you want to do something like what Mike did above.

I believe you can connect a fire wire camcorder directly to a lap top and record real time with free software. I believe Virtualdub can do it. There may be some limitations with compression and VFW. I don’t have a fire wire camcorder, but I helped someone who said they got it to work. File sizes will be large, so instant playback may be a little slow. This was a while back, so it is possible virtualdub has added more features since then. You can even de-interlace on the fly.
You can read a little here:
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=197204&highlight=virtualdub

10ACE · Nov 11, 2009

wihamilton said:
Did it help you improve your golf swing?

Yes. I got to see visually what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong.

And then work on it at the range. I mean you can have a pro tell you, or you can practice a swing, but when you see it up on a screen, and break it down, or place your self next to another pro, it really helps I found.

Solat · Nov 11, 2009

i have experimented with this idea using Swinger software which is essentially designed for golf.

It works really well as long as you are matching yourself up to the appropriate player to mimic. I spoke to Bruce Elliot (world leading racquet sports biomechanist) with the single question in regards to this idea.
"who has the best technique to use as a teaching model"

his answer was simply "there is no one example, there are key points that are common to most elite level strokes but everybody has their own technique according to their body type and their game style"

to be honest I was a little disappointed that he didn't just name me a player so I could move forward with my project, however I can totally see why he wont.

So I guess the wrap-up of this all is to find a player who is similar in body dimensions and plays a style of game you do and then see how to use their stroke technique to succeed and see how you can adapt your strokes to achieve the same results.

Solat · Nov 11, 2009

here is an example of what i mean with stills, I did this for Eph a while back

KenC · Nov 11, 2009

For those that need a more robust video editing software than what MS Movie Maker can do, Sony Vegas Movie Studio is full featured and very easy to learn as far as video editing software goes. And the price is right. On the Mac iMovie probably works fine enough.

zapvor · Nov 13, 2009

wihamilton said:
Hey zap. Is it a piece of software you can control or do you have to email / mail them your strokes?

you have to upload it to their server and then they send it back. I think they are going to try to allow for more control. it was the guys at Legg Mason I dont know if you saw their booth.

zapvor · Nov 13, 2009

Solat said:
here is an example of what i mean with stills, I did this for Eph a while back
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/noniandwal/tennis/ephFH.jpgQUOTE]

i definitely need this!

Split-Screen Youtube Videos

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Professional

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G.O.A.T.

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G.O.A.T.

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