High-Quality, ROS Compatible Video Encoding and Decoding for High-Definition Datasets

Robotic datasets are important for scientific benchmarking and developing algorithms, for example for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Modern robotic datasets feature video data of high resolution and high framerates. Storing and sharing those datasets becomes thus very costly, especially if more than one camera is used for the datasets. It is thus essential to store this video data in a compressed format. This paper investigates the use of modern video encoders for robotic datasets. We provide a software that can replay mp4 videos within ROS 1 and ROS 2 frame-works, supporting the synchronized playback in simulated time. Furthermore, the paper evaluates different encoders and their settings to find optimal configurations in terms of resulting size, quality and encoding time. Through this work we show that it is possible to store and share even highest quality video datasets within reasonable storage constraints.