I kept seeing the c930e for a price that seemed too good to be true on this sketchy-looking online store “Wirelessoemshop”. I finally gave in and ordered one, figuring I could do a chargeback if I got ripped off. I got it today, and it looks to be legit. I haven’t actually gotten a chance to try it yet, but this seems very promising. It’s $70 now; I got it for $65 + $6 shipping, but it’s still cheaper than $109 on Amazon.
Did you find that the 930e provided any significant improvement over 920s?
I haven’t compared them side-by-side yet, or even on the same game. I will when I can and report back. The one thing that’s clearly different is that the 930e has a wider angle view.
Yeah, I was curious about the 930s specifically due to their wide-angle capabilities. I was hoping the angle is wide enough and quality is high enough to place the cam on a high stand between the two machines pointing straight down. It would be great if you could capture two machines at once using this method. You could then clone the 930 feed in your encoder, crop accordingly, and have two machines from one cam.
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@DEADFLIP you mentioned in your Domino’s thread you have upgraded hardware. Want to share what and why?
We’ve upgraded our Play-field camera to a Camcorder setup for optical zoom and true 60fps.
We’re still running all this off a Laptop to keep everything mobile and it’s been a bit of a battle.
Still doing lots of testing, and I told my chat as well as you folks, once it’s nailed down, I’ll spill the beans.
I don’t want people buying stuff they cant get to work right. (I’ve been there) WE’RE CLOSE THOUGH!
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Current Broadcast Gear
17" 2014 Macbook Pro running Win7 using Xsplit
2x Thunderbolt cables
2x Black Magic UltraStudio Mini adapters
8x Sony HDR-CX405 @ 720p 60FPS
6x XiaoMi Yi A7LS Action Camera
1x JVC GZEX210BUS
1x Panasonic HDC-TM15 (rarely used at events)
1x Logitech C920 USB Webcam
1x Snowball USB Microphone
2x 8X1 Enhanced Powered HDMI Switcher
4x Lighting Stands by Monoprice
1000ft HDMI cable in various lengths
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We do a fair amount of streaming at work and offer the service to business looking to stream seminars and the like. So I was talking to my boss about some stuff and a lot of the research I’ve done for Pinball streaming carried into work and vice versa.
We’re looking at getting a Verizon pay as you go setup for when internet goes down or is flakey. I’m really impressed with the speeds and options. You can get a lot for $60!
If someone could raise just $60 a stream you could basically stream anywhere or less if you did it consistently a few times a month!!
Seeing this binge option really catches my interest!
On my quest for a proper 60fps setup, I’ve been wondering if action cameras are the way to go. You’re using the Sonys on the playfields, right? I’ve been trying to find the Panasonic equivalent of those CX405s, and I have found it in the V180… I think. I can confirm the HDMI out does do a proper 60fps. I’ve just always preferred Panasonic for some reason. Problem is you can’t find them anywhere. I sourced one overseas, and they sent me the PAL version so it only does 50fps. #facepalm
My laptop has about had it, so I am building a new rig. Water-cooled Xeon E5 2680 v4 that has 14 cores for encoding. 64 GB Ram, and GTX 970 graphics card. My avermedia cards are acting up, and I’m about sick of them. Do those Black Magics work well? I was looking at the Elgato HD60pro because I have the room for them on my motherboard.
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about the Binge On option: it still works last time I checked , but I haven’t streamed in awhile so not still certain about that.
The last stream I did was 45 days ago, and ended up using the location’s Internet because T-Mobile was being spotty. I was having issues with it at Pinburgh. Called support and they confirmed a tower was down. Got into a conversation about Pinball and streaming with the tech, and he was surprised Binge On worked for Twitch. He stated it was a partner they were looking into, but hadn’t been made official.
I suspect the reason it works is because Amazon streaming is a partner, and Amazon owns Twitch. I’m guessing the streaming traffic looks the same to an ISP.
I have a month to month plan, and if it stops, I of course will be cancelling. I’d be weary about committing to a contract without Twitch being on the official list.
I have one HD60pro along with 3 Avermedia Game Broadcaster HDs. Drivers aren’t the best on the HD60pro and I do get random blackouts on that card only where I have to power cycle to get it to take an input again.
The beauty of the Sony HDR-CX405 @GApinball is using is they can be set to 720p60 OR 1080p60. The Avermedia cards will take a 720p60 input which has plenty of resolution for a vertical-oriented playfield cam. I’ve been all about Panasonic camcorders (last one I bought was a v180) until now as 2 of my v250s have died [out of 7] within two years. Future purchases will be the CX405 or equivalent as the low light performance is just as good, if not better, than the Panasonics.
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I appreciate you sharing that. I will admit my Panasonic vs Sony bias is from 15 years ago or so when I had a DVX100 and my friend had the VX2000. The low light difference on those two were night and day. Believe me, the thought about giving in and just getting CX405 has crossed my mind more than once. Probably will go ahead and do it now, but the action cameras still intrigue me. With these camcorders, I’m paying for a lot of features I’ll never use.
Thanks for the tip on the Elgato. The avermedia cards I have are the external LGX GC550. I don’t really like them. I’ve been looking for a PCIe alternative. I know the C985 Liver Gamer HD will not do 60fps. I’m surprised to learn the Game Broadcaster does considering it’s half the price. I take it you like those?
I’m with you on 720p because that’s what I prefer to broadcast at anyways. 1080p is just too much for most people to be able to watch smoothly.
If you want to see actual footage, on my last Hobbit video the playfield cam was the Panasonic v250 and the flipper cam was the Sony CX405.
The Game Broadcaster HD cards have been completely problem-free, only wish they did 1080p60 of course. Wonderful card otherwise and they can be had for very good prices on ebay occasionally.
The Sony CX405 are work horses 
I leave them on 24/7 during events. PV3 they stayed on 4 days non stop and this weekend I ran them 3 days non stop and no issues at all. They do well in low light as you can see from this past weekends broadcast from St. Augustine’s Ancient City Rumble. I wish they passed audio but thats not a big issue to me.
@pinballr My black magic adapters work great every now and then I have to reboot but thats just windows LOL
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Trying to build a mobile setup… what do people do to deal with WiFi issues and low bandwidth? I had to limit my stream to 2000 kbps on Sunday which wasn’t bad but not optimal. Yesterday though I had a lot of trouble connecting to the WiFi and getting any sort of stable connection where I was. It’s possible that the issue was related to the router but if I’m doing location streams that’s not easy to control.
Does everyone rely on WiFi to stream?
I stream 100% off wireless. My MBP doesn’t have an ethernet port. I only have issues when I have poor wifi signal. I was on a guest shared account this weekend and when more people got on I had to drop to 1000 kbps but it still looked decent.
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We never stream on WiFi. Hardwired connection with 5 meg upload minimum is what we’ve found works best.
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We ended up with hardwire at 2Mbps for NWPC this year and it was just enough, HQ will be later on Youtube
Agreed, it does look better. I’ll admit I have been happy with my v110s except for the fact they did not do 60fps.
I think I got really lucky. There were 3 GB HDs on ebay, and I scooped them all up for an average of $57.33 a piece, and that included shipping. That’s just a little over the cost of one of my external LGXs. Two of them were brand new. All 3 are installed now, and they work just fine. Looking forward to giving them a test on a stream. Thanks for the reco.
Considering how much bandwidth it takes for 1080p60, I’m totally fine with 720 for now.
That’s good to know. I have decided that’s the way I’m going to go now. The market seems to be flooded with them. I literally just got a used one off ebay for $139 shipped. History shows they’ve recently been let go for as low as $115! Looking forward to testing this one out. 60fps makes such a difference!
By the way there’s an amazon flash sale today on the Logitech c920 and c615 webcams today. Thanks @JSwain for the heads up!