Anyone ever do the infinity focus modification to their C920? It seems like mine are just slightly out of focus for the playfield from the distance I’ve got them above and I was thinking that tweaking it might improve the quality. From what I’ve seen a small quarter turn or so can make a big difference in sharpeness.
My Pifi0 rig that I’m hoping to try out this weekend at one of the launch events (along with my pi3 rigs, same thing just a pi3 on the stand). I’ve been testing and getting things setup and while the Pi0w can support 3 cameras, I don’t think they’re getting enough power since they’re glitching a bit, so I might end up swapping them out for regular Pi3’s for the multi-camera needs and use them for crowd cameras or booth camera options.
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Would certainly be amazing to have a portable affordable rig with 3 cams and 60 FPS on at least one of them. Keep us posted!
I have – temporarily, I hope – gone the opposite direction, away from portability, in my hunt for a smooth playfield view… 
Did my first location stream yesterday and the pi cameras didn’t quite perform as I’d hoped. The location wifi was actually pretty decent although I think I was pushing it a bit at 2.8Mbps (for 720p30). However, I did have quite a bit of issues with the pi video signals going over the network. They worked but it looked like I was having all sorts of quality issues getting the video to the machine running OBS. That one was wired to the router and all of the Pi’s were running on 2.4GHz (limitation of Pi0 and regular Pi3). There were quite a few networks in the area and I think that might have been part of the problem since I wasn’t having these issues at home. So the next time I might see about trying to run a wired one and setup a Pi3b+ on the 5GHz channel to see if that helps.
The NUC running OBS worked alright and the video capture seemed to be OK when the video was able to make it, but I think I’d recommend going with a laptop instead just for convenience if possible.
Not quite the smooth trial I was hoping for but I’m not giving up hope yet, just need to work through getting things to work in the wild. It also took much longer than expected to setup multiple cameras so next time I’ll know to get there a bit earlier and work on some quicker pre setup options.
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Found a great OBS plugin to go along with my RPi option. It does extactly what I’m looking for an is available for Linux and Windows: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-gstreamer.696/
I tried it out last night with good results since it doesn’t require Window Capture and you have full control over the pipeline to do whatever you need to with GStreamer, which could open the door for other interesting integrations. And the camera switch over is as easy as a different scene.
I’m going to give it a shot on Wed for leagues and see if I get better results along with moving over to 5GHz networking. And for fun I threw Ubuntu 18.04 on my old Chromebook Pixel LS and I’m going to see if its specs are enough for the job. Early tests look promising.
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Any thoughts on the best way to mic up multiple commentators? Currently, I just have the commentators huddled around a Blue snowball, which looks cheap, sounds poor, and is uncomfortable to do for a long period of time.
I’d like to have something where everyone has a headset with headphones and personal mic. I purchased a couple cheap gaming headsets on monoprice (~$20). The headphones work fine when plugged directly into the CPU, but I can only plug in one at a time. I tried running them though a mixer and then into the computer, but this doesn’t work. Apparently gaming headsets like this require a small amount of phantom power, which is provided by the mother board.
What’s everyone else doing? Have you come up with an elegant/cost effective solution to this problem?
Unfortunately I had to do it right. $200 a piece and these are the only option I trust. Anything cheaper kinda sucks at best.
Audio-Technica BPHS1 Broadcast Stereo Headset with Dynamic Cardioid Boom Mic https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003D87JI2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_r4zOBb04TDK84
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Seconded! These are what I’m using as well. They pop up on Warehouse Deals occasionally for $140ish.
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RIP my wallet
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I take it these work in a mixer?
Yep. I got this guy. Works great.
Behringer Xenyx 802 Premium 8-Input 2-Bus Mixer with Xenyx Mic Preamps and British EQs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J5XS3C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_8.IOBb0K55RG5
For like 20 bucks more you can get a 4 input one.
I have one of these laying around if you want to give it a shot.
Behringer Xenyx 802 Premium 8-Input 2-Bus Mixer with Xenyx Mic Preamps and British EQs
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That would be great! The real expense comes from those headsets though…gonna have to keep an eye out on Craigslist and whatnot for some deals.
Any of the CX405 people know if it’s possible to sleep the display while hdmi is in use to save battery?
Trying to figure out tricks for saving battery life. There is a power save setting in the menu, but I’m not clear what it does and the manual is not super helpful.
Unfortunately, the Power Save function will tend to power the entire camera off after a few minutes when on battery power. Connecting to a power source is a must, in my experience. I use a USB battery pack.
On that note, the Sony CX cams are starting to annoy me a little bit and I’m looking for alternatives. Notably:
- They are very finicky with power. Sometimes they randomly refuse to charge off of my USB batteries. I have to randomly unplug+replug to get the cameras working sometimes.
- The HDMI port is hidden behind the viewfinder, so I have to open the viewfinder/power on to connect HDMI. I’d rather the HDMI be accessible at all times.
- The viewfinder is the power on switch. If the camera shuts off for whatever reason, I have to disconnect the HDMI, close the viewfinder, reopen, reconnect the HDMI.
- No audio over HDMI, which I probably wouldn’t use anyway, but it’d be nice to have.
- The settings often reset and I end up having to turn Demo Mode off in the settings over and over again!@#$
All of this sucks when setting up many of these things. Should I switch to Panasonic cams or some other brand? I wouldn’t mind spending a bit more for something nicer.
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I also have a panasonic vc-250 that I use for the score cam. The picture is not quite as nice as the CX405. I’m not sure what it is, it just looks a little muddier. It also has to have the viewfinder open to use HDMI out. However, you can dim the viewfinder a bit, and the battery power seems to last a lot longer than the CX405, but extra batteries are twice as expensive. It does pass audio through HDMI. I plan on using to capture game sounds in an upcoming tournament. It doesn’t sound fantastic, but I think i’ll be better than the “mute” game play footage. I really liked how the pinburgh coverage had audio for each game.
Karl alerted me to this neat “audio inserter” device by monoprice. You can pass your HDMI signal through this device and attach a microphone if you’d like. Karl tested it successfully with a CX405.
So what’s the cheapest data plan people have found for doing location streams? I think I have my rig figured out after another test last night but the location wifi is not up to supporting a stream and my hotspot data is limited to 5GB a month (and due to work I already come close to it). Considering looking at the T-mobile one plus plan which would get me 20GB per month and that’s probably enough for the amount I’d actually do.
What are the best options out there?
Also for you location streamers, how much data are you actually going through?
I use T-Mobile ONE Plus. Unfortunately, when using USB or hotspot tethering, your PC may still be throttled to 512kbps. This is hidden in the fine print. You can work around this by changing the DefaultTTL registry setting in Windows to 65, and then restart your PC. The TTL setting is how TMobile determines whether data is originating from your phone or from tethering, and this will give you the uncapped speed on your PC. (I’ve had no issues doing this, but use at your own risk.)
All of this is painful, and maybe someone else will chime in that a different provider is better.
For bandwidth usage, you can multiply the bitrate of your stream by the amount of streaming time for a good estimate. For example, a 4000kbps stream running for 4 hours would use ~7GB.
This site can help you out (enter 1 user, because you are only uploading to Twitch):
http://bigcdn.com/bandwidth-calculator
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I’m not sure the TTL trick will work on all devices/firmwares. It works great when tethered to SailfishOS or LineageOS, but I found devices were still throttled when using the stock firmware on a Nexus 6P. My gut says a different APN gets used under the hood for tethering by the stock firmware.
I also hope this trick doesn’t get too wide spread – I’ve been using it as my primary internet connection while travelling, and would be sad if it got shut down. 