Does anyone know if virtual capture cards are a thing? You know, like AppleTV but in reverse? The HDMI just goes into your WiFi router via wifi or Ethernet and then your computer just tuned into your WiFi and can pick up the signal?
Yeah thatās what concerns me is the low price of it! But if you can run 4 ports thru the PCI bridge into the bus at 4K/60 then thatās super impressive at that price. Keen to understand more of its architecture.
For the Domino Arcade rig Iāve given up with retail hardware and moved to skylake Xeon server as I want to be able to switch 40 feeds.
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Yes but Iāve yet to find one thatās does 60fps. The downside of them is that you are using RTSP and getting sync and phase correct is really really hard.
Neil
Looks like the Connect Spark can do 60fps according to this review https://www.videomaker.com/review-newtek-connect-spark only $500 a pop haha but could be a good investment to replace the hdmi transmitter and receivers
Very cool. About the price of 4 separate single input cards too.
Iāve been keeping a keen eye toward the NDI stuff and picked up two of the Connect Sparks to play with. They work nicely when connected wirelessly, much lower latency than RTSP, but a little worse than the wireless HDMI transmitters, maybe ~100ms. You can use the OBS NDI plugin (https://github.com/Palakis/obs-ndi/releases) to display these sources in OBS. Thereās an overpriced NDI app for phones that will allow you to use your phone as an NDI source, as well.
You need a good wireless switch/router, and I havenāt done the all-night stream trial by fire, but I donāt expect 3+ transmitters to be a problem. Iāll keep yaāll posted. The price tag is such a bummerā¦ Iām hoping some consumer cameras might ship with this built-in in the future.
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NDI gives you better control over sync/phase/timing so its super useful. My PTZ camera supports it and it made a real improvement to syncing sound on my streams where I use the PTZ for the camera that points at me.
I was trying to find a low cost box camera that supported NDI and then run all the cameras on POE, one cable for power and data and all IP so no faffing with devices for encoding, I doubt that many consumer cameras will have it unfortunately
Mike 100ms might be ok with sound/lip sync? how do you find that?
Cheers,
Neil.
I run my Pi cams using RTSP and I typically do 250ms just for a bit of network buffer but I can go down to 100ms or less on a good network connection. Iām assuming youāre running the Media Source input? That latency is terrible. You should look at the gstreamer plugin https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-gstreamer.696/ which lets you run gstreamer pipelines and control your latency along with all sorts of other cool stuff.
Iāve used the VLC Video source, which allows you to set the network latency in new-ish versions of OBS.
Thatās a good add but I think itās still doing some other buffering since the gstreamer input 100ms setting comparatively is much faster. I just checked my setup and the gstreamer input has noticeably quicker response with the same latency set on the pipeline, and you can go lower than 100ms if your network latency can support it.
Thx, Iāll have to give a shot! Looks like you are using Logitech Brios for your playfield cams? What resolution/framerate are you encoding at?
Thanks for posting your setup, itās interesting to see the different methods everyone is using!
My thought is this would not be very noticable, but I have yet to try these NDI devices wirelessly with everything chugging in a crowded location, so weāll see how it goes. Iād love avoid having to add delay to my other OBS sources (the less things I have to fiddle with, the better!)
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Ya, unfortunately the Pi is only USB 2.0 so I can only do 720p60 out of it using the built in mjpeg, so no encoding being done on the Pi, just network transfer. It also occasionally glitches in the video too (like a dropped key frame) which I think is the USB since I donāt see it when I connect it to something that uses USB 3.0. But I havenāt had much luck in finding a good SBC alternative yet that does USB 3 and doesnāt have issues with other hardware like the WiFi adapters and such.
The Brioās are pretty good for the money (when on sale) but a bit more wide angle (fisheye) than the camcorder solution/camlink (which also works if I can find a better SBC). I did learn that you lose quite a bit of FPS though if you zoom with them so I crop in OBS instead. But theyāre great since I have a website running on the Pi to control all of the settings remotely and I can do multiple 60fps cameras on the cheap. I pair them with a C920 for the backglass.
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I found the drivers on windows for brio to be quite unstable probably updated since I last used it - but as a camera itās very good. As you say more fish eye.
Neil.
Indeed let me know how you get on - suspect you might need a stronger wifi/ethernet setup - my experience with NDI is usually consumer stuff doesnāt cut it- I use Ubiquiti which it seems to behave on so far although I only have two devices.
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Sample of the overhead rig attached to backbox. You can notice it shakes during the plunge (and other parts) but more so on the playfield since the camera is pretty rigidly connected to the backbox. So I probably need to work on trying to build a vibration isolator for the playfield camera and see what happens with that. But at about 2:10 you can hear me say shake save but what I meant was a pretty significant death save move. You can sort of see the movement back and forth looking at the backbox but notice the camera is still nicely in place, no readjustment necessary. Audio is coming off the C920 over wifi along with the video.
I may have figured out my glitching video too. I bumped the Pi to run full speed all of the time and tweaked the receiving pipeline to add a jpegparse element and queue and so far I havenāt noticed it happen. But I need to run it longer and keep and eye on it before I call it āfixedā.
Hey guysā¦been reading as much as I can through this thread but starting way back in '15 was a struggleā¦haha.
Definitely have picked up some great tips though so thanks to everyone who has been posting!
Just wondering, as a noob, I stream via Facebook every once in a while but Iām trying to add borders and possible backgrounds to look of my stream. Couldnāt find any help and google has been a pain in ar*e.
Can any help me with this. Just want to give my overall look a sharper professional look to my viewers.
Thanks!
Hi @jardine, what software are you using to stream to Facebook? You can try software like OBS, which can stream to any streaming service and allows you to customize your stream layout. In OBS, you can add images and drag them around along with your cameras. If youāre handy with a graphics editor, itās not too hard to make a decent layout.
Hey @mwelsh I am currently using OBS, yes, sorry should have mentioned that!
The images and movement as well as cropping and sizing Iām okāish atā¦lolā¦just really need help with the layout!
Youāll need to design a layout in photoshop or something and create the borders you want. Then just put the video source on top of it.
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