New Hardware, New Process

Warning! This post doesn't involve Hockey or Hockey things. This post is all about game broadcasting. In this case, live streaming on the PDX Hockey Dad YouTube channel. I always try to use a systematic approach to improving the quality, efficiency, and entertainment value of the game broadcasts that I put out. I'm going to formalize that going forward by writing post game reports. I'm going to include Hardware, Software, Settings, problems, etc. So, without further ado, the first After Action Report.

After Action Report

5/28/2017

ACTION: BOLO West Linn 7/8 vs Hillsboro 7/8

LOCATION: Lakeridge HS Turf 2

TIME: 9:15 am

Hardware: Canon Vixia HF M41 (camcorder), Seesi HDV-UH60 HDMI to USB3.0, Quantaray QSX9500 tripod, Toshiba SATELLITE P55W-B5318, Huawei Nexus 6P(hotspot), Anker PowerCore+ 20100mAh External Battery, Folding Barstool (computer table)

Software: OBS Studio 19.0.2 (64bit, Windows), Chrome Version 58.0.3029.110 (64-bit)

Broadcast Details:

Basic Ingestion - 500-2000Kbps(480p), Enable 60fps NOT checked.

Primary Server URL - rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2

Network - TMobile hotspot

Data Used - ~700mb

The video appears choppy. It could be because when you are streaming as a 'Live Event' you need to choose the quality of your stream. 1280x720 (which is what was set in OBS) resolution (720p) requires a bitrate of 1500-4000. The resolution should have been set to 854x480 in OBS Settings/Video/Output(Scaled) Resolution. That might solve the problem. NOTE Apparently this is only necessary for 'Live Event' streaming. From the YouTube Help page "If you're using Stream now, you do not need to set a bitrate. Stream now will automatically detect your encoder settings."

At halftime of the game, I clicked the Stop Streaming button in the Live Control Room page of the broadcast. This stopped the stream AND stopped the event. I wasn't expecting that. I looked for a way to re-open the event and couldn't see anything right off. Since this was a 'proof of concept' outing and not anything I was interested in preserving, I ended up packing up and going home.

I arranged for YouTube to share on Twitter when the event started, but I am not entirely thrilled with how that turned out. A Tweet was sent, but it was pretty generic. It did have the link and the video description that I entered into YouTube.

I had the score bug up but didn't feel confident enough in using it to give it a whirl. my screen real estate is eaten up by OBS and the YouTube window.

Further preparation will be necessary for the score bug to be used. Still do-able, but need to go through some dry runs.

UPDATE

After some playing around, I determined that what was happening with the 'stutter' was that I had the resolution of the input device set at default. The default was 1920x1080. That is what is coming out of the camcorder, but my capture device was having a hard time keeping up with that. I changed that to 1280x720 and the picture is now much smoother. So the steps in OBS... Add Video Capture Device, Select USB3.0 Capture Video, Change Resolution/FPS Type to Custom, Change Resolution to 1280x720. 

You need to adjust the video in OBS studio to match the new input setting. Go into Settings, Video, and change the Base Canvas resolution to 1280x720.