Bill Sanders will probably comment on this one as he has a lot of experience
testing different cams and settings. He was also kind enough to put together
and article for my site which can be found here:
http://www.flashcomguru.com/articles/camtips.cfm
My feeling is that you may want to consider a good firewire cam which may be
better than normal webcams yet less bandwidth and resolution hungry than the
DV cam.
Also you could try a program called WebcamDV
http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/webcamdv.html which lets you use your DV
cam as a webcam - I am not sure what features it offers but I remember that
some people on this list had some good results with it. If it enables you to
lower the resolution then I think it's a winner.
Also remember that even if you half your upload speed to 512kbps then you
can only serve 1 client on a Personal license, not 5!
Stefan
-----Original Message-----
From: flashcomm-bounces-1Ss2GqJETD3yZ38Mhd3e/9ZfFG6BLHNm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:flashcomm-bounces-1Ss2GqJETD3yZ38Mhd3e/9ZfFG6BLHNm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Simon Skrødal
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 6:13 AM
To: FlashComm Mailing List
Subject: [FlashComm] Live Streaming
Dear All,
I have some findings, and some questions, related to live streaming. I
thought it might be a useful resource for myself, and others thinking about
doing the same thing.
My company is looking into streaming a live event in a couple of months. It
will be a 6 hour continuos stream to about 5 end points (clients) around the
country. The 5 streams need to be of a high resolution, as the clients will
project the video onto a large screen.
FCS is probably the most expensive and limited option (with regards to
bandwidth licensing), but I also think it's the most elegant and reliable.
Until today, I have only been playing around with live streams using a
webcam, and I have put together a neat broadcaster application, which lets
me change camera and mic settings at real time. Everything works a treat,
although the highest resolution supported by the webcam is 352x264.
So, today I have a DV cam in my office, and thought I'd hook it up and see
what resolutions I can stream and how much bandwidth I have to surrender to
make the video looking smooth.
My findings:
1. The DV camera in question, a Canon MV730i, was picked up by the flash
player, but no image came through when selected.
** Solution: I found this entry in Waldo Smeets' blog:
http://www.waldosmeets.com/index.cfm?entryID=489
- Basically, to get the DV capture showing in the player, the resolution has
to be set at 720x568.
- Also, by setting the mode of the DV camera to 'Card' rather than 'Tape'
drastically improved image quality (less interlacing).
2. With regards to bandwidth usage, I was hoping to be able to select a
resolution a little lower than 720x568, but after several attempts on
alternatives, with no luck, I was stuck with this one. In order to make it
look reasonably good, I had to set the bandwidth to 512Kbps (64KBps) @
12fps. The video is pixelated when there is lots of motion, but when
doubling the bandwidth to 1024Kbps, things are looking quite smooth.
** Comment: 1024Kbps... hmm, well, that means that with our current licence
(1 personal), we might be able to squeeze in a single stream... besides, end
clients might not have a bandwidth of that capacity.
We're ready to stack a few licenses in order to meet requirements, but a
1Mbps stream is out of the question.
As I don't have much experience with projectors, I'm not sure what
resolution one would have to push for it to look good on a big screen. Also,
I think we need to look into a different camera that is supported by the
Flash Player, and that can do a wider range of resolutions -- OR could this
also be a function of a capture card? Say, if we invest in a decent capture
card, could we potentially hook up any camera to that card, and the card
itself would deliver a range of resolutions to the Flash Player?
I would be grateful for any suggestions, solutions, thoughts and even
questions, so that we can get an insight in how to best accomplish a
successful live streaming event with good quality video.
Kind regards,
Simon Skrødal
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