Streaming with Quality and Transparent Twitch Chat and/or IRC

[jk16bit-palmy-]

This Section is mainly for those who stream and/or record and want to include their IRC and/or Twitch Chat into their videos. I highly recommend this for everyone who uses twitch chat and wants to keep their emotes in the stream.

Twitch/IRC Chat Capture

     So I found this nifty video on how make a transparent Twitch Chat with a Browser Plugin (Chrome or Any Firefox based Browser, I used Waterfox and I worked) and I must say, it looks nice.

[spoiler=OH BOY! SHOW ME THE GOODS] XSplit tutorial on how to do a 'transparent chat' overlay on Twitch.TV![/spoiler]

     In any case, this uses a black theme for pop-out chat and utilizes the Color Key feature in xsplit, a very handy thing.
I know capturing IRC is the same painful process before hand, but creating a pure-black image in a paint tool (MSPaint, GIMP, etc) and using it as a background in your IRC of choice (I use mIRC, HexChat and XChat) and doing the same Color Keying in Xsplit seems to work just fine as well.

      I also know there very few IRC Plugin Scripts you can use as well, with some creative googling. (In .swf format, or Flash for those not familiar with the terminology. You can add them and configure with settings in xml docs or what have you.) There are also Greasemonkey Scripts for the same web browser-like purpose as well.

Streaming and Recording Settings

This Section is for those who are wanting to get higher quality out of their streams or video recordings.

     So for those who are not fluent streamers, you might usually have quirky or poor quality streams or recordings. Or your streams look decent, but are really tiny or blurry.

When it comes to SNES/NES/GB(A) Streaming, Window resolutions and frame rates are a must. For starters, default stream settings are in 30FPS and are in Desktop resolutions.

Examples are in (Width by Height) or (W x H)

_{DON'T USE THESE! THEY LOOK NASTY AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD FOR EVER LIVING!}

740 by 480 [740x480]   (16:9 Ratio)
800 by 600 [800x600]   (4:3 Ratio)
1024 by 768[1024x768] (5:4 Ratio)

These are Desktop Resolutions, used exclusively for computers. To make console game look better on PC, two things must happen:
1. Use NTSC Standard (Or PAL depending on your Location) Video Resolutions and Frame Rates
2. Use small amounts of scan-lines or screen-shading filters to help increase smoothness of video (ESPECIALLY HD VIDEO).

NTSC Standard (or PAL) inputs ARE different from there outputs. Though this only applies to resolutions under true 480pi.
Higher quality resolutions begin to scale at similar sizes after 480pi.

The next big issue: streaming an output at 30FPS. To those not into the television industry, desktop and tv FPS counters are slightly different. The difference being, in TV, there is no 30FPS. Thats due to a non-inclusion of the first frame, where-as on desktops, all frames are counted. So in NTSC (and PAL), there is 29FPS and 59FPS for higher streams of data.
     Over streaming with 30FPS Can actually cause 'invisible' frames to appear. This is noticeable in some Super Metroid recordings. You can tell the player is getting the 'invisible' frames by not seeing some of the shots fired from Samus's arm cannon.

So Heres the Important Part

     If you want your recordings and streams to look good, follow this chart of recommended resolutions and Frame Rates.
[spoiler=For those who are Streaming]     If your internet is less than 4Mbs in UPLOAD speed, **you will want to use 480pi or lower at 29 frames per second. Streaming at 59FPS or having a higher Resolution might/will result in dropped Frames.

If this is your case; Follow this chart: (Note that all are in 29FPS, though they can be put at 59FPS)

288p = 512 Wide by 288 Tall
180p = 320 Wide by 180 Tall (Known also as NTSC DV)
144p = 176 Wide by 144 Tall (QCIF Lowest Clear Resolution, Used on 2 inch Screens or Standard mobile)

** Note that if you want crystal clarity, go look at your consoles internal resolution. Setting your output to these can look better, ONLY IF YOU HAVE THE VIDEO AND NOTHING ELSE IN THE FRAME LIKE A CHAT WINDOW OR BANNER.

NES/SNES Internal resolution - 256 Wide by 224 Tall
GB/GBA Internal Resoltion - 160 Wide by 144 Tall

[/spoiler]
 
Settings**

Low Quality 480pi = Framerate: 29 | Resolution: 854 Wide by 480 Tall
High Quality 480pi = Framerate: 59 | Resolution: 854 Wide by 480 Tall

Low Quality 540pi = Framerate: 29 | Resolution: 960 Wide by 540 Tall
High Quality 540pi = Framerate: 59 | Resolution: 960 Wide by 540 Tall

**_{After these, standard HD Resolution Scales merge identically.
Also, Denote that 'pi' means either Progressive or Interlaced Video}

[jk16bit-palmy-]

FYI, if you can stream or record in 720p (or 720i) or higher, the same Frame Rates apply.

[Spoiler=Also, before this gets bombarded...]

[ Q ] What's the difference between interlaced and progressive video?

[ A ] The earliest known form of video compression was the use of the interlaced format, developed roughly 70 years ago to address early TV technology challenges and broadcast bandwidth constraints.

In interlaced video, each field of a video image displays every other horizontal line of the complete image. For example, in the first interlaced field, the even-numbered lines making up the complete image would be displayed, and then with the second field, the odd-number lines of that image would be shown. Repeat this even/odd interlaced sequence frequently enough, say 25 to 30 times per second, and the "persistence of human vision" allows a viewer to see what appears to be complete moving images.

The main benefit of interlaced video is that it allows more detailed images to be created than would otherwise be possible within a given amount of bandwidth -- in effect, interlacing allows a doubling of image resolution. But interlaced video comes with real-world downside, including image softening that occurs during fast-motion sequences as well as moire or strobing artifacts that sometimes appear when striped shirts, plaid jackets, bricks in a building, or similar types of objects are shown.

Progressive video, on the other hand, is made up of consecutively displayed video frames that contain all of the horizontal lines that make up the image being shown. As a result, images appear smoother, fast-motion sequences are sharper and artifacts are much less prevalent.

The primary drawback to progressive video, at least until very recently, was the higher bandwidth requirement. But today, television systems and packaged media such as DVD are moving away from analog transmission and storage to digital variants, allowing considerably more efficient video compression to be applied. This results in even higher resolution images than were possible via interlaced analog video, using the same amount of bandwidth.

While interlaced video will continue to be with us for some time as a result of the 1,080-line interlaced (1080i) HD format used by broadcasters in the US and some other countries, both displays and packaged media are moving exclusively toward progressive video formats, such as 720- and 1080-line progressive (720p and 1080p) formats.

In fact, all digital, non-CRT displays are natively progressive, and any interlaced video signals they receive must be converted, or "de-interlaced", to the progressive format before they can be displayed.

From ISSForums.com (Source: http://www.isfforum.com/FAQs/view/All-About-HDTV/What-s-the-Difference-between-Interlaced-and-Progressive-Video/33.html) [/spoiler]