Please explain SYNC settings in NDI source

[dabercro]

When you use an NDI source as input into a scene, one of the settings is "SYNC". The options are "source timing" and "Network." What do these mean and how do they affect the input?

 

[dabercro]

I am using three NDI PTZ cameras as inputs and wondering which sync setting is the best.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I could easily be wrong, but my understanding is that OBS Studio doesn't natively support NDI video feeds.
So... what are you using? VLC? NDI Tools, ??
My NDI camera is a Panasonic and I use their Virtual USB driver to make my like easier

 

[CodyH]

I could easily be wrong, but my understanding is that OBS Studio doesn't natively support NDI video feeds.
So... what are you using? VLC? NDI Tools, ??
My NDI camera is a Panasonic and I use their Virtual USB driver to make my like easier

There is a plugin called OBS-NDI that will allow you to select NDI sources.

 

[CodyH]

I am using three NDI PTZ cameras as inputs and wondering which sync setting is the best.

I believe I read once that the best option was source timing, although I'm having a hard time remembering where I read that.

 

[dabercro]

I am using the OBS-NDI plugin from NewTek.

 

[cyberthief183]

If you have 2 PCs, where one is sending NDI and the other is receiving, then you use source timing (doesn't matter if it's network or i.e. a direct connection via Thunderbolt), the same applies if you have a camera that sends NDI and you receive the stream in OBS on your PC - you use source timing. However, if you have one PC that sends NDI to another recording PC, and you have a camera that also sends NDI to the recording PC, then you use network timing because all 2 NDI sources need to sync together for the recording PC to receive your camera stream in a syncrhonized manner as the PC that sends NDI output.

 

[rebbitzman]

If you have 2 PCs, where one is sending NDI and the other is receiving, then you use source timing (doesn't matter if it's network or i.e. a direct connection via Thunderbolt), the same applies if you have a camera that sends NDI and you receive the stream in OBS on your PC - you use source timing. However, if you have one PC that sends NDI to another recording PC, and you have a camera that also sends NDI to the recording PC, then you use network timing because all 2 NDI sources need to sync together for the recording PC to receive your camera stream in a syncrhonized manner as the PC that sends NDI output.

I’d like to follow up on this, since it’s a relatively fresh comment. Is the basic difference that “network” uses the time stamp generated by the network when the OBS receives the frames, while “source” uses the time stamp inside the frames (as generated and transmitted by the camera or other NDI source device)?

 

[Brannmanndan]

I'm not really explaining what they are, but one thing I've just discovered after a painstaking amount of searching is to do with audio. I was streaming through OBS to youtube, taking the video and audio from AIDA NDI 200 camera. Monitoring the stream was perfect in OBS, however when recording or streaming, the audio was choppy and broken up. The fix was change the sync to network and the audio was fixed. I don't know the reasoning for it or understand it, but it works.