Problems with iMovie

[balka]

I just had a couple hour long discussion with several Apple reps only to be told they can't be to blame, it must be the coding of OBS. I've been using this software for a little over a year now for our small church to livestream on Facebook. I've been super happy with it and still am. I used to be able to download the video after the live-stream into iMovie, tinker with the audio, add a couple of transitions and pictures, and then have the video saved into a file and ready for YouTube within 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Ever since upgrading to the new macOS 12.0.1, I've been met with a progress bar that tells me it will take anywhere between 30 hours and 280 hours to process.

Does anyone have and ideas, or anyone else run into this issue too? I certainly can just upload from Facebook to Youtube, but it would be nice to adjust the sound in iMovie.

I have also hoped there would be a way to simultaneously livestream to Facebook and Youtube. Is that possible? Would someone be able to point me in the right direction as to how to do that?

I am by no means a tech wizard, just a somewhat tech knowledgeable pastor looking for some guidance. Thanks!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Some clarity of your workflow (more than you've posted) would help
One thing to recognize is that Content Delivery Networks (Facebook, YouTube) HIGHLY compress the videos livestreamed or uploaded to them [why isn't relevant to this discussion]
So, *if* your workflow is to livestream to Facebook, then download video from Facebook and re-upload to YouTube.... well, ugh in terms of quality. like.. super high lossy compression .. yuck
- For our HoW, I record locally at 1080p, while streaming to Facebook at 720p {I look forward to when Facebook accepts regular 1080p stream input... but I digress}. This way, I have a MUCH higher quality recording for snippets, re-use, whatever. This does require disk space, but that is relatively cheap ... a 1hr15m service at 1080p30 run around 11GB for my settings... so lots of services (almost 2 years) on a 1TB drive. You could always use a locally recorded stream, edit that and upload it to YouTube and not keep a local archive (never something I'd recommend... as you have no guarantees of availability of those videos)
- if I did guess correctly on your workflow, Apple reps may have mis-understood. And regardless, may not be Apple nor OBS's fault. Because regardless of your OBS settings, Facebook re-encodes. So it is Facebook's download video settings/format that need to work with iMovie. Or did I get your workflow wrong?

Simultaneous livestreaming to multiple services is possible. HOWEVER, it does mean encoding 2 separate streams, so the OBS computer has to be up to the task [real-time video encoding is computationally demanding... now almost doubling the workload]. Be sure to understand hardware resource utilization monitoring if you are going to attempt this [the computer equivalent of not driving blindfolded]. Otherwise there are multiple services, like restream.io, that can handle an incoming stream and send out to multiple CDNs. On the other hand, consider whether you want the service to be consumptive or interactive/participatory. If consumptive, so be it. But if interactive/participatory, having folks across platforms is not good. By using Facebook's Scheduled livestream service, you get a URL that folks who refuse to use Facebook and have no account (like me) can still watch livestream (just not comment). So, ask yourself where the majority of your congregation is online? We had some real Facebook haters (and I didn't disagree), but by enabling them to watch without logging in, that resistance was overcome (oh, and use Browser's Private mode to avoid cookies/tracking, but that would apply to YouTube or Facebook)

 

[balka]

Thanks for your help! This is so much more insightful and helpful than I've found elsewhere.
Workflow wise, I created a routine that was working for me, though I am not sure it is the smoothest or easiest. I open OBS, turn on our camera, log onto facebook and the pre-live-stream, make sure the stream key is good, push to start streaming, and then from there OBS runs my camera feed and audio into the Facebook Live for the service. After the service I download the video from Facebook to my computer and then edit it in iMovie. I had been tinkering with audio (we don't have a great system in our small church), and then adding a title page, and one with our logo to spruce it up a bit. I save the project as a file, and then that would process together. Afterwards I was able to take that processed file project and upload to YouTube. Is the quality great? No, but we haven't had complaints either.

It is interesting to see that you record in 1080p and stream at 720p. I honestly did not realize that was an option. It makes sense if Facebook can only handle a certain resolution at the moment (maybe 'Meta' will wow us )

As far as Apple maybe not understanding, I think you may be right. The rep seemed to not really be overly knowledgeable about Facebook Live and how that works. It would make much more sense to me that the coding of Facebook gets in the way. I know I've had issues with Facebook playing nicely with our website to post the livestream there too.

Makes sense for the CPU usage with simultaneous livestreams. I will have to double check our computer hardware. As far as consumptive or interactive, I would say 95% of our viewers have never commented and never will. We have a predominately 65+ congregation, and most of those watching online fall in that category. While some are social media savvy, most are not. I am not even sure how many have Facebook. I know we have a fair amount of individuals who just watch via YouTube, so trying to bring a livestream there as well is appealing to me. I will look into restream.io

Thanks again, I appreciate your help!

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

The point of OBS as a compositing tool, is adding Title Page, logo, etc during the stream itself, not doing so afterwards. But this does require someone running OBS during the service

My opening scene has the Title Page from our Service bulletin, plus a static photo. I leave this up for 20+ seconds AFTER stream Go(es) Live [I had to adjust at beginning of 2021 as FB took longer with Schedule stream to Go Live than it did before. This way, that title page becomes the Facebook thumbnail I desire
I'd definitely recommend adding the logo to OBS so you don't have to do that afterwards (as it is static)

Your process involves a HUGE drop in video quality compared to what you could have, and wasted bandwidth usage on the video download.
Recording at 1 resolution and streaming at another does require extra computational power. so your computer has to be up for it

As for posting video to your website... that can mean very different things. If you mean posting a link to your video, that should be relatively stable. But all CDN will update their systems occasionally that would entail new URLs [that should be expected, infrequently like once every couple of years]

With coaching, even the 65+ crowd can and will comment (at least ours do, even the social media non-savvy)
You are creating a lot of work to make available on YouTube. As I noted, non-FB users can watch the FB videos, even live. And I have 65+ folks who set up their Apple TV, Roku, tablet, etc to use a single URL and can watch FB live videos and see library of past videos.
If posting to YouTube is a requirement, then question is whether you want/need it live. Sounds like current experience is consumptive viewing at a convenient time after you upload (well after service). As such, recording locally, and editing/upload that would be quicker and much higher quality. Even if you record and stream at same resolution. If your computer has the power, then recording at higher resolution may be desired.
The issue with restream.io (or any similar service) is you are going to have the same video (ie the one without Title page, overlays, etc that you edit in afterwards.)

Personally I setup Advanced Scene Switcher and automated a large portion of our service (including a nice fade-to-black Go in Peace at the end of the service) with timed Scene changes, Auto start of recording based on time, countdown timer on screen, etc. Now, because we broadcast our Service bulletin (full liturgical service) side-by-side with video feed, someone has to page advance the Bulletin, so someone sitting at OBC PC during service. I realize that isn't always practical for some congregations.

As for audio, do you use microphones? then tapping into sound system is an option. The challenge is for a smaller parish where House of Worship leader does not use a mic, and trying to capture that for streaming. IN such a case, I'd recommend an inexpensive wireless lavalier mic connected to streaming PC (or house sound system) will make a HUGE difference