Streaming games in Europe using PAL format for camera

[TeoGuitarrist]

Hi guys, I have this question that NO ONE has been able to clarify to me, I am in Italy so as convention to avoid electrical flickering of lights, when I use my camera for recording/streaming with artificial lights I have to set to PAL with 25/50/100 FPS.
If I have to stream games that runs normally at 30/60, how can I set up everything the right way in OBS? If the game runs at 60 and I set the canvas output of OBS to 60 I should set also my camera to 60 in NTSC but I could run into the flickering problem, on the other hand if I set my camera as I should be (so 25/50) there will be some frame compensation and that's not optimal too.
To summarize, how's the best way to configure everything as a streamer in Europe that has to insert the camera source in OBS that is in PAL?

I hope that I've explained the question well and thanks in advance

Matteo

 

[Deleted member 121471]

Use undimmable LED lights, set cam to 30 or 60FPS.

 

[TeoGuitarrist]

Use undimmable LED lights, set cam to 30 or 60FPS.

As lights in my setup I have a Godox SL60W as main light and a Ninelite pavo tube as rgb filler for the background.
So as are you saying I have to try setting my camera in NTSC (30 or 60) and also canvas output in OBS as well, as far as I have no flickering or other kind of problems, it's done!

 

[Deleted member 121471]

Undimmable LED lights are independent of AC voltage amplitude, which means they output constant brightness.

The light you have is designed to be dimmable so it'll always flicker when mismatching the capture FPS with the AC frequency.

I'm european as well and had to deal with the same issue. There may be other solutions I'm unaware of but I ended up having to decide between duplicated frames or the LED lights I mentioned and I chose the latter.

 

[TeoGuitarrist]

Undimmable LED lights are independent of AC voltage amplitude, which means they output constant brightness.

The light you have is designed to be dimmable so it'll always flicker when mismatching the capture FPS with the AC frequency.

I'm european as well and had to deal with the same issue. There may be other solutions I'm unaware of but I ended up having to decide between duplicated frames or the LED lights I mentioned and I chose the latter.

Ok right, so if I want (and I need ahah) to continue using my Godox the best thing that I can do to stream at 60 fps from OBS is to stay in PAL with the camera and set it at 50 dealing with duplicated frames.. am I right? Otherwise going down to 30 with the standard 25 of the camera.
Game-> 30/60
OBS->30/60
Camera->25/50

 

[TeoGuitarrist]

Undimmable LED lights are independent of AC voltage amplitude, which means they output constant brightness.

The light you have is designed to be dimmable so it'll always flicker when mismatching the capture FPS with the AC frequency.

I'm european as well and had to deal with the same issue. There may be other solutions I'm unaware of but I ended up having to decide between duplicated frames or the LED lights I mentioned and I chose the latter.

I've found this topic on reddit, this guys seems to say that in general with LED light for web contents there is no big issue on shooting in NTSC in PAL countries, give it a read: https://www.reddit.com/r/videography/comments/epggyk/pal_vs_ntsc_in_eu_for_web_content/

 

[Deleted member 121471]

Exactly.

OBS set at whatever capture FPS you want, camera set to 25 or 50. The duplicated frames won't matter that much to most people watching.

As a streamer, I found out that the vast majority of people have more issues with sound quality and clarity, not so much the video, as long as it's half decent.

 

[TeoGuitarrist]

Exactly.

OBS set at whatever capture FPS you want, camera set to 25 or 50. The duplicated frames won't matter that much to most people watching.

As a streamer, I found out that the vast majority of people have more issues with sound quality and clarity, not so much the video, as long as it's half decent.

Yes of course, I'm totally ok with my audio! ahah
I think that as are you saying, it's more important to stay at game's FPS than camera ones.
In your experience, is it worth to stream at 60fps for 1080 in any case (no matter the game) or 30 is good enough? I'm asking that cause until now I've always streammed just a mobile game and myself in just chatting, I would like to understand for the future in order to be fine streaming other "real" games.

 

[Deleted member 121471]

Depends on the streaming platform you prefer and the titles captured.

For example, Twitch recommends a maximum of 6000kbps and does not guarantee reliable service past that. 1080p@60FPS requires roughly 12000kbps to have decent to good quality on mid to high motion games.

Personally, I prefer 720p@60FPS or 864p@60FPS for high motion games and 1080p@60FPS for low to mid motion titles. Sometimes, I reduce it to 30FPS if the game itself runs at that framerate.

 

[TeoGuitarrist]

Depends on your the streaming platform you prefer and the titles captured.

For example, Twitch recommends a maximum of 6000kbps and does not guarantee reliable service past that. 1080p@60FPS requires roughly 12000kbps to have decent to good quality on mid to high motion games.

Personally, I prefer 720p@60FPS or 864p@60FPS for high motion games and 1080p@60FPS for low to mid motion titles. Sometimes, I reduce it to 30FPS if the game itself runs at that framerate.

Do you mean 1080 at 30? Thanks anyway, now I have a clearer picture :)

Br