Question / Help Webcam Problems

[GestorterEngel]

Sorry if this has been explained before, but I found nothing on it. I know that you're able to click on the sources and edit your webcam using move left, move right, move to corner, etc etc. But is there any other way to move the webcam? My problem is needing to set my webcam to the right side of my screen, but not all the way to the right as it blocks some stuff in game.
I have a photo as example of where I want my webcam to be (between the two brackets on the right side (Like the smite symbol on the left) and yet I cannot figure out how to move it there, I know people that use OBS on twitch and have theirs moved there so I know it can be done. Any help would be lovely. Thank you.

 

[FerretBomb]

Re: Moving The Webcam

Click the 'edit scene' button below the preview window. Then you can click on it and drag it wherever you like, rescale it, etc. You can also crop it by holding ALT while resizing. Disable snap-to-edge by holding CTRL. (Or is it the other way around?)

 

[GestorterEngel]

Re: Moving The Webcam

Click the 'edit scene' button below the preview window. Then you can click on it and drag it wherever you like, rescale it, etc. You can also crop it by holding ALT while resizing. Disable snap-to-edge by holding CTRL. (Or is it the other way around?)

I feel dumb, thank you so much! I guess I never paid attention to the edit scene button.

Now my next problem is my webcam being extremely blurry. Before it was not, but I was running my webcam at 544x288 resolution under the sources settings for video capture. When I changed it to 1280x720 it got blurry and grainy, but it shouldn't be because I have a high quality webcam. I've tried decreasing and increasing my bitrate (which is currently at 3000), am I stuck running a low resolution under the sources to keep my webcam from being blurry?

 

[FerretBomb]

You should delete your webcam from all scenes, and add it as a Global Source, then re-add it to the scenes; that way it stays on at all times and will also allow the smooth fades OBS uses to actually work. Not related, but may have been another thing missed, and will improve your stream. :) Down side, you can't use different resolutions for different scenes.

I'd need to see examples, but the short version is that the scale-down in the preview window is significantly lower quality than running at a native (matching) resolution. Additionally, using a higher resolution rate, if your USB bus is already being used, can induce lag to the cam and visual artifacting if it gets 'bandwidth choked'. To fix potential choke problems, you need to open the windows Device Manager, switch it to 'view devices by connection' and locate your USB controllers, and webcam, then make sure nothing else is plugged into that same USB host controller. It will help a lot, in many cases.

Short version though, you're probably just seeing the results of the poor downscale that manually rescaling items in the preview window brings with it. Makes them more than a bit pixelly and aliased. Is it only looking bad in the main game scene, or if you leave it at native resolution (in a big-cam scene for talking to viewers) does it look bad there, too? Have you tried changing to an alternate Output Format in the camera's settings (MJPEG, I420, etc)? Would help to know which webcam you're actually using.

 

[GestorterEngel]

I'm using a Logitech HD Webcam C310. It's 720p. I don't know how to add my webcam as a global source, could you please explain that? I'm very new to OBS/streaming all together so I'm just now learning a few things.

http://www.twitch.tv/gestorterengel
You can tell by viewing my videos on Twitch, the Starbound/Marvel Heroes videos look fine, not blurry or grainy. Yet the one I did today (Smite tutorial) is grainy and blurryish.

It seems as if changing the resolution back to 720 and full screening it, then re sizing it while I'm streaming has stopped it from being so blurry and grainy (atleast for now)

 

[FerretBomb]

1) Remove your webcam from all scenes.
2) Click the 'Global Sources' button.
3) Add->Add Video Capture Device
4) In your scenes, you'll have a new option when right-clicking the sources stack; 'global sources'. You'll find your webcam in there.

Are you using the 'custom resolution' option in the properties, or are you just letting the cam decide? It may pick the wrong resolution if you just let it do its own thing. I'd also recommend specifying the framerate and Output Format as well, for best results.

 

[GestorterEngel]

I was using custom, but it said it was using 1920x1080 but downscaled to 1280x720. I will try using the global scene and see if that's better. I use Teamspeak3 when streaming to talk to my friends, all of a sudden it kinda sounds like they're echoing when I go play back my videos. Do you know how to fix that? It wasn't doing it the first few times I streamed things. And I haven't changed any of the audio options.

Example of the echo-ish sound: http://www.twitch.tv/gestorterengel/b/493781565

My first stream where sound was fine: http://www.twitch.tv/gestorterengel/b/492705078

PS: Sorry for the language, I'm a potty mouth. >_>

 

[FerretBomb]

Are you listening to them over your speakers? Don't appear to be wearing headphones; if so, it's probable that your mic is just picking up the sound coming from the speakers. I'd assume this is the case, as the game audio is also getting a light echo, though it's less obvious (probably because it's also quieter). OBS doesn't have any kind of echo-cancellation or noise reduction, it just uses whatever's coming over the mic, and assumes that you're providing clean audio.

Also, in your second video I was hearing the same kind of echo around 26:28 (jumped ahead to see if you were wearing headphones in that one), so doesn't appear to be a new problem at all.

There's a reason most casters wear headphones/earbuds/etc; specifically to eliminate this kind of echo.


It's also POSSIBLE that you've enabled the audio input on your webcam; open the properties and make sure the webcam audio device is set to Disabled (normally this would cause YOUR voice to be echoed too, though, and doesn't seem to be the case).

 

[GestorterEngel]

I don't normally wear headsets, but looks like I might start, and I didn't even notice that echo in the second video. I do have my audio disabled in my webcam. Thank you so much for the help!