Much poorer quality while using the Wireless Live Streaming plugin?

THETA Media
,
#1

Howdy!

I’m trying to use my Theta V to livestream some of my son’s hockey games. Tried it for the first time last night, and while it worked, the quality was not nearly as good as recording locally. I was streaming with 4k at 20mbit to Facebook… I validated on the router and FB stats that it was indeed getting a full 20mbit.

I’ve uploaded example files here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bSGQt8ahGVTFFGAB0hEN-QyswGIJXWMy/view?usp=sharing

Files:

  • locally-processed-still-photo.JPG - a still photo as processed by the camera. Looks quite decent.
  • locally-recorded-raw.MP4 - a video saved directly to the camera, in the dual-fisheye view.
  • locally-recorded-stitched-with-ricoh-windows-app.MP4 - the video above, as processed by the ‘RICOH THETA’ app on Windows. It looks fairly decent. Quite short, as I actually recorded it by accident… but am glad I did!
  • streamed-to-facebook-clip.mp4 - A clip from the livestream on Facebook; I downloaded the raw stream file after it was finished, extracted a 60s clip (using ffmpeg to copy the video and audio as-is), and then re-added the 360 metadata to the mp4. I initially thought it was just out of focus - but looking at the video, the quality appears degraded everywhere.

Any ideas where I went wrong with this? Any chance the in-camera stitching just can’t handle this quality?

As a side note, is there an option to do a live stream using only the front lens? I haven’t been able to find anything yet.

Appreciate any thoughts!

#2

Is the V connected to the Wi-Fi router with 5GHz? It may help a little.

If the Wi-Fi router is a mobile phone hotspot, put the hotspot right next to the camera. Being within 12 inches might make a difference. The signal will degrade if there is any metal between the camera and Wi-Fi router. The signal will degrade if there is Wi-Fi channel interference. It may get worse if it is 5 feet out.

Can you test streaming with a Windows or Mac laptop and a USB cable and stream directly from the laptop to FB or YouTube for comparison?

https://youtu.be/dp5BLbtKVwk

https://youtu.be/Vxq-TJE_UR4

You may want to consider Ethernet streaming to a router.

http://theta360developers.github.io/community-document/live-streaming.html#_ethernet_rtsp_streaming_direct_to_computer

Is the router your mobile phone in hotspot mode?

Also, I do not know of a way to stream from one lens only, but it is technically possible with a plug-in. No one has developed this plug-in yet that I know of.

1 Like
#3

Fortunately, this arena has a good internet connection… it was hooked up to a portable router I brought with, which was plugged into an ethernet connection and broadcasting an SSID at 5ghz only. It was about 40 feet from the Theta, with direct line of sight. I was watching the network for any dropouts/etc, and not seeing anything - so I don’t think the issue was inadequate bandwidth, but I can test to make sure.

This was my first attempt, and I only had a short period of time before the game started, so didn’t try much. I will have to come during a practice and test out other options. I’m also planning on testing with the RTSP plugin, so I can just directly connect my laptop and view the stream there to make sure things look good.

I am planning on testing out ethernet streaming - but it seems like the adapter I purchased (https://www.cablematters.com/pc-489-138-usb-20-to-fast-ethernet-adapter.aspx Realtek R8152 based adapter) may not be compatible… it gets a link to the switch when plugged into the Theta, but the Theta never requests an IP address. I’m waiting for my developer application to be approved so I can turn on developer mode and use logcat to see what’s actually happening before purchasing a new adapter.

So at least it sounds like poor quality when using the Wireless Live Streaming plugin isn’t a thing that others are seeing frequently? If so - that’s good to hear; I will have to keep working on my settings to hopefully get reasonable quality out of it!

For single lens streaming – I did see the ‘Single Lens Shooting’ plugin, which can do this for still images - if I have time I might take a look at the source code for both plugins and see if I can combine that functionality into the live streaming plugin.

#4

If you have time, can you fill out this survey for plug-in development? We’re trying to help RICOH improve the free services they provide to developers.

Thank you.

#5

Done! I still haven’t received the acceptance to the program yet, I’m hoping that will come soon! :slight_smile:

1 Like