Hokay - this post is going to get a bit technical. You've been warned.
This week I've managed to complete the last half of my equipment upgrades that will allow us to start broadcasting in a 16:9 aspect ratio for content that appears on the main channel. I wanted to take a moment to write a bit about what this does and doesn't mean.
'HD' is being tossed around a lot in the world of gaming coverage, mostly by folks that clearly have no idea what they're getting into. I must inform you that any party 'excited to soon be streaming live in HD!' are, quite frankly, full of shit. Widescreen, 16:9, and HD have been often mistaken as being the same thing. Just because you're streaming in some widscreen format does not mean you're delivering HD.
The commonly accepted minimum specification for HD is 720i or 720p. The '720' refers to the number of horizontal lines that make up the picture. In square pixel terms, this is a resolution of 1280x720. If you're not delivering that resolution on your feed at some generally passible quality, then you can't say that you're streaming HD.
At this point, we are technically capable of delivering live HD from our end. Unfortunately, the internet in general is not up to the challenge of helping us deliver that just yet. A watchable feed at 720p (1280x720) requires at minimum around 4mbps for high-action FPS titles, and even if we could push that over UStream, only a slim fraction of you guys that comprise our audience would be able to view it - most residential internet connections in the states currently can't stand up to that kind of punishment for an hour straight.
What we will be delivering is a half-720p live stream (so...I guess 360p...if you wanna get weird). Our tests show that, at that resolution, we can squeeze a pretty watchable feed down to about 1mbit, which is right around where we've been for some time now, but we'll now in a widescreen instead of a standard 3:4 aspect ratio. I'm considering then recording locally in 720p and then offering downloadable archives in a true HD format.
Go forth and be informed! It is our hope that this will augment the TGBF experience for our viewers and we're excited about the future as our capabilities continue to expand. Cheers-
posted by
keekerdc
