With PS4 Pro being right around the corner, it was about time for Gamersyde to finally support 4K on our stream. It's now done, with also 1440p now handled natively since it's currently a popular resolution for PC gamers. More information inside, and while we are at it, we will also give you some info about our Patreon, what it has allowed us to do in the past months, and also what it will help us do next.
First things first, let's begin with some more information about the stream. Needless to say we take its quality quite seriously! At 60 fps a 4k video will get a 17 mbits/s bitrate, and at 30 fps it will get 12 small mbits/s. On the 1440p front, this will be 13 and 9 mbits/s respectively. These bitrates were more or less chosen on a hunch, and will more than likely change slightly according to your experience. Needless to say these bitrates and resolutions will require some powerful computers, or a "smart" TV that supports these. I've personally tested this on my 4K LG TV (WebOS 2) and it worked very well. We also plan on supporting H.265 as soon as there is native support in all major browsers.
Going up to 4K required of course quite a lot of changes on the technical side, but also forced us to move to higher bandwidth and storage for our servers, and it's thanks to your generosity with our Patreon that we are able to afford all of it. So many thanks to all those who help us, any contribution, large or small, is very much appreciated!
The Patreon also allowed us to go with a full team to Gamescom, allowing us to rent a larger car than my own, where no one can sit behind me because of my long legs. Even though the show itself wasn't nearly as interesting as anticipated, it at least allowed us to see many games behind closed doors and even record a few we wouldn't have been able to normally.
The Patreon also allowed us to replace the PSU of Driftwood's capture PC, and then consequently his SSD and hard drive when they caught fire. Then we finally realized our issue was the motherboard all along, and replaced it (along with the case since the old one was too small...). All this to finally get a stream that we deem worthy of the Gamersyde seal of quality. Hopefully you guys noticed how much better it looks now!
Let's talk about the future now. In the short term, we will need to buy Driftwood a 4k screen, 4k splitter, and more importantly, a 4k 60 fps capture card. We will wait for the last moment before the release of PS4 Pro, hoping that someone will release a card at an acceptable price, because right now we are talking about $1,900 for such a card. Such an expense is simply not possible right now, even with your help via the Patreon. But we'll find a way!
The other important part of the site's future is of course to finally have a new responsive design capable of working with all types of devices, from smart phones to PC and TVs. We've been testing for months (or even years) ways to work around our current design to make it compatible with all our responsive requirements, but we have to be realistic now and admit defeat. Nothing short of a complete rewrite of all our HTML/CSS/JS code will do the trick. So a brand new version (v3) of the site is now our new project.
We've got two solutions for this new version. Either we do it ourselves, like we always did before, but it could take a very long time as we are all very busy with our personal lives and day to day matters of the site. The other option is to get some external help, and of course to pay for it. The decision is still being debated internally, but we really need to finally all agree on it in the next few weeks. Needless to say we also count on your suggestions so we can create the best possible site for all you guys.
All comments (13)
Everything is fine so mainly focus on the 4K capturing thing :) I'm following the site since 2006 or so (xboxyde era) and I feel so bad because I can't give you money guys :/
Blackmagic Design DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G Capture & Playback Card
$1420 without tax though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9S...
Blackmagic Design DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G Capture & Playback Card
$1420 without tax though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9S...
And I'm not too excited at the prospect of being "given" a 4k TV to be honest, especially if this means having Gamersyde investissement some money. My TV is still more than good enough with its 1080p resolution.
If there is any way I can capture 4k footage using the monitoring of the capture software only, I will do that instead of letting Gamersyde spend money on a 4k TV.
Uh, what?...
Thanks and great job guys!
Most of your full download MP4 HD videos have a mere 30-40 Mbps at maximum.
There is an increasing number of users out there which do have 50 Mbps internet connections and beyond.
So they could actually stream the full download MP4 HD videos.
Also, if you would allow to stream the videos instead of having to download them, this could actually save you some bandwith, because it might be possible that a user does not watch the full video. Having to download the videos means always having to download the entire file. If you would allow streaming of those files, that would not be the case and you might actually save some bandwith.
Of course the streaming versions of the videos (i.e. with the lower bitrates) should still be available from the HTML5 streaming player for users that have slower internet connections.
Also:
Please make HTML5 the default and remove the Flash option from the player. Nobody needs Flash to watch videos these days. Please remove the Flash option.
Also:
It might make sense to rename the streaming options inside the player, so that a user knows the required bandwith.
So, for example, you could change:
"1440p 30fps" to "1440p30 9Mbps"
"1440p 60fps" to "1440p60 13Mbps"
"2160p 30fps" to "2160p30 12Mbps"
"2160p 60fps" to "2160p60 17Mbps"
and so on...
And in case you would add the full download MP4 HD videos to the streaming player, you could call them:
"2160p60 35Mbps"
and so on...
This would be helpful in knowing what internet connection is required for all the streams.
PS:
Would also make sense to change the streaming quality selection from horizontal to vertical, like on YouTube.
Let me know if interested, also no problem if not :)
Someone can help me?