👩🏿‍⚕️ 🖕🏿 🤹🏽 Streaming test in 4 social networks and choosing the best option 🤞🏼 🕞 😉

The spring of 2020 became, among other things, also a season of video streams. Many guests and presenters lost the opportunity to come to the studio and began to broadcast directly from home.

I was envious of the fact that everyone was streaming, but I wasn’t, but just like that was not interesting to stream. Therefore, I took the stories lying in the reserve on the history of technology and spent one stream on different social networks (Facebook, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Instagram). The streams were not test "in a couple of seconds", but full-blown - 30-60 minutes. We tested various technical and organizational aspects, including pumping video to your computer.

The result of this study was to be the answer to the question "on which platform to stream?"

Next will be an analysis of the data and conclusions. (Caution: many letters, numbers, and screenshots).

Used equipment

All these years I shot on "what is at hand", and if something was not there - I bought something good, but without fanaticism.

The equipment used in this study fit in this photo

0) The table at which the study was conducted.

1) A laptop with headphones to check for sound in the broadcast going to the browser. Well, for the subsequent installation for Youtube, downloading files, analysis and writing this report.

2) Voice recorder Tascam DR-05 with fluffy, tripod and battery. After the forgotten batteries leaked in the last recorder, I try to use the technology that can work from power banks. The fact that this model of the recorder is connected via MINI-USB even pleases me with its vintage and lamp warmth.

3) Printed channel logo. In theory, it was worth hanging on a photophone, but the A4 sheet was too small, and I do not have a larger printer. But since he didn’t get into streams, let him at least take part here.

4) Tripod for a large camera. Flimsy. Cheap. Already broken. But for shooting at home, it is quite suitable.

5) Chinese diode flashlight placed on the camera shoe. It has two filters (white and orange), brightness control (in one of the videos I did it right during the stream). It is powered by both AA batteries and powerbank via micro-USB.

6) The Lumix FZ82 camera itself.

7) Smartphone Redmi 5 Plus which streamed through wi-fi with its front camera and microphone. Powerbank secures it during the stream.

8) Computer mouse. (It goes separately from point 1 because in this photo she has a special job - it closes the attrition on the table)

The obvious question arises:
If the stream went through the front camera and microphone of the smartphone, then why are there Tascam and Lumix?

The answer is simple:
I spent a lot of time preparing for the stream - I studied the topic, read books, delved into the archives. FIG knows what to do with these experiments with streams, so - let me have a high-quality picture with high-quality sound.

As a result, for every stream in social networks I have a version on Youtube, in good quality and with mounted illustrations (showing books in the smartphone’s camera turned out to be a bad option).

The original video quality of the front camera of the smartphone Redmi 5 Plus

Any experiment begins with metrological training. Yes, I can’t calibrate and believe the smartphone, but I can measure the reference values that I will refer to during the experiment.

In the settings of the front camera, I have a video recording mode of 1920x1080, 30fps, but there is a nuance - in the dark, fps fall.

This point is important to note in order to compare the quality of streams with a simple video recording.

Daytime recording example in a bright room

An example of recording on a smartphone uploaded to Youtube - The first Stihl chainsaw in the museum.

Ffmpeg data about the source files.

For introduction (filmed on the street)

Duration: 00: 00: 49.94, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 20116 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (eng): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj420p (pc, smpte170m), 1920x1080, 19955 kb / s, SAR 1: 1 DAR 16: 9, 29.99 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default)

For the main file (filmed in a bright room)

Duration: 00: 11: 22.40, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 20098 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (eng): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj420p (pc, smpte170m), 1920x1080, 19998 kb / s, SAR 1: 1 DAR 16: 9, 27.11 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default)

That is, fps drops even just when moving from the street to a fairly bright room

An example of recording under the same conditions as streams

An example of a recording on a smartphone uploaded to Youtube - What Jules Vern predicted - space flights

ffmpeg data for the source file

Duration: 00:23:08.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 20097 kb/s
Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuvj420p(pc, smpte170m), 1920x1080, 19996 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 19.97 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default)

(in general, there are two files there - the smartphone beats long records)

Thus, it was established that recording on the front camera of the smartphone, in the same conditions in which the streams took place, allows you to get video quality of 1920x1080, 20 fps, bitrate: 20097 kb / s.

There was a hypothesis that the difference in frame rate is due to a change in software - almost a year between files. But before writing this text, I wrote a few more files on the street and indoors, and they showed exactly the same difference in the frame rate on the street and at the place where the stream was recorded.

A logical question arises: if the front camera is so bad, then why not use the main one?

There are two reasons for this.

1) I want to see what gets into the frame. At home, this is not so important, but when streaming / filming in a museum, it is necessary.

2) I want to see that the recording process is in progress. See the fact of recording. In this case, there is a difference between recording on the main camera of a smartphone and recording on a large camera. Yes, I don’t see whether the recording is on a large camera or not, but if Lumix disconnects due to a low battery, it will do two things: with a buzz, it will remove the lens and burst out. From these sounds, I understand that the recording has stopped.

By the way, just such a moment happened during the recording of the stream on Odnoklassniki. In the version recorded by the big camera and laid out on Youtube, you can see how I turn off the broadcast on my smartphone and this accidentally coincides with the Lumix self-shutdown. The picture turns off and a beep sounds (the sound was written to the recorder). I specifically left this moment in the final editing, to use as an example. By the way, this example shows not only the plus of using a specialized camera, but also the benefits of redundant systems.

That is why the stream was recorded on the front camera - in order to know that the smartphone did not turn off quietly.

Thus, the rounded maximum quality that I could count on is 1920x1080, 20 fps, bitrate: 20,000 kb / s.

But what happened in reality?

Stream on Youtube

Since the puzomerki of my channel are not high enough, I can’t stream from a smartphone.

All I could do was answer the question about downloading a video file from the service.

The frame rate of the downloaded file, as expected, coincided with the frame rate of the downloaded file. (Both of them did not coincide with the frame rate in the source files, for they went through the video editor.)

But the other characteristics were different.

Yes, studio.youtube.com allows you to download your video directly from the channel owner’s interface, but instead of 1920x1080, I got 1280x720. And although I turned on the playback mode of 1920x1080 in the browser and downloaded the file of the corresponding resolution, it turned out that he lost 1.5 times - it was 1.48 GB, and it became 999 MB and the sound went as a separate file.

Nevertheless, IN THE EVENT OF FILLED-IN FILES, Youtube provides regular means for downloading its videos with a resolution of 1280x720 and there is a contingency opportunity to download 1920x1080 (not the original ones, but the ones encoded).

Alas, these conclusions may not apply to YouTube streams, so they were not taken into account in the final conclusions.

Facebook Stream

Facebook was unpleasantly surprised by the quality of the stream - 360p (640x360). However, a few days after the stream, the video resolution became 1280x720.

Facebook Stream Screenshot

Stream recording on Facebook
Parallel recording from another camera on Youtube - Jules Verne and atomic bomb prediction

As you can easily see, Facebook mirrors the video. The default application “Camera” is configured without mirroring (this can be seen in the first examples), but this is not a decree for the Facebook application.

Interestingly, on the Internet they write that earlier it was possible to turn off mirroring during streams through the Facebook application, but several years ago this possibility disappeared.

Fortunately, this is not the biggest problem - you can download the file and manually mirror it.

Of course, if you can download. It turned out that there is a link in the Facebook interface for downloading your video, but it does not work. But, after the stream ended on the smartphone, a proposal appeared to save the file. The size of this file is almost the same as the one I downloaded from the browser (video and sound are in separate files).

Both the version downloaded from the browser and the version saved on the smartphone have a resolution of 1280x720 and a frame rate of 10.4 fps (how 10fps look is clearly visible in the screenshot - the blurry spot is my hand). But the bitrate looks bad - 791 kb / s.

Ffmpeg data
For browser (no sound)

Duration: 00: 50: 34.50, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 713 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (eng): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p (tv, smpte170m / bt470bg / smpte170m), 1280x720, 0 kb / s, 10.40 fps, 10.40 tbr, 16648 tbn, 20.81 tbc (default)

For smartphone

Duration: 00: 50: 34.53, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 791 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (eng): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p (tv, smpte170m / bt470bg / smpte170m), 1280x720, 722 kb / s, SAR 1: 1 DAR 16: 9, 10.40 fps, 10 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default)

I took this opportunity to verify that Facebook will give me the “download your information” and received a file with a resolution of 640x360

ffmpeg data

Duration: 00: 50: 34.53, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 383 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (und): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360, 316 kb / s, 10.40 fps , 10 tbr, 16k tbn, 2k tbc (default)

And this is when choosing "High quality" for exporting media files!

Stream on Vkontakte

Yes, Vkontakte also mirrors the stream from the front camera and I did not find how to change it.

No, this is a different t-shirt.

Stream screenshot in Vkontakte

Stream recording to Vkontakte
Parallel recording from another camera on Youtube - Overview of the book Norwegian Forest (Lars Mitting)

There is no regular function to download a file with your stream, and behind the "Export" button there is a window with an iframe code for inserting video onto websites.

Non-standard ones allow you to deflate seen with a resolution of 1280x720

In general, pieces go to the browser to which ffmpeg reacts like this

Duration: 00: 00: 08.82, start: 107.324000, bitrate: 5004 kb / s
Program 1
Stream # 0: 0 [0x100]: Audio: aac (LC) ([15] [0] [0] [0] / 0x000F ), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 158 kb / s
Stream # 0: 1 [0x101]: Video: h264 (Baseline) ([27] [0] [0] [0] / 0x001B), yuv420p (tv, smpte170m / bt470bg / smpte170m), 1280x720, 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc

But you can use a browser plugin and get the file that ffmpeg sees so

Duration: 00: 55: 26.54, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 4686 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (und): Video: h264 (Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p (tv, smpte170m / bt470bg / smpte170m), 1280x720, 4525 kb / s, 10.38 fps, 12.50 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default)

The size of this file is approximately equal to the sum of the file sizes of the slices, which means the file data is true.

Total:

Vkontakte does not offer regular means of downloading video and does not save it to a smartphone
by extraordinary means I managed to download my stream as 1280x720, 10.38fps, bitrate: 5004 kb / s (very good bitrate)

And although VKontakte also has a function to collect its data, media files are not included there.

Stream on Odnoklassniki

Of course, I am on Odnoklassniki. I’m a researcher studying the history of domestic technology, and at Odnoklassniki there are people involved in the design and production of this equipment.

It is expected that they got the topic about the history of the creation of the Friendship chainsaw.

Odnoklassniki stream screenshot

Stream recording in Ondklassniki
Parallel recording from another camera on Youtube - Chainsaw Friendship and its inventors

Odnoklassniki pleasantly surprised by two things:

, ( )

Alas, these pluses overlapped very easily.

1) The stream begins with the main camera of the smartphone. This not only broadcasts extra information on the air (yes, I had a mess there), but also does not allow me to put the smartphone in the right position before the start of the stream.

2) In the stream settings, there is an indication of the geographical location, even if there is an application the rights to access the location definition are not granted. I do not exclude that this is necessary for binding to a card, but I am not a fan of non-disconnectable “amenities”

3) A strange blinking video. Moreover, not only in the broadcast on the site, but directly on the smartphone screen broadcasting. (I mention this at the beginning of the stream)

4) The minimum delay in the broadcast was killed not only by blinking the picture, but also by the loss of sound (the last seconds of the stream without sound at all).

And I still haven’t gotten to downloading the file and fps.

I did not find the standard means of downloading or saving the file on the smartphone.

An abnormal file was received by a strange file. This is how ffmpeg sees it

Duration: 00: 33: 35.99, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3028 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720, 3 kb / s, 24.81 fps , 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 2000k tbc (default)

Yes, there are the expected 1280x720 instead of 1920x1080, but a frame rate of almost 25fps is unexpectedly detected. And I do not believe that this is an honest frame rate taken from the camera.

My main version is that the application for streaming to Odnoklassniki on the fly changes the frame rate of the video and that’s why they have a minimum delay (the stream does not recode on the server) and the images blink (such tricks with transcoding, without quality consequences do not crank).

At the same time, they still generated some strange file that normally plays in the browser, but the Windows video player on it goes crazy.

In short, they are too clever.

Instagram Stream

This is not to say that I did not expect surprises from Instagram at all. This is a rather specific social network known for its kooky. I was ready for different things, but she still managed to surprise me.

Instagram stream screenshot

Stream recording on Instagram (additional test stream)
Parallel recording from another camera on Youtube - BMW STIHL BOSCH and their corporate myths

And the thing is not that the picture was turned in addition to mirroring, this is not the most problematic one.

The main problem is that the stream spent on Instagram is not preserved.

After the broadcast was completed, I was offered a choice of further actions. When I tried to take a screenshot of the screen, the classic “I clicked somewhere and everything was gone” happened. And since all user streams occur at the same address www.instagram.com/motopila.ru/live , I was immediately kicked out of the stream that ended. That is, I could not save him even through the browser. (Interestingly, I’ve recently met other people’s posts about the loss of a streaming on Instagram.)

Fortunately, I had a second camera that shot videos for uploading on Youtube and the story itself was preserved, but I also wanted to get technical data for analysis.

To do this, several more test streams were conducted with the following result:

1) The function of saving a file to a smartphone does not work. She first gives an error, then writes that everything is fine, but there is no file in the created folder.

2) You can use the publish function on IGTV, but you cannot upload files shorter than 1 minute and longer than 60 minutes.

As a result, I still made a test stream, saved it on Instagram and uploaded the file in an abnormal way.

Here are the data from ffmpeg

Duration: 00: 01: 41.56, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 520 kb / s
Stream # 0: 0 (und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 432x812, 471 kb / s, 29.85 fps , 30 tbr, 16k tbn, 60 tbc (default)

The picture is not only rotated, not only scaled - it also has other proportions.

At the same time, there are no questions about the frame rate. It could very well be real, simply because he brought his illuminated face too close to the camera.

Perhaps someday I will conduct these tests again and work on recording the stream on Instagram, but the risks associated with deleting the record are too high and the fps measurements on the uploaded file will not affect the conclusions.

findings

In general, it is clear that you need to arrange streams on the platform where your audience is located.

You will not be able to fix the technical problems and shortcomings of the social networks in which the stream will take place. However, you can prepare for them in advance and consider this not as a problem, but as a feature.

Permissions in 1920x1080 no one gives. The image from the front camera is mirrored by all tested social networks, except Odnoklassniki.

Classmates stream almost without delay, but the picture quality is terrible, and the sound disappears. At the same time, Odnoklassniki is not the worst bitrate.

Vkontakte has the best bitrate, but you can download a file from it only in abnormal ways and with additional difficulties (a lot of small files that need to be glued together).

Facebook allows you to immediately save the video to your smartphone immediately after the stream or download it in an abnormal but simple way. However, it has a disgusting bitrate compounded by a low frame rate.

Instagram streams with an excellent frame rate (albeit on an incorrect example), but not only mirrors the picture. He turns it, streams with poor resolution and strange proportions. Well, the chance to lose the stream record is too great.

It turns out that in all social networks there are problems with the quality of the stream and specific "pitfalls".

Therefore, if you need to keep your performance, it’s better to put in addition a good camera and voice recorder - this solution will give the best result.

Well, I myself will continue to simply write my stories on a large camera and upload on Youtube 1920x1080, 25fps video.

Streaming test in 4 social networks and choosing the best option