PixlBit

Hey guys, thanks for coming out. We're all done now.

Sorry that the game wasn't a bit more interesting, we're pretty disappointed in it as well. Maybe next time we get something in this early, we'll have something more interesting to show.

We had a pretty good turn out. We appreciate everyone stopping by. We're going to be looking to do more live-stream playbits of advance review copies in the future.

My personal hope is to have an hour-long or so regular event each week, like my podcast, available for people to watch at any time. During other time periods or special events, I'll probably do a few hours of live broadcasts as well. Naturally, as the device worked so well, it will be used in many of the big future playbits. No more watching a webcam feed of a TV screen! Hooray!

That was a direct feed?

It was a direct feed from the Xbox 360, with the audio replaced by an in-room mic. Before, we've used a webcam to capture what was on screen. I'm going to check out and see how it did in a moment. Have any thoughts on the performance? Would we have been better off recording it and uploading it for a smoother video?

I'm looking at it now, I'm pretty happy with what I see. Anyone else have some feedback? For recordings, I'll be mixing direct audio from the game with a vocal recording, but for live broadcasts, we'll probably have to operate like we did here.

There might be a way for us to upload two separate audio channels, but that's stuff we'll have to look into before I can say it can be done. I know audio was the roughest part of the PlayBit.

Oh good. I'm glad you went with the direct feed method.

In regards to the smoothness of transmission, I'm not really sure if it's based on what is processing the video, or if it's a limitation in bandwidth.

What kind of in-room mic did you use, a link possibly?

From what I can tell you, I have one of these http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/, if your mic has an omnidirectional option that's a good start for a room environment. If the gain is in automatic then turn it manual, so that way you can readjust the gain for a better listening experience.

This is the mic I have. I use it for PB & Jason, and now it'll be used for this.

As far as the one-hour shows that will be in the future, the format and sound will work close to this, our prior PlayBit. We'll record direct feed game video and sound, and capture my own audio with my mic, then merge them together.

Aww, wish I'd seen this earlier. Although that would have made it a lot more difficult to finish my essay by midnight.