NewTek Tricaster TCXD850, User Manual, Page: 245 / 336

Page | 229
You can always convert these files to a streaming file format if you later decide you’d like to
supply them for ‘on demand’ Internet viewing. This lets you retain best quality right through to
final output. When you eventually encode for streaming, you can choose settings that best suit
the intended audience and streaming environment.
At the very least, if (perhaps to save conversion time) you capture video for web distribution, it’s
best to capture it at least at the size that you intend for final output, to ensure satisfactory video
quality for your viewers. When video is compressed (as it invariably is for web viewing) you can
lose important detail; compressing a full-screen video down to a quarter or a sixteenth of its size
is a lesson in humility!
OTHER FACTORS
Other variables to keep in mind when you’re creating video for the web are contrast and motion.
During video encoding for web distribution, a fair amount of video information and detail can be
lost. For this reason, good lighting of your source video is essential.
Also, web streaming doesn’t handle detail, transitions and motion all that well -- so your best
shots should be close up, and without a lot of movement.
Too, audio from cameras and camcorders is rarely as good as that from external microphones.
You should at least use a clip-on lavaliere microphone, if not a directional or shotgun microphone
to be sure you record only the audio you really want.
Finally, for high quality streaming, consider using a 720p session, even when your cameras may
be SD and interlaced (there is no particular benefit to working in SD when your goal is a smaller
streaming output.
15.4 CONFIGURATION AND TR OUBLESHOOTING
As technologies go, video streaming is still in its adolescent phase, at best. There are a lot of
different standards and diverse environments to consider. TriCaster gives you the necessary
tools, but there are still some teething problems you may encounter. This section will point you
in the right direction to overcome them.