If you find one I'll test it out! I haven't found anything near the value of VHSC. A tiny watermark in the corner is a small price to pay.

That being said, I'm going to be testing out a not-free software soon for comparison.

Scotchy

France24 Posts

May 24 2010 19:45 GMT

#82

Why not just use http://www.ustream.tv/producer ?

This seems like livestream's procaster to me, only better... ?

mrproper

Romania93 Posts

May 24 2010 20:41 GMT

#83

On May 25 2010 04:45 Scotchy wrote:
Why not just use http://www.ustream.tv/producer ?

This seems like livestream's procaster to me, only better... ?

How do you use it without a "screen capture camera"? It loads the VHscr by default.

Scotchy

France24 Posts

May 24 2010 20:55 GMT

#84

There's already a screen capture in that program. I tested it, it works, without VHscr or anything.

ghen

United States1081 Posts

May 24 2010 21:34 GMT

#85

On May 25 2010 04:45 Scotchy wrote:
Why not just use http://www.ustream.tv/producer ?

This seems like livestream's procaster to me, only better... ?

The main problem with this is the fact that I can't select Stereo Mix as my audio source. This way you can't get game sound and a microphone at the same time. If they fixed that one piece the Producer software would be so much better!

TotalBiscuit

United Kingdom5415 Posts

May 24 2010 22:00 GMT

#86

I tried producer, it didn't work well at all, ended up crashing about 10 minutes in, so I didn't bother with it. FME and VHScrCap allow for greater flexibility and higher quality anyway.

Scotchy

France24 Posts

May 24 2010 23:38 GMT

#87

Interesting, I didn't have any of the problems you mention, i.e. my sound is streamed correctly with the proper settings on windows & the software never ever crashes.

The problem with VHScrCap is that there's a watermark.
And the problem with FME is that it's way to much CPU intensive.
And the other thing is that you must have your browser started with the ustream broadcast. And Flash is sooo much CPU intensive.

I've an i7 920 and CPU's load is 100% when streaming just MY DESKTOP !
Not that it lags when I load up a game, but streamed FPS usually drops below 15, which is quite annoying since I've a 20Mbps upload bandwidth.

But oh well... I still stream on Livestream just because I need the "Game" only stream, and my stream isn't watched by over 9000 anyways :D.

TotalBiscuit

United Kingdom5415 Posts

May 24 2010 23:40 GMT

#88

The watermark is barely noticeable, particularly since it goes into an area of the screen that is rarely looked at. I don't have CPU issues with FME.

That said, I'll be switching out of VHScrCap for a hardware capture card soon enough.

mrproper

Romania93 Posts

May 25 2010 04:41 GMT

#89

Someone wrote a conclusive guide here: http://gamedrone.net/2010/05/17/streaming-game-footage-on-ustream/

There's a mention of Virtual Audio Cable (http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html) to help with the stereo mix issue, but the article does mention you might need a quad core CPU to get anything good with FMLE. I find it sad that for the same bitrate and resolution, Ustream gives me 5fps max, massive CPU usage, while Livestream can do 15fps without stressing the game too much.

Are there any decently priced capture cards that can use HD resolutions?

Excalibur_Z

United States11880 Posts

May 25 2010 06:22 GMT

#90

On May 18 2010 07:28 Zetsubou wrote:
If my desktop and ingame resolution is 1680x1050. What should I choose as input resolution then in FMLE? It doesn´t seem to have any of the resolutions I have and I don´t really want to set my resolution to low. 1280x1024 is close to the FMLE choice but then the FMLE would be higher res since it was 1280x1080. My max is 1050 so can´t get the 1080. At the moment it adapts to my mouse pointer so it scrolls after my screen, but that would be wierd ingame I guess.

I set it to 1920x1080, then set Crop from Bottom to 30 and Crop from Right to 240.

scbwnewb1

95 Posts

May 25 2010 14:55 GMT

#91

in order to enable "what u hear" on win7 , you'll need to disable all other devices in the "recording section" and then it should work. This however is pointless because you probably want to hear "line-in" as well. this is soemthing to do with windows 7 audio layer (vista too) and has nothing to do with the creative drivers. This is a limitation. if anyone finds a fix, i'd be interested to hear bout it, but its a pretty wide known problem. the alternatives would be to buy an external mixer, or split the lines and use in-line volume controls.

Tak3r

United Kingdom599 Posts

May 26 2010 20:56 GMT

#92

Hey...

"If you can’t even find your microphone in playback settings (like me) then you might as well disable Stereo Mix and head on to my alternative solution below, because it’s not going to work."

That's exactly the case for me. I got a mySN XMG6 notebook with Realtek® High definition Audio. Does anybody have a solution to this except for the method where you have to pay?

thanks!

TotalBiscuit

United Kingdom5415 Posts

May 26 2010 23:22 GMT

#93

On May 25 2010 13:41 mrproper wrote:
Someone wrote a conclusive guide here: http://gamedrone.net/2010/05/17/streaming-game-footage-on-ustream/

There's a mention of Virtual Audio Cable (http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html) to help with the stereo mix issue, but the article does mention you might need a quad core CPU to get anything good with FMLE. I find it sad that for the same bitrate and resolution, Ustream gives me 5fps max, massive CPU usage, while Livestream can do 15fps without stressing the game too much.

Are there any decently priced capture cards that can use HD resolutions?

Define decently priced. There's a Hauppage that does 1080i and the Blackmagic Intensity and Shuttle. They'll all run you about 200 dollars.

That guide is pretty much the same thing that's been posted here, nothing new. I don't think the 10 second keyframe is a good idea either, needs to be lower than that.

mrproper

Romania93 Posts

May 27 2010 06:11 GMT

#94

On May 27 2010 08:22 TotalBiscuit wrote:
I don't think the 10 second keyframe is a good idea either, needs to be lower than that.

Me too, for SC2, a 1-3 seconds keyframe should be used. A keyframe is a full-quality no-delta frame. That means if you scroll the screen (like you do every few seconds in SC2), for all the time between two keyframes, only differential data will be sent (what pixels changed). Since this is not a normal TV News scene where only the head moves, all the screen will look blurry and miscolored until the next keyframe arrives, or sufficient normal frames have been rendered.

TotalBiscuit

United Kingdom5415 Posts

May 27 2010 17:41 GMT

#95

A new tip, common sense really but I only just tried it.

A lot of artifacting can be eliminated by picking an output resolution that is easily divisible by your input. I changed my output (now that I've got a better net connection) to 960x540, which is exactly half of the input resolution (1920x1080). That eliminated a significant amount of artifacting and blur.

ghen

United States1081 Posts

May 28 2010 00:03 GMT

#96

Added image overlay section <3

Setting up your Image Overlay to block the replay timer or plug your sponsor

We will be using a program called InFanView for this. Once downloaded, open the program and open your favorite image file.

Follow these simple steps to get rid of any distractions, make the window resizeable, and always on top.

1) Options menu, select "Always on top" (last option) simple enough.
2) View menu, Display Options, Choose "Fit image to window" and make sure the bottom 3 are checked for quality (they are by default)
3) View menu, Show/Hide the first 4 options for Status bar, Toolbar, Menu bar, and Caption.
Alternatively, hold Alt+Shift+S,T,M,C respectively.

Done! Now you have an image that will stay on top of your starcraft display (assuming you're in Windowed or Windowed (Fullscreen) modes) and not look ugly. Have fun

Mattc0m

United States9 Posts

May 28 2010 00:53 GMT

#97

I'm unable to make a new topic, however I've got a cool tidbit of information if you'd like to move the Ustream Watermark to a different corner.

First of all, I'm Mattc0m from GamesCast.TV. We're an eSports unity project that's all about promoting and assisting live broadcasters. Yay!

So! I've got a bit of assistance from Ustream. The biggest complaint we've heard about Ustream is the location of the watermark in the top right corner.

I just got off the phone earlier today with Brad, the CEO of Ustream. He really wants Ustream to be the definitive platform for live eSports coverage. He loves the StarCraft 2 scene and really wants to help out.

What does this mean?

Ustream is willing to move the location of the watermark.

All I need from you is:
* Ustream channel name
* Location of watermark (which corner do you want it in?)

Send me an e-mail at mattc0m@gmail.com and I will send off the information ASAP.

It would also be great to hear of any other comments, complaints, or suggestions for Ustream. They want to hear what you think and I'd love to get a feel for what's missing from your perspective. I'm not affilated in any way with Ustream, but in the past they've worked with us and have genuine interest in eSports.

Thanks for your time!

Matt "Mattc0m" Richards
gamescast.tv founder & quakelive.tv founder

ghen

United States1081 Posts

May 28 2010 01:20 GMT

#98

Awesome Matt :D Love seeing people behind the advancement of eSports!

Try posting that in a Blog post too, Hopefully the restriction on newbie posters is lifted in the blog area. and people actually read them unlike offsite blogs

TotalBiscuit

United Kingdom5415 Posts

May 28 2010 12:02 GMT

#99

Ghen and Matt, 2 fantastic posts. That's really going to help matters hugely.

Calpico

3 Posts

May 30 2010 03:07 GMT

#100

Here's the settings that I run:
[image loading]

Main Profile
Level 4.0
1 sec. Keyframes
Using 1920x1200 resolution and the black bars removed using crop. I've checked the aspect ratio and there's no distortion.

When you start the stream you have to go back to the VHScrCap and put the fps back to 60. This makes the video much more smoother if you start to drop frames.

Also, if you check 'Register in ROT' in the settings you can use GraphEdit to mess with the connections. You can use it to blank the stream without stopping it and possibly insert some filters that overlay text or graphics. For some reason the existing graph won't connect to any filters I put in it.