Curious to know if anyone has had success with using a capture card compounded with x-split for streaming.

If so, what are you using?

I am considering making the investment for my justin.tv/twitch.tv channel to start streaming again.

If not, what do you think updating on this computer would be most efficient to upgrade whilst streaming?

Full comp specs:

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(4gb of ram.)
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Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

August 06 2011 01:55 GMT

Plenty of people stream from video taken in through capture card, mostly to stream console games.

I'm not sure why you'd bother though, since your Core i5-750 beats many of the Phenom II X4 models people use for streaming (in the lower quality settings). You can just use your CPU for encoding like most people do.

If you want a little better quality and are looking to upgrade hardware, a reasonable upgrade would be a ~$30 CPU cooler for overclocking the CPU to some decent level. Your motherboard isn't exactly a top-end model, but it's not a low-end model either, so it should support some decent overclocking. Upgrading one generation up to Sandy Bridge really isn't worth it.

RumZ

United States956 Posts

August 06 2011 02:01 GMT

It's to be able to stream in 1920 x 1080 at full high quality.

I was under the impression a capture card could be used to take the screen capture and frontload the processing between x-split and my computer, instead of putting all of the stress on my processor.

Is that terribly wrong? Your response makes me think, "yes, yes it is!"

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

August 06 2011 02:07 GMT

Well, the capture card would do the processing and send the compressed video (and audio) to the system for you to stream out. It should remove most of the burden from the CPU. You're right in your thinking there.

If you're looking for 1920x1080 with fps and quality that really justify using 1920x1080 (think like at least 3000 kbps or so), then yeah, your i5-750 is probably screwed.

However, a capture card that can do 1080p input is potentially just about as expensive as a Core i7-2600k, P67/Z68 motherboard, and cooler. Or at least maybe in the same price range.

I'm not that familiar with all the capture cards out there though. But I do know that popular models like the Blackmagic Intensity and Hauppauge HD PVR, which are just a bit under $200, can only do 1080i maximum.

nalgene

Canada2153 Posts

August 06 2011 02:34 GMT

Couldn't you try this after you turn off C1E in your BIOS settings and the other one that lowers multiplier? It looks like you are only running at 1465 mhz instead of what it is rated at and then test it again?

RumZ

United States956 Posts

August 06 2011 02:37 GMT

^ I'm sorry... come again? I don't do hardware anymore, unsure of what you're speaking of here.

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

August 06 2011 02:45 GMT

On August 06 2011 11:37 RumZ wrote:
^ I'm sorry... come again? I don't do hardware anymore, unsure of what you're speaking of here.

CPU-Z shows your CPU running at 1.4657 GHz instead of the rated 2.66 GHz (also running at a low voltage of 1.040V).

It's normal operation for processors to downclock themselves when sitting around mostly idle, to save power and put out less heat. He was suggesting you turn off the low power states in the BIOS settings so that wouldn't happen (and I'm not sure why).

If CPU-Z shows 2.66 GHz or higher while the computer is working hard, then that's normal and there's no problem. If it really is stuck at 1.4657 GHz all the time (unlikely) then you should fix that, possibly by disabling low power states and things like that.

RumZ

United States956 Posts

August 06 2011 02:48 GMT

Ah yes I'm sorry it's working much harder than that on load, forgot about that option.

Hey myrm you get that PM? I'm interested on what you think of it.

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

August 06 2011 02:49 GMT

I mentioned it above.

If you want 1080p and not 1080i, this is not possible on the Blackmagic Intensity Pro (or Shuttle).

HellGreen

Denmark1146 Posts

August 06 2011 02:55 GMT

#10

On August 06 2011 11:34 nalgene wrote:
It looks like you are only running at 1465 mhz instead of what it is rated

I believe the cpu throttles the core frequency depending on the load, so the screen shot just shows that it wasn't loaded at the time it was taken.
Edit: Got sniped

HellGreen

Denmark1146 Posts

August 06 2011 03:10 GMT

#11

On August 06 2011 11:49 Myrmidon wrote:
I mentioned it above.

If you want 1080p and not 1080i, this is not possible on the Blackmagic Intensity Pro (or Shuttle).

Sorry, but according to the specs both will run 1080p (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/techspecs/)

However there seems to be a problem with the USB interface in that it requires a X58 or P55 chipset *and* USB 3.0 ports (edit: the Shuttle) - read more here (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WSQTWU?tag=streamingme01-20)

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

August 06 2011 03:23 GMT

#12

I mean 1080p at 60 fps input. The signal from DVI or HDMI to a typical monitor these days is 60 fps.

Or am I missing something?

HellGreen

Denmark1146 Posts

August 06 2011 04:30 GMT

#13

You're right. I did find this though (on multiple sites):

1080p/60 is NOT supported and it will never be with Intensity Pro. But there is a chance that 1080p/60 will work on Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle, which is basically an external counterpart of Intensity Pro. According to Blackmagic customer support, Shuttle hardware is capable of handling such frame rate as soon as certain limitations of USB 3.0 are overcome.
Source: http://xbox360capturecard.net/blackmagic-intensity-pro-review/

I also found a lot of trouble tickets and unhappy customers though