So, if you have had the displeasure of suffering through Xsplit, I commend you. I only made it a matter of minutes before I found myself seeking out an alternative. If it works perfectly for you, congratulations, each thread comes with a cookie dispenser. You will receive a ticket redeemable for one cookie.
I will admit right now that, this is not an entirely free alternative, nor is it simple in any way shape or form. It is however, far easier on your computer's resources, and allows for streaming in superior quality (your monitor's full resolution?), so long as your bandwidth can support it. For the actual guide:
The first thing I'm going to need you to do is head on over to Adobe's site, and register an account there. You will need it to download this:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash-media-encoder.html
Click the above (virus infested) link, create an account, and download either version 3.2 (If you have a very powerful machine), or 2.5 (If you have a dual core, or underpowered quad core). Why don't I simply host the download here you ask? Well, there's a terms of service agreement involved with certain legal implications preventing that. You have to do this for Xcrashyourcomputersplit, so if you complain to me I'm not going to listen.
Once you've downloaded, installed, and admired lovingly FME scroll down to the attachments section, and grab SCFH, you will need this as well.
Extract the SCFH program to a folder of your choosing, it doesn't matter where you put it so long as you make a convenient shortcut to the main exe. Head into that folder, find install.bat or install64.bat, and run which ever pertains to your operating system (I swear, I shouldn't have to explain this one). It will confirm the instillation of two files if nothing has gone wrong.
Now you may run the .exe file its self, do so please.
You'll notice a small window with nothing in it (there shouldn't be anything in it, unless you've chosen to keep your messenger open). Load up Flash Media Encoder, give it a moment or so to boot up, and click NOTHING.
Go back to SCFH, hit refresh. FME should now be selectable, do so, and press okay. Your screen will flicker for a moment, try not to panic, transparency is being disabled as it conflicts with the streaming software.
You should now have another window on your screen for SCFH detailing all of the settings a streamer could ever hope to use. Ignore X, and Y, it doesn't pertain to you unless you are streaming very old titles that only run at 640 by 480. Size equals your desktops resolution (this is NOT the resolution you stream at it's the resolution displayed over your stream). If you wish to do some cropping for windowed mode, hit Area Selection, drag the green field over what you wish to show, and double click.
Some things to note: You may or may not need to select Keep Aspect Ratio to stretch your view area. You can test this by looking at FME. If your stream is letter boxed you will have to select, or deselect this.
Ignore all of the other settings (unless you're feeling experimental, I do not recommend feeling experimental so stop it).
We can now focus on FME, which will require the highest level of "tinkering" if you wish stabilize your stream.
I will break this down into steps, the first of which varries depending on where you stream.
For Twitch.tv: Log into your account. Click your name, select dashboard, find streaming apps and select it, locate FME on this page, press config. It will download a .xml file that can be opened in a browser of your choosing. Open this file now, you need it.
Look for and copy it into FME URL:
Look for and copy the numerical code after it into FME under Stream: press connect, and pray. If you copied everything correctly it should connect without problem.
For Own3D: Log into your account, select your name, and MIDDLE click account settings. Yes, middle click the option or the page may refresh (thank you marvelous German coders for doing your job so well). Finding the stream info is a bit easier with Own3D, all you need do is select My Livestreams --> Edit --> Locate Stream URL:, and copy that into FME under... FMS URL:. Press Show, and copy that into Stream: within FME. Hit connect, and hope for the best. If you didn't mess anything up it will connect, and you may proceed.
Tweaking:
Under device make sure SCFH DSF is selected (it should be).
Choose a format, preferably VP6 if your computer supports it (this codec is ubiquitous).
Your frame rate should never exceed 30 fps, bad things happen when you push the limits of tiered out Flash servers.
Here comes the difficult part, you need to do math (OH NO, NOT MATH!). Take your desktops total resolution, devide this by either two, or three (Unless you are streaming in maximum quality, you will need a 20mbps connection for flawless 1080p streaming), input that into the output size.
Drop down input size so you can select the above resolution which should now have appeared. Also, click the wrench icon next to SCFH DSF, and input the resolution you placed into Output Size.
Once again, you may need to tick or untick Maintain Aspect Ratio to get rid of the letter boxing effect.
This is the most important part of this guide so pay attention. To complete this you must know the limitations of your bandwith young streamer, if you do not already know this mozy on over to this link, and run the test: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ Choose an area closest to you, let the test run, and look for Upload Speed. Ignore the first bit of data, you're looking for the part in parentheses, it will look something like this (792.6 KB/sec transfer rate). This is how much data you can push out. Select a number that is at least two thirds of this number under Bit Rate.
I've left this part for last, as it can be a bit complicated should you want to stream your game sound, and your mic (USB microphones only). Line in microphones can skip this bit.
Go to this link: http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm You will need to pay for this program or it blasts your stream with Trial every few minutes. Don't worry, it's worth it (you pay once, not yearly, and it's still cheaper then Xblowyourcomputertohellandbacksplit.
Pay attention, this is important stuff. If you're on Windows 7, or Vista (Upgrade to Windows 7 for the betterment of man kind), right click the little speaker icon by your taskbar, click recording devices, mouse over the white background, and right click again. Make sure show disconnected devices, and show disabled devices is selected. Look for sterio mix, and enable it.
If you're still using Windows XP you may not have sterio mix. Right click the speaker icon, click Adjust Audio Properties, go to the audio tab, expand sound recording, and look for sterio mix. If it's there you're golden.. if it isn't, I'm afraid you may not be able to stream (PM me, I might be able to help).
Now, install Virtual Audio Cable, and navigate to the install directory (unually Program Files). Open the folder, and run vcctlpan.exe. You won't need to do anything else beyond running the application.
Run two instances of audiorepeater.exe under instance 1, choose Sterio Mix after Wave in, and Line 1 after Wave out.
Go to instance 2, and choose your microphone under Wave in, and once again choose Line 1 under Wave out. Hit start on both instances. You may get a strange error in doing this. Restart your computer so that nothing is using your Mic, run Virtual Audio Cable, go through the steps, then re-launch anything else you had running. Mumble has a tendency to botch this up for some reason.
Now, go back to FME, head to the audio options, select Line 1 under devices, and increase the quality. I'd stick with 128kbps, and 44100 Hz. Depending on your setup, Stereo should also work for you. Always test your stream before you commit.
If you have a Line in mic, simply select Stereo Mix under devices for FME, and you're good to go. None of this Virtual Audio nonsense for you.
Now, for the moment you've been waiting for, click Start on FME. If you followed the above steps correctly, you should now be live, streaming. Visit your stream page to tweak as necessary. There's more work involved, but you may be pleasantly surprised by the rewards this method offers. Provided you're not using SLI or Crossfire you can now run your games in full screen mode, and they will show up on your stream.
Additional Information: Through experimentation, and trial and error, I picked up on a few details worth mentioning.
For one, your rmtp url should match your region, here are all of Twitch.tv's servers (I will find Own3d's later)
"rtmp://live-3c.justin.tv/app" name="Global Load Balancing Service"/>
"rtmp://live-mia.justin.tv/app" name="US East: Miami, FL"/>
"rtmp://live-sin-backup.justin.tv/app" name="Asia: Singapore"/>
"rtmp://live.justin.tv/app" name="US West: San Francisco, CA"/>
"rtmp://live-iad.justin.tv/app" name="US East: Ashburn, VA"/>
"rtmp://live-ams.justin.tv/app" name="EU: Amsterdam, NL"/>
"rtmp://live-dfw-backup.justin.tv/app" name="US Central: San Antonio, TX"/>
"rtmp://live-dfw.justin.tv/app" name="US Central: Dallas, TX"/>
"rtmp://live-fra.justin.tv/app" name="EU: Frankfurt, Germany"/>
"rtmp://live-iad-backup.justin.tv/app" name="US East: Ashburn, VA (Secondary)"/>
"rtmp://live-jfk.justin.tv/app" name="US East: New York, NY"/>
"rtmp://live-lax-backup.justin.tv/app" name="US West: Los Angeles, CA (Secondary)"/>
"rtmp://live-lax.justin.tv/app" name="US West: Los Angeles, CA"/>
"rtmp://live-lhr-backup.justin.tv/app" name="EU: London, UK (Secondary)"/>
"rtmp://live-lhr.justin.tv/app" name="EU: London, UK"/>
SCFH Settings: PLEASE READ THIS SECTION!!!!
You may have noticed some quality degradation. I have a solution for this.
On SCFH (after you've selected FME in the processes window) locate Resize Method. Set this to Software Bilinear. This will smooth out any jagged edges present in the stream (predominetly with text)
On FME: Click the wrench next to VP6, a window should pop up. You may need to tweak the settings in here to better fit your setup, if you haven't already (streaming is a temperamental beast).
Here are my settings, and why I've set them, as a template.
Keyframe frequency (adjusted delay) is set to 4 seconds, though you can at times get away with 3 or 2 if your connection is faster.
Quality (this is entirely CPU dependent, if you have a weak processor, you will have to settle for less). I have mine set to Great Quality, without a partnership, this is likely the highest value you will be able to use.
Noise Reduction: None
Data rate Window: Huge (this drastically improved motion blurr issues, and stuttering)
I hope these additions to this guide help people, as they have helped me. Happy streaming!
by Psion; 08-14-2012 at 08:21 PM.
http://sandboxclan.net/