This contains settings that quack and I played around with for about 2 hours until we got it right.
These instructions only help if you are broadcasting through your pc, via a webcam, capture card, Camcorder hooked to your pc....These will NOT help if you are broadcasting through a cell phone.
I will assume that everyone that is going to broadcast already has a Justin.tv account setup. If not, you need to go there and register first.
The next thing is to go out and get Adobe's Flash encoder.
If you have windows, you want to get version 2.5, not the new 3.x. The 3.x is a resource hog.
I have a desktop with an AMD processor equivalent to an i5 and it pegs it to 98%.
The 2.5 version runs at only about 44% CPU usage.
It can be found here:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitleme ... fm?e=fme25
For MAC, I have not had an issue using the most current version from Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmedi ... iaencoder/
You have to setup a free account for Adobe. Then log in, then scroll to the bottom and click on I agree.
Now at the top of this screen is Download for Windows (MSI, 3.4 MB)
Click on that file and walk through the installation using the default directories that it wants to.
Once you install the program and it opens up, it should look like this:
These are the settings that quack and I came up with.
First, under Preset on the left, change it to custom.
Then under the Video Device settings: click the drop down and choose your input device. Your webcam, capture card, camcorder, whatever it is that you are using.
Under Format: Change this to H.264
Click the wrench next to H.264 and set it to Main and 5.1.
For bitrate: Set it to 800 Kbps. You can go higher if your upload speed is consistantly higher than 800. You can run a speed test on your computer on http://speedtest.net/ Base your bitrate off of your Upload speed. My upload at home is usually around 800 Kbps. Sometimes I can get up to 1.5 Mbps.
For Size: Set it to 640x480
For FPS: Change it to 60
You can play around with cropping later. This allows you to cut off the stuff around your screen so that your audience can only see your game and not the stuff around your tv.
You can see by my screen shot above, the cropped picture is on the right. This is what you would see on my Justin.tv broadcast. It cuts off the extra stuff from around my picture.
Now at the bottom, you see an Auto Adjust, click the box to the left of Auto Adjust.
Now Click the wrench to the right of this. Here you will set the delay. Set it to a 3 or 4 second delay.
This will allow the program to buffer for 3 or 4 seconds to fix stutters before it is seen on the screen.
Setting auto adjust, allows the program to up or down grade your bitrate while you are playing based on your internet connections speed. It helps to eliminate lag.
Now Under Audio Device Settings: The only thing I do is choose the audio input device that I want to use. I choose my webcam since I am letting it pick up the sounds from my soundbar. I know some people have audio running directly into their pc. You should see your sound card or some other device listed in the drop down.
The only issue I know of with running audio directly to your pc is that there may be a delay compared to the video. Because the PC is processing the audio that it receives instead of it being native or raw audio.
I do not know how to fix this issue yet, but quack and I have been discussing it.
I do not mess around with any of the other audio settings.
Now on the right half of the screen:
First, you have FMS URL, for Justin.tv or twitch tv, for all of us this should be: rtmp://live.justin.tv/app
Now, you will have to log into your Justin.tv account. Once logged in, click on the desktop browsing option and you will see a Stream Key: SHOW link above the picture of the satellite.
Click on Show and you should see something similar to:
live_10940450_Q3ETJssHE3mdRb2FGEGuGmJdUv6kG
Copy that and paste it into the Stream field in the encoder program 2 lines under the FMS URL.
Uncheck the Save to File option just below the Stream line.
If you leave this checked, you can choose a folder for it to save a .flv video to your hard drive. This is really not needed since Justin.tv saves the video for you.
Click on connect just above the Save to File option, if it connects. You are ready to start streaming your games.
Once it starts streaming, it will automatically show up on your Justin.tv channel.
In the Encoder window, you will see a screen that looks like this:
On the right half of the screen above is statistics. If you see drops occurring, chances are you need to lower your bitrate.
This should give you enough information to start broadcasting. If you have any questions, hit myself or quack up and we would be happy to help.
Streaming videos makes the league that much more enjoyable to me.
The webcam or whatever you are using will make a big difference in the quality of your picture.
Your internet connection will make just as big of a difference as it depends on your upload speed.
If you look at my recap:
http://www.onlinedynasty.net/ndl2/game.php?game=1216
The first 2 videos are at 800 Kbps for bitrate.
I am not sure what was going on, but in the second video and towards the end of the first, you can see my video started to skip.
Something else was running and slowing down my network.
So I stopped my feed, set the bitrate to 500 and the third video is at 500 Kbps.
They all look good and crisp when in the smaller window that it broadcasts in.
If you make them full screen, they are still watchable, but you can definitely see a difference between the 800 Kbps and 500 Kbps in full screen.
I wanted to add, once you have the settings all set above test it out. I did a Play now game and had quack watching my Justin.tv feed and we played around with the bitrate and such until we got it right.
Once all of your settings are correct and working for you, the next time you go to broadcast your game, you simply make sure your cam is connected to your pc, start up the Flash Encoder application and click on start.
It will automatically broadcast under your Justin.tv channel since you put in the FMS URL and your Live Stream Key.
You do NOT need to go to Justin.tv on your pc or do anything with Justin.tv.
I then log in through the http://www.onlinedynasty.net/ndl2/mediaHome.php site so that I can chat with guys as the game is going on.
You can log into your Justin.tv account and go to your channel to see the broadcast and chat with guys if you choose to instead of using the NDL2 site.
Let me know if you have any questions.
