Streaming with XSplit Broadcaster

[Ualaa]

I've messed around with the Flash Media Encoder and VHRSCap program, as per the thread on the multiboxing.com site, and have not had any luck with getting that to work.

I decided to try other options, and found XSplit Broadcaster (www.xsplit.com (http://www.xsplit.com)), which is in a beta (free) stage at the moment.
When not broadcasting, the battlegrounds are smooth enough... follow will occasionally break out of the AV gate, but briefly stopping my movement at three points ensures my team reaches Galvatron still in range of the Crusader Aura.
While broadcasting, the battlegrounds are noticeably choppy but playable; just not very enjoyable while streaming.

See: www.twitch.tv/ualaa (http://www.twitch.tv/ualaa) and http://www.twitch.tv/ualaa/b/304013746

I'm running IS Boxer, not the developer build, and its set to automatically update.
The CPU stuff is set so the lead toon has one core, while the other four toons share the remaining three cores.
The i5 has no hyperthreading, just physical cores.

My system is:
Windows 7 Home, 64-bit.
Motherboard is an Asus P8Z68-VPro, not using any of the overclocking features.
i5 2500K, at stock speed, with an after-market Corsair A70 cooler.
8gb of DDR3 ram, 1600mhz.
The OS is on an OCZ Vertex 3, SSD; Warcraft is on a Patriot Torq SSD; XSplit is running on a 10k rpm Raptor drive.
Two 27" widescreen Samsung monitors (1920x1080, each), running on an eVGA Ge-Force GTX570 (1280mb).
All drivers are up to date.

Speedtest.net shows an average of 48.18Mb/sec down, and an average of 4.82Mb/sec upload speeds.

In Xsplit Broadcaster, I initially had it set to a max Bit Rate of 2000 as a trial.
The test feature was both green and yellow (with a recommendation to reduce the bit rate, if it came up yellow often).
To be sure I had the bandwidth, I've set it to 1,200 Max Bitrate (kbps).
The VBV Buffer (kbit), scales to exactly match the chosen Max Bitrate; I've not changed this setting at all.
The codec is X 264, and it is not giving an option to change that.
The stream area is 1920x1080 (HD), at 25 FPS (which was the default)
The audo is 44,100 KHz 16-bit Stereo, which was the suggestion from the video on their site; I'm using the default AAC LC Codec, although the video on their site recommended using MP3 (which is not an option for me to choose).
I am not recording what I broadcast (that box is unchecked).
I have Interleave audio and video in one RTMP channel checked, which was the default.

I'm streaming the entirety of Monitor 1 (which is the current main toon) in full screen.
I'm not streaming the second monitor, with the slaves.

I have two scenes set.
One is the streaming of Monitor 1.
The other is blank, so I can log-in without revealing my account names.

In Warcraft, I have the slaves set to 250 view distance.
And just about everything else minimal.
With no shadows, spell effects, weather etc.
The main has maximum view distance, medium on most other settings, but zero shadows/water effects and medium spell effects.




Any suggestions on removing the choppiness?
Near totally inexperienced with streaming myself, so not sure where the bottleneck is.

Would reducing the stream quality, possibly going 1280x720 and/or a lower bitrate, improve the play quality?
I'm considering overclocking the CPU some, to something not very extreme.
Not sure if the CPU is a bottleneck.
I'd assume 1,280mb video is enough for 1x medium, 4x low settings, especially considering the fairly smooth play when not streaming.

[zenga]

I bet you want 29.97 as frame rate. It's the same with fraps (it solved the sloppiness I had despide my kick ass comp specs). I've set everything to 1280x720. and works like a charm. Don't ask me for any specifics, but I spend some time researching (something like optimal broadcast wow twitch, in google) and came across a pretty few decent guides that recommended these settings + explanation why (which I don't care about).

[Ualaa]

Thanks, I'll try those settings :)

[Ualaa]

Thanks!

That did the trick; it's so smooth, aside from having the window open to show its streaming, I wouldn't know it was. :)

[HPAVC]

Ha, that worked for me too, super thread

[zenga]

edit: posted in wrong thread

[Ualaa]

Streaming the Pallies & 4x Death Knights.

Twitch.tv/ualaa

Had 4K honor, from Conquest > Honor.
Bought a 2,200 honor piece on each, and am close to another 2,200 honor piece.

[honeypot2011]

Nice stream Ualaa ..enjoyed the show :)..cu again :)

[Los]

Oe cool somebody else to watch next to towelie, poket and miarose (yes i know)

[Ualaa]

Will be streaming the DK's (with Juds trying to keep up with the little gnomettes) in IoC shortly, probably a few hours until its time to leave for my Dungeons and Dragons session this afternoon.

[Ualaa]

Streaming more IoC, with the Pally and DK's.
Sunday morning.

[Tehtsuo]

I just signed up for a licensed account, 2 years for 39$

The Game Source setting is WORTH IT. I'm streaming at 1080p with a decent bitrate, and getting 40+ fps. With the regular screen regions I was lucky to break 25 fps with that resolution. I hold steady at over 50fps when I'm doing local recording.

By the way, streaming right now - http://www.justin.tv/tehtsuo

[daanji]

I am currently trying to setup streaming. I have everyone setup now and it is working, but I am trying to figure something out.

I have two monitors

24" Samgsung used for Main + 4 Slaves along the bottom
19" used for Vent, website, TV, etc

Now, when I add a screen region to to broadcast, I just want to broadcast the top portion of my main screen.
However, I cannot figure out how to do this.

When I try, it will either
broadcast my entire 1920x1200 screen
or broadcast just one of the application

Number one works, but I'd rather not broadcast my slaves. In scenario two, it is exactly what I want, but it ties the screen region to that WoW instance. So when I switch windows to different slaves, it simply broadcasts the minimized version of that screen.


Ideally, I just want to broadcast the 1920x1000 portion of my main screen. Is this even possible?

[daanji]

Ok, I figured this one out.

You can set the main monitor to broadcast all 1920x1200. Once this is setup, you can right click the region then go to position and crop out what you want.

[Ualaa]

You can go to one of your "Scenes".
And click on "Add".

Select "Add Screen Region".
Left click and hold (in the top left corner), and drag down to the bottom right corner, then release the left mouse button.

Once you have your screen region, you can right click on it to edit it.
Including the X/Y, of its top left corner.
And its total width and height.

I've got the full 1920x1080 option and the 1920x1040, for my Left Monitor.
Essentially, the whole monitor or just the Warcraft window.

Right monitor is another scene.
As is "Both Monitors".

And then three "Cover up the screen" scenes.
For when I'm entering my account/password, or otherwise want to be private.

[Vecter]

One item that really helped me is setting the xsplit server from auto to a server that is closer to me.

Tools -> General Settings -> Channels -> Edit

Change location to something closer to you if you still getting lag or choppy frames. I was losing 100s of frames and now I get occasionally 1 or 2.

I have my settings at Quality 10, VBV 4000 (both) and 32 Khz 16bit stereo at 48000 bitrate. My connection is 35/35 so I can go extreme.