Video Streaming Guide

[Mojo]

If you're interested in streaming your FFXI (or anything else for that matter), continue reading. I'll do my best to explain everything in a simple way. There are other methods to stream video, but this is just the path I took and the one I think will be best for most people on a typical broadband internet connection. I know this guide is lenghty, but it is not difficult to read through at all and should be easy for the average person to understand and set up without any headaches.

What You'll Need

1.: Webcam Max

This is software that can be used to add effects to webcams as well as emulate a virtual webcam. This is what you'll be using to generate a video stream from part of your screen. It's free, but to remove the watermark, you'll need pay for it, although there are other ways to remove the watermark as well.

There is other virtual webcam software out there, although after trying a few alternatives, I found Webcam Max to be one of the simplest with the best quality. If anybody else finds something they like, feel free to share.

2.: Flash Media Encoder

This is not required, but highly recommended. It is used to convert video and audio streams into a single flash audio/video stream. It does put an additional burden on your computer system's resources, although compressing your audio/video stream before you upload it to uStream will optimize your available bandwidth, which is going to be the bottleneck in most cases.

The other option is to allow uStream to take direct control of your video and audio data streams. It will do all of the necessary compression, which will still require configuration to optimize. However, the compression quality using FME is generally much better looking, so I highly recommend using it. It's free and doesn't do any kind of watermarking, although you will have to register an Adobe account to download it. If anybody wants to host the install so everybody else can avoid that process, feel free to post.

3.: A uStream TV Account

This isn't exactly software, but it's something you'll need unless you have access to some kind of server that is capable of uploading an audio/video stream to potentially thousands of people. Signing up is painless and free.

The best alternative I found was Justin TV, although signing up was difficult because whenever I clicked on the link in my confirmation email, it said that it was expired. It finally went through several hours later, although I found that I preferred uStream after using them both.

Video Streaming Overview

I think it's important to at least have a basic understanding of what will be happening on your computer as well as the overall process of streaming video.

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Some of you may be curious about the audio source. There are a few options for this, which I'll get to later. The uStream Flash Clients would be the 1900+ people watching the stream in yesterday's case. If anyone wants a more detailed explanation of what this flowchart means, then I can provide one, but if you've read everything thus far I think you'll probably know what everything means. A picture says a thousand words, right?

Software Installation and Configuration

Really, this part of the guide should just be called software configuration. Both pieces of software I provided are simple to install and I don't think I need to explain how to do that.

Webcam Max

While you're installing Webcam Max, it should prompt you to choose in what circumstances you'll want it to act as your default webcam. If you don't have a real webcam, you should make it the default for everything although honestly it won't matter at all because you can specify with video stream to use in FME anyway. If you do have a webcam, setting WCM as the default will just mean that the video stream will always run through this first before going to other applications. If you're interested in using the other features WCM has, then you can set it as the default for any/all of the applications listed, if you want.

After Webcam Max has installed, the first thing you should do is click on Tools > Options, and then click on the Source tab. Here you'll want to set the webcam source size to 640x480. This means the datastream that is exported from WCM will be in a native resolution of 640x480. There is almost no benefit of setting it any lower than this because this stream is going to be converted and compressed by FME later on, and you want the source to be as high quality as possible.

The webcam source rate is an option you should change depending on how good your upload is. Granted, you will specify the framerate that FME will output the final datastream in, but you should match it with this to optimize your system resources. 24 frames per second is the best choice between quality, bandwidth, and hardware compatibility so I recommend this. The fastest FFXI can be rendered is 30 FPS, so there is no benefit of setting it any higher than that and limited benefit to setting it to beyond 24 because it's unlikely that FFXI will be running a constant 30 FPS anyways.

PinP (Picture in Picture) source count is somewhat irrelevant in this case. It can be used for webcam conversations with multiple people, 'webcam kissing', and other various things. I guess if you wanted to run another video stream of something else in one of the corners you could set this to two, either way configuring that is not something I'm going to cover in this guide. If you don't plan on using PinP it doesn't really matter what you set it to, so just leave it at 1 and click ok.

Now, unless you actually have a webcam connected to your computer, all you should be seeing at this point are some bars of color. That's because the default video source is set to webcam. To change this, click on the Sources tab at the bottom. There are quite a few options here that tie in with other WCM features. The one you'll want is Screen. Click on it and you'll see some more options come up, and the preview in WCM should start showing some video output. The mode option controls the area of your screen that will be used as the video source. The default is follow cursor, which can be interesting for making software tutorial videos, but what you want will either be specific window or specific area. They're both somewhat self explanatory. Specific window will allow you to select an individual window to use as the video source. Specific area enables you to specify a portion of your screen.

I recommend specific area because specific window will include the edges of the selected window, which is probably something you don't want. To specify the window dimension for specific area, you can either type the settings in manually or click show selected area and then resize the red box to fit over your FFXI window.

Typing in the resolution manually is the best way because if the selected area doesn't meet the exact 640x480 aspect ratio(4:3), it's going to add black bars to the top or bottom to compensate. An easy way to do this is to type in your FFXI window size into the width and height boxes. Most of you should know what these are, but if you don't it's the x-resolution and y-resolution listed in launcher.txt. The left and right boxes are offsets of the specify area box from the left side and top of your screen. If you just launch windower and start FFXI without moving your window around, left 4 and top 30 are what you'll need. If you want to move it somewhere else, just keep adjusting it until it's right. I don't know anything about the Square Enix window mode, so if you're using that you'll have to figure out what your screen size by adjusting it, although it will be in a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Once you're done with that, the last thing you should do is click on View > No Preview. This will disable the preview of the video stream Webcam Max is exporting. There is no reason to watch this preview other than to make sure it's working right, otherwise it's just draining system resources.

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Flash Media Encoder

After you've configured WCM and it's exporting a video stream, you should open Flash Media Encoder. If you didn't install WCM, don't have a webcam, and open this before hand it will tell you that there is no recognizable video source, although that shouldn't be an issue.

There are two tabs, encoding options and encoding log. The encoding options are settings you should adjust to optimize your available bandwidth and system resources. The encoding log is something you can check to make sure it's working after you've configured your settings properly and have started to upload your audio/video data stream to uStream.

We'll start with everything that's under the video checkbox. The device option specifies the source for the video data stream you'll be using. You should select WebcamMax Capture here.

The Format option determines the type of codec that FME will convert the final data stream into. Leave this at VP6, H.264 is a high definition codec and neither uStream or Justin TV support it. If you click on the toolbox to the right of format, it will bring up some more encoding options.

Keyframe Frequency, specifies how often a recovery point will occur for someone who encounters a hiccup in their stream. It doesn't affect much, just leave it at 5 seconds.

Quality will determine more settings that the encoder will use. It allows you to balance between a good frame rate and a good picture. I used the lowest quality best framerate setting, which honestly is much better than it sounds. You can mess around with this later if you want to see what you like.

Noise Reduction is an option that will apply a blurring effect. This is a matter of preference, I don't recommend it. Datarate is difficult to explain, I'd recommend leaving it at Medium. CPU Usage should be set to dedicated or you may experience dropped frames.

To the right of Format is something called Bit Rate. This will be used to set the video compression level and determines the overall picture quality of the video. The sum of the audio and video bit rates, listed as Total Video + Audio Bit Rate in the bottom right, is a reflection of the available upload you have. Ideally you want to use just under the most upload you have while also considering the typical download speed that your viewers can do.

To gauge your upload, turn off all downloads or torrents you may be running and go to Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test. It will give you your upload in terms of kb/s. Divide this number by 8, subtract 10%, and that's about what you should be putting in the bit rate box, although sometimes you can go higher. Honestly the best way to test this is to, after you've got everything working, increase it in small increments and watch your own stream until you start to drop frames or are satisfied with the result.

Size is kind of a weird option. It specifies the resolution of the imported video stream. You'll get weird artifacting if you resize it to any resolution that doesn't match the native settings of the imported stream, which should be 640x480.

Cropping can be used to remove some of the edges of the source video stream from the final product. There shouldn't be any reason for that here.

Resize can be used to change the resolution of the exported video stream. The uStream flash client will resize the video to around 480x360, regardless of what the source is, so you might want to make sure this is set to 480x360 to better make use of your bandwidth.

FPS is how many frames per second will be exported. You should set this to whatever you specified in WMC, which is probably 24. You shouldn't need to worry about any of the other video options.

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Configuring audio can be done in a variety of ways, depending on what you want. Device will select the audio source for your stream. If you have a microphone and want to voice over your video, you can select it from the list. There will likely be other sources you can select from the list, depending on what kind of soundcard you have.

Some sound cards and/or audio drivers support directly exporting an audio stream of whatever its outputting to FME. Mine did not. The only way I could do this would be by actually plugging a cable from an output channel into the input channel, and I didn't have any sitting around. That is why there was no audio for the stream I did. That and even I did get said cable, you would have heard me talking over ventrilo with everybody, which is a matter of personal preference.

Either way, there are countless methods to source audio into your stream. If you are going to directly import your computer audio into FME and also plan on watching your stream on the same computer, turn the volume on the stream down or you'll get massive feedback.

The Format option is the type of audio codec that will be used. MP3 is almost universally compatible and achieves good compression levels, so I'd recommend using that. Mono/Stereo is self explanatory.

If you don't know what Sample Rate is, you can read about it on wiki or just leave it at 22050. Generally though, higher is better, lower is worse.

Bit Rate determines the audio compression level that will be used. Remember, this is added together with the video bit rate to determine the overall bandwidth of the stream. Volume is the native volume the stream will be exported in, make sure it's at a decent level.

Now then, the only thing you have left to configure in FME is what happens to the output. You are two generic choices, Stream to Flash Media Server(in this case, uStream) and Save to File. Both can be done at once. If you intend to save the event your recording so people can watch it later, you should do it through here if you can host it somewhere. Archiving the stream with Ustream will result in a watermark. Regardless, you will need to obtain the FMS server URL and the Stream passkey from uStream to get the streaming option to work, which I will go over next.

Lastly, when you've configured everything properly and have made sure it's working, you will want to come back and disable the Input Video/Output Video/Audio previews. Just like the WMC preview, it will unnecessarily drain your system resources, and the audio preview can cause feedback if you're sourcing audio from your own computer.

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uStream

I shouldn't need to tell you how to sign up for this. Login once you've obtained your user information. You'll be prompted to create a show and describe it with some basic information. It does not matter what you put. If you're ever prompted to enable the "When on a PC, use the Ustream high quality encoder:", DO NOT ENABLE THIS. Since you're using FME to do the encoding, it's going to look better without it. Enabling it with FME will result in a re-encoded poorer quality stream as well as the need for all of your viewers to install an internet plugin that isn't available on all browsers.

When you get past the initial login process and have configured your show the way you want it, click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Flash Media Encoder XML File and click Download. Save it wherever you like, it does not matter.

What this is is an XML file that's supposed to open FME and automatically put some settings into it. I don't know how the fuck to get it to work the way they think it should, clicking on it for me just results in windows asking me what to open it with(selecting FME here does nothing), and to be honest, if you've gone the efforts of manually configuring FME, you wouldn't want to do this anyway.

What you want to do is open it in Notepad. There are only two pieces of information you'll need. The first is the URL of the Flash Media Server, which will be surrounded by <url> tags. Copy that and paste it into the FMS URL text field in Flash Media Encoder. The other thing you'll need is the Stream passkey, which is surrounded by <stream> tags. Again, copy that and paste it into the Stream text field in Flash Media Encoder.

Now, after having done all of this, you're finally ready to stream video. Click on Go to Show URL on uStream and it will take you to your show channel. Then, if you've configuring WCM and FME properly and have them both running, click Start on FME. You'll know you did everything right if it opens the encoding log and shows you a bunch of stuff like the following.

Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:26 : Selected video input device: WebcamMax Capture
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:27 : Selected audio input device: Realtek HD Digital input
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Primary - Connected
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Primary - Network Command: welcome
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Primary - Network Command: streamOwnerStatus
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Primary - Network Command: moduleInit
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Primary - Stream Status: Success
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Primary - Stream Status: NetStream.Publish.Start
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Session Started
Sun Nov 23 2008 23:54:43 : Video Encoding Started

Now click Broadcast in uStream and another window should come up. If you weren't using FME, you would configure your audio/video settings here, but none of that matters since you are. It should say Already Online with FME to the right. All you have to do is click START BROADCAST in that new window and it will start your feed.

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Anyways, I'm glad so many people tuned into the stream yesterday, especially considering how unannounced it was. I hope more people start broadcasting their big events. They're fun to watch and sharing information greatly improves the community. After all, consider how much better off a great number of people in the endgame community were after Rukenshin posted his epic Pandemonium Warden blog? Even if your linkshell hasn't been sharing information in the last month or two, there is no good reason not to start now. Being cheered on by nearly 2000 people far outweighed any benefits of trying to kill it first, and once people know you've killed it they'll just watch you next time and spill the beans. If you do end up streaming an event, make sure you post it. I know I'll tune in!

[Tricen]

Hot shit d00d, thanks for the info

[BRP]

Does uStream have some kind of bad rep? Like bad enough to get banned from a site for posting it and reason given is "ustream.tv bullshit."

[Lordwafik]

beautiful

[rex_garuda]

i figured out this stuff myself after that awesome streaming fight u guys had, and i use VH Screen Capture Driver (google for it). i haven't gotten around to streaming jsut a region of the screen so my streams are all fullscreen lol. i'm starting to get addicted to broadcasting events. u can check them out on the front page of my website
kinda annoyed that my upload bandwidth is wrecked when streaming w/ FME

edit: quick question, will GM's care if u're using plugins and shit? lol

[Linliel]

lol the random pics made this so worth reading! :D

(also, great writeup!)

[Titanss]

Does uStream have some kind of bad rep? Like bad enough to get banned from a site for posting it and reason given is "ustream.tv bullshit."

that's 4chan for you

personally I've never heard anything bad

[Sho]

Lol @ the random pics!

[Thistle]

lol the random pics made this so worth reading! :D

(also, great writeup!)

I'll never use the info, but the pictures made skimming worth it!

[Cletis]

i wish you made this 2 weeks ago when i started doing my thing on justin.tv so i would know HOW to do it

[rex_garuda]

rofl this is fun, u won't believe how many people will watch you do salvage

[Casey_]

Tried to do this to stream me playing super metroid to a friend, but this computer sucks too much to do it. I did find out however that xml is file > open'd in flash media encoder and it auto fills everything.

[fishstix]

dont quit D:

[Ratatapa]

Yo i just did everything and made some tests.

As soon as i open webcam max (unregistered) my PC starts lagging like crazy, and it becomes worse then i start the streaming.

I understand about the streaming online cuz i only have lol765kbits upload.

But my PC is a 3g processor and 3gig memory and 512mb video card.

and um how much bandwith does it takes to stream. I only have like lol10gig upload permonth so

Thx :D

[Snowknight26]

Could just use WME and basically only do 1 step.

[Dezzimal]

768kbit upstream is a reasonable upstream to use ustream with. If you're streaming a 500kbps stream, you would hit the cap in just under two days of constant streaming. Ustream claims that 300kbps is the minimum connection quality. As for the lag? Probably software related, try different webcam softwares.