Here is the web edition of the book, totally free to read. If you would prefer the kindle version, you can get it here!
Or you can buy the paperback, very soon!
1.4.5 Streaming software
The image of a game being played is enough until the question is raised: “Who is playing?” and “Is this a tournament?” The answers to these questions should be on the screen at all times, unless you have a commentator who is doing that job every minute. Ultimately, that’s all you need.
However, viewers can be dazzled by flashy graphics, which for some reason makes them believe the event is premium. Cynicism aside, it’s true: the more money and work put into something, the more valuable it looks and reputation will grow because of it.
The best streaming software out there is Wirecast (At time of writing they have released version 5). However, it costs $495 and the pro edition which supports more cameras and capture devices costs $995. If you’re lucky you can catch them on Black Friday for a 30% reduction. What sets it apart from the others? The ability to manipulate sources (tilt, pan, zoom, etc), professional transitions, and ability to use lots of different kinds of media, lots of professional graphics for you to use, it can stream whatever is on your pc screen and it’s easy to use. When running a video, you can control where it starts and stops, unlike XSplit. Wirecast pro features an audio mixer which means as long as you can plug them in separately, you won’t need a mixing desk. For saving on luggage, this is great. Almost automatically you can have a show of high production value. It did have some issues with recognising lesser known capture devices…
Wirecast Youtube is a (very) limited free version which allows you to stream to your youtube channel but at time of writing only allowed one source, which meant video and not even sound. It should allow for both so surely this will be fixed and will give you a glimpse of its capabilities (update! v5 certainly does).
Xsplit is the next best thing, and best of all, it comes in a free (limited) version. The interface seems unstable however and the premium version will need to be purchased if the streamer has more precise needs, such as bandwidth quality (the free version caps the framerate at 25). It cannot perform the advanced manipulations that Wirecast can but it does have a plugin system that could allow it to match these features in the future. While the premium version is nowhere as expensive as Wirecast, the cost is constant, as you will be charged every month, whether you are streaming or not… Xsplit Gamecaster streams the game without overlay but can add a webcam.
Open Broadcaster Software – OBS
100% Free but has issues with hardware compatibility. Wirecast and XSplit worked on my laptop, OBS didn’t (many laptop integrated VGA cards don’t support Directx 10, which OBS needs). OBS also has a stream delay, which makes no difference to you unless the commentator is watching the stream rather than the live feed, but that means his and the crowd reaction will be out of sync, so make sure output all goes to the stream at the end.
Flash Media Live Encoder – FMLE
Free and works well! The only problem is you won’t have any overlay, it simply sends the game video plus your desired audio (mic or game) to your stream channel. It doesn’t capture the desktop.
A quick shout out to Avermedia’s Rec Central, the software bundled with the LGP, which did a surprisingly great job of streaming content in a very automatic way and wouldn’t let me control the game volume, plus there was no overlay, but still streamed on a basic integrated graphics laptop where xsplit could not.
Flash Media Live Encoder |
Open Broadcaster Software |
Wirecast 4 |
XSplit 2x |
|
Ad Free and No Watermark |
free |
free |
Studio / Pro |
personal / premium |
Commercial Use |
?? |
?? |
Y |
prem |
Capture Game Source |
external Program needed |
Y |
Y |
personal / premium |
32 / 64 Bit Games |
N |
Y / Y |
?? |
Y / Y |
Video Capture Device |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Screen Capture Source |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Simultaneous Broadcast |
Y |
nya |
Y |
personal / premium |
multiple Bitrates |
Y |
nya (multiple Instances) |
Y |
Y |
change Bitrate while streaming |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
custom Output Resolutions |
Y |
Y |
custom Bitrates |
personal / premium |
Local Streaming |
N |
N |
N |
prem |
save Local Recording (no streaming) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
save Stream Output |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Stream Delay |
N |
Y |
?? |
prem |
Sources |
1? |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
Delay Sources |
N |
N* |
N |
N |
Delay Devices |
N |
Y* |
Y |
personal? / premium |
Resize |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Rotate |
N |
N |
Y |
Y |
Crop |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Pan |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
Tilt |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
Zoom |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
Transparency |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
De-Interlacing |
?? |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Chroma Key |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Color |
N |
N |
Y |
Y |
Gamma |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
more |
||||
Volume |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Audio Mixer |
N |
plugin (alpha) |
pro |
nya |
Multi-Camera support |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Hotkeys |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Scenes |
N |
unlimited |
5 channels with |
12 personal / 12 prem / 4 free |
Layers (persistent through Scenes) |
N |
N |
Y |
nya |
Transitions |
N |
nya |
Y |
Y |
Templates |
N |
N |
Y |
N |
Audio Codecs |
MP3, Nelly Moser |
MP3, AAC |
?? |
Speex(free), AAC |
Video Formats |
FLV, F4V |
FLV, MP4 |
QT / Flash / WM |
FLV(free), MP4 |
Video Codecs |
H264 / VP6 |
H264 |
H264 |
|
Frames Per Second |
unlimited |
unlimited |
HD+ option / pro |
personal / premium |
Max Resolution |
unlimited |
unlimited |
HD+ option / pro |
personal / premium |
Downscale |
resize |
resize/factor downscale |
Y |
resize |
Plugins |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y |
custom Plugins |
N |
Y |
N |
Y |
Special: |
||||
AVerMedia HW Encoder |
N |
N |
N |
personal / premium |
Image / Image Slideshow |
N |
Y / Y |
Y |
Y (plugin) / Y (plugin) |
IP Camera |
N |
N |
Y |
Y (plugin) |
Livestream |
N |
plugin (alpha) |
Y |
Y (plugin) |
Media File Playback |
N |
Y (plugin) |
Y |
Y (plugin) |
Remote Desktop Presenter / Capture |
N |
N |
Y |
nya |
3D Virtual Sets |
N |
N |
pro |
N |
Scoreboard |
N |
workaround |
pro |
Y (plugin) |
Skype Video Capture |
N |
N |
?? |
personal / premium |
Thumbnail Scene Preview |
N |
N |
?? |
personal / premium |
Title / Text |
N |
Y |
Y |
Y (plugin) |
Projector |
N |
N |
Y |
prem |
Virtual Camera |
N |
N |
Y |
personal / premium/watermark |
Flash / Browser support |
N |
Y (plugin) |
?? |
Y / N |
System Requirements |
||||
OS |
Windows / MAC |
Windows (DX10) |
Windows / MAC |
Windows |
Processor |
P3 1GHz / C2D 2GHz |
2Ghz / Intel Based |
Intel Dualcore or similar |
|
RAM |
256MB / 2GB |
1GB / 2GB |
?? |
|
Disk |
30-50MB |
15MB |
200MB |
90MB |
Graphics |
DirectX 9.0c+ |
DirectX 10+ |
DirectX 9.0c+ |
DirectX 9.0c+ |
Price |
free |
free |
385 € – 1000€ |
15 $ – 150$ |
License Duration |
unlimited |
unlimited |
unlimited |
3 months – 3+ years |
Comparison chart is dated Sep 2013 so probably wayyy outdated now since there are new versions of each software, but should still give you a basic comparison.
See also section 1.11 Streaming