Question / Help Dedicated streaming machine

[UrzuS3V3N]

Hey folks,

I'm planning on building a dedicated streaming machine, but I have some questions...


1. Minimum CPU required to stream @ 1080p on medium preset.


2. How would I go about getting my audio feed over to the streaming PC? This confuses me greatly.

I will obviously be running skype/TS3 and the game on my main gaming PC, but how would I get that audio, including my own microphone audio over to the streaming PC in order to be broadcasted, while also being available on my headset? Currently using astro a50's with optical audio.

3. Do I really need a discrete GPU on the streaming PC, or is literally just a barebones CPU, memory and storage drive affair?


Many thanks in advance.

S3V3N.

 

[Jack0r]

1. Hard to say, depends on your content. I would recommend an i7 cpu. Probably around 3770 grade.
2. Since you use optical, you could use the stereomix to output sound to both the Optical out as well as speaker out and connect the speaker out to the mic/line-in on the streaming pc.
To get your voice into both pc's you can either send it over together with your speaker output or use a setup with Teamspeak or similar to receive it on the second pc, or get a secondary mic.
3. The integrated chip of an i7 cpu would be enough for most streaming purposes. So I would say no, discrete GPU is not needed.

4. Ask us before buying a capture card please :D

 

[Jollyriffic]

i7-3770k or better, 8gb of ram, win 7 64bit (if you only go 4gb of ram only use win 32bit however is not recommended), wd blue hdd (no need for ssd), avermedia c985 capture card.

the cpu, ram and capture card i have ran using xbox, pc, and ps3 (removing the hdcp).
with xbox or ps3 i would run 720p @ 2600kbps and preset on slow. with pc, same settings but on medium.
being that the box will only be doing the encoding and no gameplay i would say that you'd be fine on slow with pc games also.

game audio will go out to hdmi, if your monitor supports you method of headset, then you're good to go. mine has optical.
if not, you can route that sound into the computer from the avermedia then listen on the streaming computer.

the one major thing is, do not, under any circumstance, buy an external capture device. EVER!

 

[Sapiens]

You would need to overclock a 3770/4770 (probably quite a bit) to be able to run medium preset on 1080p video if there's much motion, so you are most likely looking at a 3930/4930. Also if you build this thing, don't come back to the forums and complain that 1080p still doesn't look good even at medium preset with Twitch's bandwidth limits. The medium preset is not a miracle worker and 3500 Kbps just isn't enough for some content to look good at 1080p.

 

[Jollyriffic]

i find that 1080 streams even running 5,000kbps look like crap. the issue is that the stream is only in 540p sized box on the webpage. while 720p looks good being crunched down, 1080 looks too compressed. at least on a 720p 32" samsung led monitor. cant speak for higher resolution monitors.

other than that, a non-partnered or streams without quality options shouldnt stream above 2,800kbps since many people have an issue watching that high of a resolution. you end up turning people away. i always tell non-partnered people to stick with around 2,600kbps @ 720p and 45fps with medium preset. if they have an i7.
it looks great, pretty easy on an i7, and will work with most games since i can even do that playing COD Ghosts.. and that game is very poorly optimized.

 

[tehguy]

1080p30 on veryfast with 3500Kbps looks fairly good and even my first generation i7 can manage that. I normally stick to 720p60 though because frame rate is more important to me than resolution, and 720p60 3.5Mbps still looks pretty nice.

Oh yeah also, in my 2 PC setup, I manage the audio as follows:

Gaming PC -> HDMI output -> Avermedia Extremecap U3 -> Stream PC
Gaming PC -> Speaker output -> Stream PC microphone input

I use Virtual Audio Cable with two lines.

Line 1 (default) is set in Windows to "listen to this device" through my headset so I have normal audio. I also use the VAC repeater to send everything from Line 1 to the HDMI output. So all desktop audio from Gaming PC goes to the Extremecap and the Stream PC receives it all nicely in sync.

Line 2 also comes through my headset and I use this exclusively for Skype/Teamspeak if I don't want to have the VoIP in the stream. All I have to do is switch the audio device in the VoIP program to Line 2 and then it doesn't go to the stream but I still hear it.

My headset microphone is set to "listen" through the motherboard speaker output which is connected to the Stream PC microphone input and therefore just detected as a normal microphone. If I don't want commentary on my stream or I'm in VoIP that I don't want in the stream, I simply mute the microphone in OBS and only the desktop audio goes into the stream.

It probably isn't the tidiest way of doing things but it only required 1 extra cable and no mixer or anything, so by far the cheapest and there are no sync issues.