NDI/Direct Feed alternative to Skype for live/call-in participants? Skype NDI is terribly unreliable.

[dex110]

Hi there,

I was initially really excited bout Skype's NDI feature. And for my first few streams using it, it worked well. That seems to have been complete luck.

Now, I would say the NDI actually works on a Skype call maybe 50% of the time. This is really frustrating and stressful because I'll test it before going live- it works fine, then I go live and try to dial-in the real callers and no-dice. I'm left scrambling to try and get it to work and then if I can't, setup a junky looking Window Capture which is a huge pain because as I add/subtract speakers the window keeps changing and looks super unprofessional. I've tried restarting, reinstalling the NDI Runtime, reinstalling Skype, playing with what order I open OBS vs Skype, toggling Skype NDI on and off. These things do something, but with no consistent reliability. It seems more coincidence.

Unless anyone has a bulletproof fix for this on Skype, I'm not interested in wasting more time with Skype.

I AM interested in any alternatives, free or paid (within reason), that will allow me to have a direct clean feed / NDI audio/video source for remote callers. I need up to 2-3 concurrent callers.

I've done some early research but can't find any clear options.

Would love some feedback.

Best,
Adam

 

[dex110]

Bueller... Bueller?

 

[outerSpaceCitizen]

Have you tried OBS.Ninja?

 

[dex110]

Have you tried OBS.Ninja?

I had not heard of this!
This is rad. How is this free? Who is paying for the streaming pipes?

A little cumbersome as it involves sharing links. They send me their link and I will have to share my link- but I'll take that over the nonsense I was getting from Skype! this is an upgrade. Thanks very cool.

 

[outerSpaceCitizen]

I had not heard of this!
This is rad. How is this free? Who is paying for the streaming pipes?

A little cumbersome as it involves sharing links. They send me their link and I will have to share my link- but I'll take that over the nonsense I was getting from Skype! this is an upgrade. Thanks very cool.

No paying for the pipes since *almost* every data being transferred is done via p2p.
There's also a group chat option where your callers see you and each other.

 

[My Living Room: Live!]

Although we've looked into OBS.Ninja, we've found it rather nitpicky and prone to mishaps during our tests. We just haven't found it reliable :(

Holds so much promise though! I really want it to work :D