Question / Help Streaming With 2 PC's - ???

RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
Hello guys, I've ordered a 2nd PC I will be using for streaming, but reading a few guides I've become a little lost.

Most guides I've found ether are a jumbled mess of broken English and badly formatted/worded sentences or guides involving a capture-cards like Avermedia.

So was hoping ether somebody could help me here with basics setups and ease of use or point me to a good guide with a relevance to my setup?

Both PC's are Windows 10
Both PC's are Intel - i5 3670k/i5 4570k
My main PC has 2 AMD 7970's in CrossFire,
2nd PC will have no GPU, but I can put one of the 7970's in there if that is better
I have 2 BenQ monitors that are connected by DVI
And I don't use a capture card like mentioned above

When streaming from a 2nd PC, can my 1st PC use CrossFire in games without a streaming related problem? Streaming with 1 PC when using CrossFire is just horrible, or will I have to split the cards up?

Thank you for any help you can give,
if my post is a little needy and candid, I apologise.
 
D

DoAGoldeneye

Member
Long story short: You'll need a capture card/device. There's no two ways about it. That's literally the only way without capturing your Crossfire image from the gaming PC.
 
RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
DoAGoldeneye said:
Long story short: You'll need a capture card/device. There's no two ways about it. That's literally the only way without capturing your Crossfire image from the gaming PC.
Click to expand...

How so? I now of many people who have 2 PC setup for streaming who don't use a dedicated capture card - and I'm willing not to use Crossfire.
 
W

wdapunisher

Member
Gotta have a capture card man. I have 2 PC streaming setup. I use the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable. Most use the Live Gamer HD and would be what I recommend. I cloned my gaming display through NVIDIA Control Panel and went in W10 to re-set my refresh rate back to 120Hz for my DVI output. The cloned display feeds off of HDMI at 60Hz and goes to my capture card. I also use analog audio cables from my sound card speaker output to feed my capture card and then another cable from the capture card's audio out to the mic input on my stream rig's sound card. I do this because OBS MP has a bug that makes audio stutter from the Capture Card Audio that goes through my USB. For me, the video/audio is fed through USB 2.0 to my stream rig where OBS encodes it automatically. The Old OBS you had to use AV's LGP Stream Engine which then became a source you could add to your scene. Now OBS MP handles it internally. That's the basics. The video part is easy to get working. It's the audio that sucks and can be a pain. There's usually a delay between the audio and the video. So you have to figure out the time difference and use the audio delay function in audio settings for OBS MP. Mine is -600msec. My issue currently is because my audio is patched through a cable to my stream rig as a workaround, my mic is in sync with my video while the game video isn't and because they are fed on the same signal path if I adjust the delay to sync the game audio, my mic is out of sync and vice versa. With all that being said, that's why I recommend the internal card. You'll avoid a lot of those frustrations. I'm working on a setup video and will attempt to clearly explain the general setup as a 2 PC setup is usually similar.
 
dodgepong

dodgepong

Administrator
Community Helper
There is a really janky way to do 2-PC streaming without a capture card, but I don't recommend it. Basically, you set up a private RTMP server on your local network and stream to it at a high bit rate using a hardware encoder like QuickSync or NVENC with OBS Classic, then open the stream on the second computer in OBS and restream it at a more reasonable bit rate. Like I said, it's really janky and not recommended.

The "normal", reasonable way to do 2-PC streaming is to get a capture card. The people you say aren't using capture cards are either using the above janky setup, or are actually using a capture card and you don't realize it.
 
RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
hmm, so seems I must save for a CC, anyone recommend that one that is will good 720p at 60 fps? (I'm a CS player as well as other FPS, so I prefer the 60fps over 1080p at 30)

I don't have much money left or much on the way to splash out on a CC, the C985 Lite any good?
 
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DoAGoldeneye

Member
Actually, if you have USB 3.0, look into the Avermedia Livegamer Extreme. It's pretty well priced considering it does 1080p60. Otherwise the C985 (Lite or not) is a good alternative. Very popular due to having near-zero delay, which is something you'll generally really want as a streamer.
 
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wdapunisher

Member
Even if you don't have USB 3.0, most unpartnered streamers can't get the bandwidth needed to feed 1080/60. Your viewers will be buffering like there's no tomorrow. 720/60 is always a good option. Also, like dodgepong said, the RTMP server is the only option if you don't have a capture card. You can use old OBS and stream off the same rig using NVENC or quicksync with minimal FPS loss, but you'll still use CPU resources regardless.
 
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DoAGoldeneye

Member
wdapunisher said:
Even if you don't have USB 3.0, most unpartnered streamers can't get the bandwidth needed to feed 1080/60. Your viewers will be buffering like there's no tomorrow. 720/60 is always a good option. Also, like dodgepong said, the RTMP server is the only option if you don't have a capture card. You can use old OBS and stream off the same rig using NVENC or quicksync with minimal FPS loss, but you'll still use CPU resources regardless.
Click to expand...
The 1080p60 is just future-proofing. You'll be able to make great recordings as well as streaming.
Agreed that there's no need to stream at 1080p.

And the SLI setup causes normal capturing to be "not great". Huge fps drops because the driver has to revert to a method where it can capture every frame.
 
RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
It's a shame there is not software that can essentially convert a GPU or make a GPU be used like a capture card and encoder. In a lot of respects, GPU's are just like CPU's

Looks like I'm going to have to save for a CC, I'll get the C985 Lite, see how that works out, don't want anything fancy, just something to get the job done with little hassle
 
RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
wdapunisher said:
Where's AMD's all-in-wonder cards? Those used to be nice way back when. Surprised they haven't kicked that back in gear.
Click to expand...

It's a shame, they was good and still lare, but they was before their time and now that they can really be usefull, they have been forgetten.
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
So the "janky" way would still have the problem with SLI setups, whereas the capture card method does not.

Do you actually game at 720p60? Or do you game at 1080p60 and then you'll downscale to 720p60?
 
Jack0r

Jack0r

The Helping Squad
If you play CS on some old 4:3 resolution, make sure the capture card can take that as input, as it will be probably more important than 1080p60 :D
But if you want to put all stress of streaming/recording on the second PC, definitely go for a Capture Card. Preferably an pci-e one.
 
RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
Boildown said:
So the "janky" way would still have the problem with SLI setups, whereas the capture card method does not.

Do you actually game at 720p60? Or do you game at 1080p60 and then you'll downscale to 720p60?
Click to expand...

Do you mean do I play my game is native res of 1920x1080 or do you mean do I have my recording setting in OBS as 1080 then down scaled to 720p? - answer to both questions is yes.
 
RoyalCSGO

RoyalCSGO

Member
Jack0r said:
If you play CS on some old 4:3 resolution, make sure the capture card can take that as input, as it will be probably more important than 1080p60 :D
But if you want to put all stress of streaming/recording on the second PC, definitely go for a Capture Card. Preferably an pci-e one.
Click to expand...

Lucky I play in native so I don't have the 4:3 problems, not that I even could anyway, 4:3 doesn't isn't friendly with Windows 10 right now.

I've deiced on the Live Gamer HD C985 Lite, PICE card too - will stream in 720p60fps, as it's CSGO I prefer the FPS
 
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