Question / Help Two PC Setup Questions

[Eskie]

Hey OBS community,

I am considering buying a second PC for stream encoding, and I had a few questions regarding setup.

Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Capture Card: AVerMedia Live Gamer HD
Motherboard: ASRock Z87E-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

1. My understanding is that I can use the HDMI connection with VAC to get sound/video to the encoding PC. So, will the encoding PC only need two connections (HDMI/internet)?

2. Would using Synergy be the easiest way to control my encoding PC?

3. I currently have two monitors hooked up to my gaming PC. What is the best way to get the display from the encoding PC onto my second monitor?

Thanks for any help,
-Eskie

 

[Sapiens]

1. The capture card will appear as a playback device on your gaming PC ("AVERMEDIA HD/High Definition Audio Device"). If you're using Realtek onboard sound you can use the Windows "Listen to" function for the Stereo Mix recording device to send your system audio to the capture card. In OBS you'll want to enable buffering for the Live Gamer HD and set it to ~150ms to get things to sync up, as a slight delay will be introduced with this method.

2. This is what I use and it works perfectly.

3. The capture card is treated as a monitor, so how well this will work depends on how well your video card handles a triple monitor setup. Typically you clone your monitor output to the capture card, but depending on what your options are a splitter might be required. Edit: I misunderstood your question. Just hook the second monitor to your encoding box and use Synergy as mrasmus suggested below.

 

[mrasmus]

1) VAC will be necessary to split across multiple output devices (an audio card for headphones so you can hear, plus HDMI output to be captured by the Aver card), so that should work. You'll also presumably want a connection for your microphone for capturing it separately on the second computer, just depends on how you want to set things up to determine which.

2) Synergy's fabulous, use it to eliminate keyboard/mouse pairs all the time, including in my streaming setup. Should work great. Set up hotkeys to "lock" to a single screen, and jump between them, though, 'cause otherwise you can get some weird jumpiness with fullscreen games/FPS/other things.

3) I'm not... certain what you mean here. Hook it up to a monitor. You don't want to run it headless and use something like VNC, because DirectX (which OBS relies on) will *not* like it -- it needs a target device, in my experience, or gets really finnicky. Either give up one of your monitors (heck, use a separate port so you can swap back to your main computer when not streaming), or add another to your set up.

Also, just a side note, ditch the optical drive; who uses those things anymore? ;-)

 

[Eskie]

In regards to my third question, currently I use one monitor to game and the other for websites, music, etc. With the two pc setup I was wondering if there is a way to easily cycle the second monitor from the miscellaneous display from the gaming PC and the display from the encoding PC. Let me know if I'm still not making sense.

 

[Boildown]

Does your prospective dual-use monitor have two inputs and an easy way to switch between them? I have a monitor that I use as an extra screen by my computer for TV, work laptop, and extra computer monitor, that I use a button on the bezel to switch between. I have to use DisplayPort, DVI, and HDMI, but it works.