Question / Help Video-Capture card , should i get it ?

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GunniQQ

New Member
I want to start streaming , but im a bit confused do i need a video-capture card or no?
I bought an expensive PC (1200 euro) , 2 monitors , mic ,headphones etc. and when i think im rdy to start, some ppl telling me what i should get a video capture card. I dont have a xbox or PS4...
Can somebody help me with this? Can i stream in 1080p with nice quality without video-capture card?
PS if should get it , will AverMedia LiveGamer HD Lite be a nice one?

PSS sorry if my english is so bad.
 
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Radzaquiel

Member
Well...what's your rig ?

IMHO, just try it without card ! If it's not positive, you can always fall back to a 720p stream. A good 720p is always more pleasant than a "meh" 1080p.

Moreover, if you're a beginner in streaming, you won't have transcoding abilities on streaming platforms so your stream will be in 1080p for everyone and...not everyone can handle a 1080p stream.

My advice would be then: stream in a good 720p & you wouldn't need a Capture card (if your PC rig is really good, that's it ;)
 
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GunniQQ

New Member
PC Specs:
Intel i7 4770
R9 290X (4 gb) (overclocked 15%)
16 GB Ram (Ballistix Sport)
SSD Kingston HyperX 120 GB

so i need a video-capture card only if my pc sucks?

PS playing in BF4, H1Z1 and all new games on Ultra settings + x16 without laggs. (60-120 fps)
PSS video-capture card costs not too much , i can buy it if i need anyways in future. I just want to start streaming in super good quality :)
 
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XeiZ

XeiZ

Member
No, you never need one for 1 pc, anyone who tells you otherwise is A. retarded or B. stuck in the past and retarded.
They dont lower cpu usage, they actually increase it (not by much but still...why would you want that). OBS (and to a degree xsplits) capture methods are way more efficient than capture cards.
 
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GunniQQ

New Member
Saw it on avermedia site.
dpyc9ey.png
 
XeiZ

XeiZ

Member
That graph has nothing to do with obs, its using the avermedias (BAD) hardware encoder which is not available on obs and cant even beat intels quicksync or nvidias nvenc quality wise. You would have to use avermedias program to stream and it would look WAY worse than x264 at probably even ultrafast preset.
 
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GunniQQ

New Member
XeiZ said:
That graph has nothing to do with obs, its using the avermedias (BAD) hardware encoder which is not available on obs and cant even beat intels quicksync or nvidias nvenc quality wise. You would have to use avermedias program to stream and it would look WAY worse than x264 at probably even ultrafast preset.
Click to expand...
now i understand , thx :)
 
D

Deleted member 30350

Radzaquiel said:
Moreover, if you're a beginner in streaming, you won't have transcoding abilities on streaming platforms so your stream will be in 1080p for everyone and...not everyone can handle a 1080p stream.
Click to expand...
You mean those few thousands of people around the world who for some weird reason or bad luck still have less than 5mbit download speed?
 
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Radzaquiel

Member
Octopuss said:
You mean those few thousands of people around the world who for some weird reason or bad luck still have less than 5mbit download speed?
Click to expand...

Believe me, it's sooo far from being "a few thousands of people around the world"...(just in France it represents ~15-20% of internet connections so already ~4,5 Millions of internet subscibers)
 
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Deleted member 30350

Radzaquiel said:
Believe me, it's sooo far from being "a few thousands of people around the world"...(just in France it represents ~15-20% of internet connections so already ~4,5 Millions of internet subscibers)
Click to expand...
Jesus. Is it really that bad? I mean I live in a smaller town in central Czech republic, and I have 25mbit on a damn wifi.
 
XeiZ

XeiZ

Member
That is only part of the reason high bitrates are not recommended, its about how internet works. Its not as simple as "some people have low upload", have you ever tried a speedtest overseas or overall to a place further away? Your speed will drop A LOT, you could have a bad server in between you and your target and if you are unpartnered and have a low viewer count you stream _will_ come from san francisco for your viewers no matter where you are streaming TO or where your viewers are FROM. A more widespread distribution only kicks in the more viewers you have.

So even if YOU can handle 3500kbps to the server YOU choose, that doesnt mean Peter in London can get that 3500kbps CONSTANT download from the SF server even if he has a 100mbps connection.

Speedtests like testmy.net and speedtest.com are NOT good enough to check for streaming enviroment either.
R1ch (the person who wrote obs netcode stuff) made this a few days ago http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/tech-support/478845-twitchtest-twitch-bandwidth-tester this is not something that helps you understand why viewers might lag but it might give you an idea how low your upload actually can get for streaming to places further away, the same drop in bandwidth or stability of it will occur for download, maybe even worse.

Another big part of twitch by now is mobile viewers, those people dont have insane internet and more then often limited data plans, so a higher bitrate eats that up very fast.

TLDR: Internet speed of viewers is not the main factor for buffering and you cant really fix it without a higher viewer count.
 
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