PUMPED! Gaming

Hey guys! I get a lot of questions about my justin.tv broadcast setup, so here’s the lowdown on pretty much everything I know. Justin.tv is the place on the web for live video broadcasts of nearly any nature, and that includes live video game broadcasts.

Broadcasting isn’t that difficult, but if you aren’t sure where to start or have low technical experience, it can be very intimidating. Basically there are two things that you need:

1. Something to capture the video and audio from your computer or console.

2. Something to transmit that captured video and audio to justin.tv’s servers (in other words, the internet).

Number one can be either a video capture card or something that’s known as a virtual webcam. Capture cards are devices that connect to your computer and capture video from a variety of sources–DVD players, consoles, computers, video cameras, etc. Most capture cards support a variety of video inputs, the most popular of which are S-video (super video) and composite. To make this tutorial as friendly as possible, I’m providing pictures of what both kinds of cables look like here:

On the other hand, a virtual webcam is software that runs on your computer. It allows you to create a video feed of a portion or all of your computer screen. You do not need an actual webcam to use virtual webcam software. However, capturing your screen using a virtual webcam may adversely affect your system performance, because it requires processing power unlike having a video out signal. Your best bet is to try some software available to you and decide if it will work for your purposes. In my opinion, virtual webcams work decently well for capturing smaller areas of your screen, for instance if you play an emulated game in a window. If you are trying to broadcast your entire screen or newer games that take a heavier toll on system performance, virtual webcam software may not be right for you, but I think you should at least give it a shot if you are looking for a low-cost alternative to capture cards. Also, since the software can only capture what’s on your computer screen, virtual webcams will only be useful for broadcasting computer games. There are a variety of softwares that you can use, but I have limited experience even with the two I’m going to suggest.

Superwebcam was the first of two that I experimented with. It is very easy to set up and use, but it has limited capabilities. The largest area of your screen that you will be able to capture is 640×480, which is pretty small. If you try to capture a larger area, the colors and picture will be distorted beyond usability.