Streaming...

I dont know why (because as a Madden player I'm shite) but I have the urge to invest into capture equipment to be able to stream games.

I think it was John that may have bought one and made their streams very appealing - but could whoever it was please recommend me some hardware to look into?

Cheers

I've been looking into capture equipment myself, for other purposes (4th String, not porn, games writing, and definitely not porn), and Ryan mentioned Dazzle as cheap equipment. Problem is, the HD version doesn't seem to actually capture in HD, it's still SD inputs.

But here's one I stumbled across on Amazon. Has some of the better reviews and better quality. Only issue is that it's expensive as fuck.

http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-1212-Definition-Personal-Recorder/dp/B0018LX0DY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1306888810&sr=8-2

I want it. But I can barely afford rent as it is, so someday!

I've never gotten into the idea of doing 360 captures, but I know a bit of videography stuff hobby/side job if there's motivation enough to do it. Blackmagic is the company you want to go with for HDMI capturing. http://www.amazon.com/Blackmagic-Design-Intensity-Pro-Editing/dp/B001CN9GEA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306910218&sr=8-1

Intensity pro is one of the better cards out there that does it. And you'll want to also get a powered HDMI splitter so that lag isn't an issue with the delay in the capturing. I personally really like monoprice for that kind of stuff, really cheap, great service and good cables and such. http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=hdmi+splitter&x=0&y=0

The problem with blackmagic stuff is that my computer is an all-in-one, so I don't really have the option of installing a new card into it. So I'm limited to external hardware.

I would be too - my main setup is in the lounge, whereas my PC is in the study - anything I get needs to be for my Macbook pro.

Im going to look around today - even if it is SD it'll look good on Ustream - and also considering in the nature of playing live on XBL perhaps its a good thing not to be using HD...

Ah gotcha guys. Then yeah that hauppauge probably one of the better choices. I haven't followed closely in external solutions. Biggest downside is just not enough bandwidth between using USB 2.0 or FireWire so the money in those are chips built in the external box to do compression before it transfers over. I know, but don't know how they are currently that canopus used to make some solid firewire external capture boxes.

For those that can have the option to install a pci-e card, do it over the external boxes. Even if it's for a lower quality streaming you'll get a better quality video if you are able to capture the full resolution of the source and then have the streaming service compress from there.

What about internet bandwidth requirements. I remember reading that it's all about having some decent upload speeds, but does anyone know what is required?

Great question - hadnt thought about that.

Usually Im on a 10mb down, 750kb up connection - I dont know if that gives an issue re latency with a Madden game AND streaming going on..