MnGCA

Manfromwillow · Geocacher Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 139

i am wondering if any fellow cachers out there know of a good website i can use to post a live feed. i need to broadcast for about 12-15 hours at a time, as uninterrupted as possible. also i need to be able to use a mac.

i have used ustream in the past and have had many hiccups while using it with the mac. any suggestions will be appreciated-thanks in advance!

speedysk1

Manfromwillow · Geocacher Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 139

I'm willing to spend a few dollars, but I still have a small budget.

MNMizzou · Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:35 pm Post subject:

Ustream isn't bad, a lot of hiccups are more a byproduct of your internet connection than anything else. 2nd biggest source is your machine itself, the processor not being able to keep up. What kind of video quality are you looking to put up? Obviously the higher the res the bigger the pipe you are going to need.

What is your video source, an internal webcam, or a dedicated camera firewired into the mac?

Manfromwillow · Geocacher Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 139

We ruin a sony handy can with fire wire. I am not real sure of the quality I am guessing 360 or 480 certainly not hd. I am not sure what hardware the computer has. The only reason run a mac is that none of our pc's have the firewire port.

sir_zman · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:51 am Post subject:

I have used UStream in the past for the Twin Cities GeoCaching PodCast when we want to do live streaming; I've heard that YouTube has the ability to do it now, but I've never tried it. If you have a smart phone, UStream has Apps for Android and Apple (not sure about others), so you can stream directly from your phone...I've done that, worked pretty well.

speedysk1 · Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:42 pm Post subject:

Another site I thought of is qik, but I think they may limit the length.

I agree with MNMizzou though that the hiccups were more likely your internet upload or PC/Mac vs the ustream site. Were you doing anything on the computer that is uploading to ustream when it hiccuped? In general if you are trying to stream something like that you want the computer to only focus on that. You also want to be sure that no one else is using the internet connection as they can impact your connection.

I've seen similar issues even with things like skype, netflix, etc. It's almost always an issue with the internet connection.
_________________
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

MNMizzou · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:29 am Post subject:

If you are using a 480 handycame type thing a few things to consider:

1. Expect your audio to basically suck. Handycams traditionally have terrible microphones, and then getting compressed through the internet isn't going to help matters at all. If there is an external audio port and you have the means to get a decent microphone hooked up to it, by all means do that!

2. So very very much of it is ISP dependent. We are starting to stream some our live shots more and more, and even at 2+MBS up we still get hiccups in a 2-3 min liveshot, and that is using broadcast television equipment. Ideally you have an isolated dedicated line with excellent upstream. Your up numbers are you key, cause that's all you're doing. Everyone advertises their download speeds, use a speedtest site to check your up numbers.

3. If you think your PC will be more stable go to microcenter in St Louis Park and get a firewire card. They sell them both for desktops as well as laptops. If your laptop has a PCMCIA slot thesell an excellent one that has both the 6 pin and 4 pin firewire input. I use it daily to feed stories back when I'm in the field, it is rock solid.

Good luck... uploading live video is a challenge to say the least! (If you want something of any decent quality at all)