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Windows Livestreaming & Recording Guide (Part 1: DXtory)

Discussion in 'Software' started by nchhabs, 22 May 2012.

  1. MrDomRocks

    MrDomRocks Modder

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    I just purchased Dxtory for the sole purpose of making even more awesome videos and generally recording almost all of the games I play.

    Once it is running I am going to ignore it and just game. Seems to be the best way to get good footage. Instead of trying to record something specific.
     
  2. nchhabs

    nchhabs www.twitch.tv/dracaXL

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    Nice matey - well worth it. I've been playing a lot of CS source and Dota 2 lately - might see how source handles streaming. With two 580s I'm getting over 400fps at all times, so hopefully it won't impact gameplay at all, haha!
     
  3. kol

    kol What's a Dremel?

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    Ignore me

    Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
     
    Last edited: 31 Jan 2013
  4. bigc90210

    bigc90210 Teh C

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    absolutely amazing guide, set it up a few days ago and steaming x-com at 720p amazingly well on my 5mb (though only using 4000kbps) upload. Thank you SO much for taking the time to make this amazing tutorial. Ive streamed hundreds of clunkey left 4 dead / blood bowl games, and now i can finally stream smoothly! simply amazing.

    Thanks again,

    C

    EDIT:

    actually, just thought i'd ask. ive seen a lot of tutorials using Lagarith’s lossless codec, and others using h.264, which is better for streaming?
     
  5. nchhabs

    nchhabs www.twitch.tv/dracaXL

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    Cheers mate, glad it helped you out. With regards to Lagarith vs. h.264, these codecs are only used when recording to the hard drive.

    For streaming, DXtory will send data to XSplit which will then compress the signal based on settings related to how powerful your CPU is (e.g. superfast/veryfast/fast). Paradoxically, the more powerful your CPU, the lower the setting - so if you have a 3960x, you could set your compression value to fast, but if you have an i7 2600k, you'd set it to 'veryfast'.
     
  6. bigc90210

    bigc90210 Teh C

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    im currently running a i5 2500k @ 4.2ghz so have it on super fast, thats right yeah?
     
  7. nchhabs

    nchhabs www.twitch.tv/dracaXL

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    Yep, that should be fine - you should try 'veryfast' to see if you get a noticeable quality increase without sacrificing performance though. The 2500k is very close in performance to the 2600k and considering you've got it overclocked it's worth a shot.
     
  8. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Not sure how active Nchhabs is, but I was wondering, is there anyway I could I use my LAN rig to record? That would take the load of the CPU/GPU in my main rig.
     
  9. nchhabs

    nchhabs www.twitch.tv/dracaXL

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    Best way to outsource recording is to utilise a similar approach that the console fellas do, which is output video to a dedicated external recording solution that duplicates the audiovisual feed to your monitor and to the secondary computer.

    So something like this: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr2-gaming.html

    There are quite a few models on the market that do similar things, the XSplit forums are a great resource for reviews on a variety of them. There's one brand that is particularly awesome but their name escapes me for the moment, will PM you if I remember the particular make.

    P.S. Yes, unfortunately super busy with work/study so haven't been very active lately - I try to check the forums once a week though! Might make it onto Mumble some time in the next few weeks I hope. Haven't managed to play any games in a couple months now though :(
     
  10. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Hmm, maybe I'd be better off just recording internally. I just don't like the performance hit. Maybe I should OC a bit more.

    I'd be recording to a 5400rpm drive capable of 80mb sustained write - I assume that would be ok for 720p?
     
    Last edited: 29 Jan 2013
  11. nchhabs

    nchhabs www.twitch.tv/dracaXL

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    The 5400rpm drive should be fine for 720p - just try and make sure the game is running off a separate physical drive if possible, for optimal performance.

    I've found SSDs make the biggest performance difference for recording - even moreso than graphics cards. Beefy CPUs can do wonders as well, particularly the SB and IVB extreme editions, however they tend to be crazy expensive :(.
     
    Parge likes this.
  12. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Ok brilliant.

    BF3 is installed on an SSD, with the 5400rpm drive seperate so that should be ok.

    I'll whack my OC up to to 4.5Ghz just to make sure.

    Thanks for all your help Draca!
     
  13. adzc1987

    adzc1987 Minimodder

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    Great guide, helped me a lot. :)
     
  14. MrDomRocks

    MrDomRocks Modder

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    Draca was ahead of the times when he posted this, now all the youtubers/streamers are using Dxtory.

    Many of them ditching expensive capture cards due to issues with drivers, I know the Avermedia card has problems at the moment xD
     
  15. Jester_612

    Jester_612 "Jammy..."

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    I've noticed tearing from cap cards, Lvlcaps videos for example. It was especially bad the first few.
     
  16. MrDomRocks

    MrDomRocks Modder

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    Quite a few youtubers who have been sent Avermedia cards have stopped using them due to poor quality video or issues with drivers causing games to crash or no video at all me captured.

    Dxtory all the way!!
     
  17. Jester_612

    Jester_612 "Jammy..."

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    This looks pretty good. You'd use it split out audio streams for multitracking in an editor (Isolate game audio and any number of simultaneous audio - music, voip, windows sys etc).

    It's about £16, but there are volume discounts, being 2-9 and 10-99 (£11 each), anyone else interested.
     
  18. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Just picked up DXTory - cost £26 with the conversion. Oc'd my CPU to 4.5Ghz and just did some tester videos. My HD shows a maximum sustained write speed of 65mbps. I get a small amount of frame rate dip, but nothing major. Is this normal?
     
  19. Jester_612

    Jester_612 "Jammy..."

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    Yeah, a bit of a dip is normal, I've heard FRAPS is catastrophic.
     
  20. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Ok, sooo, I've got DXTory setup and running. My only issue is, that when watching the footage back, the game freezers for the first few seconds of recording, and then proceeds as normal. Its like the HD isn't spinning up fast enough, so is missing the first few seconds of footage.

    Any ideas why this might be happening?

    EDIT: Confirmed this by writing to my SSD which was fine. Assume normal 7200rpm drives don't have this problem?
     
    Last edited: 2 Feb 2013

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