So today I finally got around to installing my brand spankin' new AverMedia Game Broadcaster HD Capture card! W00t!
But first, some backstory...
Ok so basically for anyone who isn't aware I am one of the biggest retards when it comes to technology. It might sound odd coming from a progamer but basically my parents were quite strict in terms of using the computer growing up. When I was allowed to play games as a teenager it was always next to the kitchen where everyone was and my parents would make it as uncomfortable as possible by nagging. So basically every time I got a chance to play the PC I'd hop straight into games and cram my time in. I never went on forums, websites etc. I also had an older brother who I'd rely on to install, fix and download every game, patch etc.
Basically the results of all this was that by the time my teenage years were over I knew absolutely nothing about how to use a computer other then how to play games! So anyway last year I set up my stream and was absolutely amazed at how simple it was thanks to the help of a bunch of sc2sea people who helped me get my settings and off I went into the land of 240p streaming! I found it really interesting and exciting and liked trying to interact with the streamchat and make an interesting viewing experience!
So go 6 months later and I'd upgraded my mobo, cpu and RAM so that I got to the land of 500p! Yeah, it still wasn't too great, and soon enough my PC was back to dropping frames and whatnot and my streaming was relegated to the funfun ladders of SEA and NA. But hey I did coaching all the time and shared it with everyone as well as did a handful of episodes of "PiG's POV": http://www.twitch.tv/ttpig/b/300206949
So streaming was going ok, the quality wasn't the best but I was feeling happy with it. Whenever I streamed steadily my viewers were growing and even when D3 was down i stayed above 150 viewers for a few hours lol!
At first I was intimidated due to my technology retardation and busy with tournaments so I avoided installing and setting it up but today I finally did it! Oh damn am I glad I finally did it! Some of you may have caught the new and upgraded 750p quality on my stream today! : http://www.twitch.tv/ttpig/b/321943134
As you can see above the card is actually a really simple piece of hardware which I found slotted into my motherboard really easily. At first I tried to do a 2-PC setup using my laptop to play and my desktop to process everything and after confusing myself over the different resolutions I realised I don't even need to use a dual-PC setup!
Derpppp!
So basically I just plugged a HDMI cable from my mobo slot to my GPU slot and sound worked! A few minutes later I'd turned off my 2nd monitor (my gpu is old and can't handle more then a 2 things taking/giving it information at any time) and now it worked!
Basically the card just sits in my pc and says "hi computer I'm your friend you don't need to blow yourself up trying to process video anymore I do that for you!". My bandwidth at just 0.83mbps can handle 750p just fine and as the card handles everything I have no frame drops from the stream burden!
So in summary...
I'm really happy as I never realised that I'd be able to stream in such high resolution on Australian internet! I probably need to adjust some settings to optimise it but I was really happy with the quality already. I'll be streaming on a more and more regular basis as the lag will be less of an issue and you guys can actually see my zerglings on creep now!
Thanks AVerMedia! Hopefully see you all on my streamchat soon!
I think i need to get myself one of these bad boys! Streaming in HD would be awesome for live events and my PC wont die either, is there a RRP on this beauty?
C127 is a good card to be sure, although for your purposes I would have recommended the C985 Live Gamer HD - http://www.avermedia.com/Product/Pro...il.aspx?Id=571 - it handles a large portion of the processing on the actual card.
I think it's time for Chris to pony up for a new PC for you!
I will be getting one of those Live Gamer cards soon - oh I can't wait. Will definitely do an unboxing and review of it when I do, I'll be able to do all my game reviews (video rather than written) and COD4 gameplay videos from then on, w00t!
Very nice write-up PiG, always great to see more content
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