UghRochester said:
Alright Urban, you wanna me post here. Now educate me. Don't call me ignoramus for not using Ustream Producer.
No promises.
So.. your upload bandwidth is your ultimate gate when it comes to HD streaming.
You want to stream in 480p? Why? Why not 360p? "b/c 480 is obviously better".. not really.
I've seen HD streams in 360, again it depends on your bandwidth.
Basically, bits = information, and the more bits you place into a smaller frame equals higher resolution. So, if you only have 2Mb (2 Megabits not Megabytes) you would want to send as much information through that 2Mb pipeline as possible. The bigger your frame/resolution the less information shows up.
Quick example. If I have broadcast I want to stream in 500p (again just a wide brushing example for ease of translation), and I send 500kbps - then each pixel is only getting 1 bit each second. That is a very pixelated stream - no one wants to watch that. If you have a 500p stream you're sending and use 1Mb or 1000kbps then each pixel is getting 2 bits per second - better stream, but might get pixelated when more information is required to display (explosions, rapid movement, jungle, etc). If you have a 500p stream, and a 1.5Mb bitrate then the pixels are at 3x the information. Resulting in a better stream. Regardless, if your capture device is garbage or your game is pixelated on screen there is no resolution ratio that will help you.
Now taking that into consideration, I'm assuming that your home connection is shitty, but even with a shitty home connection you should get at least 1 or 2 Mbs up. Now with that limited amount of space why do 480p @ 1.5Mb ( close to 3x pixel per second processed), when you can do 360p @ 1.5Mb ( close to 5x pixels processed) and have it look significantly better.
480p and higher are really for people who have viewers that will likely pop your feed out and view it full screen - I dont think most people will be doing that, but if you get more of a following then you might want to stream in a higher quality by investing in better gear and a solid internet connection - We can talk about this also if you like another time.
Producer is good b/c most people dont know this information and do what you do, " 720 is better than 360 so obviously I want to use 720", then they complain to us about how crappy their streams look on our platform. Try it out both ways on the same game and see if you notice the difference. Or try it out on what ever encoding software you're using.
Hope this helps!