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Software Required
(if the download links no longer work you can search on Google for other places to DL)
Hardware:
- Computer, preferably a desktop with high processing power. Laptops can work too depending on the specs. My recommendations are 2ghz dual core & 4 gigs ram, but you may be able to get by on lower specs, just don't expect to run a lot of other background programs!
- Internet with at least a 1.5mb upload. Do a Speed Test Here.
Guide Outline:
First Steps: Installation & Setup
First things first, Install all three programs (VHScreen Cap, Flash Meda Encoder 2.5 and the VAC Audio Repeaters.) You may need to restart so you might as well do them all at once before you do any set-up.
Setting Up VH Screen Capture
VH Screen Capture defines the area or portion of your PC screen to broadcast. This program communicates directly to Flash Media Encoder to allow you to broadcast. Without this program, FME would not know what to grab to send to the streaming server!
Start up the VH Screen Capture Driver which should be under Hmelyoff Labs in your Start Menu. The window below will pop-up.
Select "Create new one", this will allow you to define what area of your desktop to broadcast. But, before you do that, click on the "Settings" section and set your settings accordingly as displayed below.
 | | VH Screen Capture Window |
You can play around with the output size, frame rate, show mouse options, etc. However, the most important settings to leave UNCHECKED are "Captured layered windows" & "Optimize screen capture." If your stream is lagging or is really choppy, then these will most likely be causing your problems if you have them checked.
 | | VH Screen Capture Settings |
I specified the output size to Justin.tv's output size (640x360) but you can go higher if you have the bandwidth and the quality. Once those settings are done, you really don't have to go back and adjust them ever again! The next step, is something that may require you to adjust and readjust every time you broadcast. You can click on the option to track the window, track the screen, or show frame. I usually check off Track screen and press select.
Your mouse pointer should turn into a crosshair and you'll be able to define the area of your PC screen that you want to broadcast like so:
 | | Track Screen Example |
Tracking a Window shown below. The thing about this option however, is that it will show the top window information in your cast (the minimize, maximize, close area) to get rid of that you will have to crop the edges in Flash Media Encoder.
Remember, you'll have to set this up every time you switch to a new game or a new area of your screen before your broadcast. Keep this window open during your broadcast, you can minimize to keep it out of the way.
 | | Track Window Example |
Setting Up: Virtual Audio Cables
BEFORE YOU START... you may be lucky enough to just skip using Audio Repeaters. If you check your sound control panel and see the option for "Stereo Mix", then you can just select that option which will capture your mic & PC sounds and mix them together. Unfortunately for me, I did not have that option available even though I installed the right soundcard drivers on my motherboard...so the alternative is to use Audio Repeaters.
Audio Repeaters & Audio Cables come together as a software mixer that allows you to combine your voice & your game audio (and other audio sources such as your PC sounds/music and Skype conversations), all without any external hardware. However, the possible disadvantages include slight sound delay (though relatively unnoticeable unless you're a super audiophile), and not as great of a sound quality like a hardware mixer. In general software mixers are fine for broadcasting-- I would say this would the be the last thing you would upgrade in your whole broadcasting set-up. Video quality & internet bandwidth are more worthwhile to improve first on a live broadcast.
After your VAC installation, open up the control panel. Pretty much you can leave everything on the default settings, but on the top left there is a section called "Driver parameters". Here is where you'll want to set the number of "Audio Cables". My recommendation is to start out with at least 3, I've never needed more than that but you can always come back and adjust it later if you need more cables. Press set and you're done with this configuration!
 | | VAC Control Panel |
Next, you'll want to figure out how to even use your Virtual Audio Cables…. For that I made a separate more comprehensive write up on various Virtual Audio Cable set-ups for PC & Console. However, you can come back to this part later once you just get the rest of this set up, you can figure out how to deal with the sound last.
Setting Up: Flash Media Encoder
The final step, tying it all together with Adobe Flash Media Encoder. This step enables the area defined in VH Screen cap to be streamed to the site of your choice, in this case Justin.tv.
To make sure that we get this program to identify your account on a streaming website, you will have to find and download your .xml profile. Justin.tv has it pretty easily accessible as displayed below:
 | | Justin.tv XML Profiles |
They will give you an option to pick which program profile to use (2.5 in this case, but recently they removed it, so you can download my FME 2.5 XML profile to use as a template here just right click, Save As), and will show your Profile code in the orange box. Don't share your stream code publicly (unless it's someone you really trust or sharing accounts with), as this will leave you vulnerable to stream jacking. Anyone on the internet who stumbles upon your code can input this into Flash Media Encoder and upload their live stream onto your page, which is not good because you can't be sure what kind of things they'll stream for shits and giggles on behalf of your reputation).
Open up FME 2.5, go to File> open profile, and select the profile you just downloaded. This will have most of your settings, but you will have to copy and paste your stream code from the orange box into the stream text box on the lower right side of the application.
 | | Flash Media Encoder 2.5 Settings |
For settings, you can play around with depending on your internet connection, but I have my set up below as a standard stream template (My settings are also already saved in the FME 2.5 XML profile download).
Video
- Device: VHScreen Cap (this is why you had to use VHScreencap to define the area you want to broadcast. It will send this information to FME so that it will upload your live feed to JTV.)
- Format: H.264 < if you're streaming 600kpbs and up you should use this format. If you've got a slower internet connection and can't stream more than 600kpbs then you should use VP6 for a better quality low bitrate stream.
- Size: 640x360, standard size and aspect ratio for the JTV video area on each broadcaster's page. Slowly increase the resolution if you've got the bandwidth for it. This will allow better quality for those who watch your stream in full screen or popout the window and increase the video size.
- FPS: 60fps << this generally has no impact on the size of your stream being uploaded, but 25-60fps should be good. I wouldn't go more than 60fps since really the human eye can't see more frames than that (at least that's what I was taught in an animation class from a million years ago.)
Audio:
- Device: Virtual Audio Cable 2 (remember when we set up the audio repeaters/VACs? The one you want to select here is where you fed all the other audio inputs into, in my case its Virtual Audio Cablle #2)
However, if you have "Stereo Mix" available in your Sound Control Panel in windows, you can select that option instead if skipped over the Audio Repeater section.
- The rest of the settings below can vary for you, I think these were the default so I left it as is or increased it a little bit.
- Format: MP3 Mono
- Sample rate: 4410
- Bit rate: 56
 | | FME 2.5 Audio & Video Settings |
On the right side, Panel Options, these should have been values that the profile you opened filled in for you (the one you just downloaded from the JTV website for the FME version you have).
If not, then these are the values you need to fill in:
- Check Stream to Flash Media Server
- FMS URL: rtmp://live.justin.tv/app
- Stream: this is where you put your stream ID, (read earlier section about not distributing your stream ID)
Be sure to save this profile just in case you lose it. If Flash Media Encoder encounters a problem it tends to reset everything to the default value, so you'll have to re-open a saved profile to get back your settings. File>save profile>place on your PC.
Now you should be all set to stream! Press "start" and test it out. You might want to change the title & password on your stream so that people know you're just testing and not fully broadcasting just yet. After you broadcast for a few minutes, you can stop and then check out your archives to determine if you need to adjust your sound/mic volume, lagging, frame rate issues, or sound delay.
If you find that Flash Media Encoder takes up a lot of resources, you can follow this optional guide, originally by Raidsoft<. This allows you to use a command prompt & .bat files to run your profile through the FME server without using the application that bogs down your CPU.
Post -Set up Checklist & Optional setup
Since we have already done all the installation and initial set-up, this is a basic check list for what you should do before each stream because a few things we setup resets itself when you restart your computer:
- Define the area you want to broadcast: VH Screen Cap
- This has to be set-up before you start up Flash Media Encoder. If you change games that are a different aspect ratio or a different size, you'll have to redefine the area you want to broadcast to fit the dimensions of the game area
- Don't close this window until you're done broadcasting, just keep it minimized.
- Set up your audio repeaters. For each audio repeater window you have up, be sure to press the "start" button on the bottom right of each window to activate the setup. Don't forget to set your default speakers on Skype(this also resets on every restart). You can change your audio set-up any time during your broadcast, but it's best to get it right before you start! Also, you'll have to keep all these audio repeater windows open to keep your audio lines active, but you can minimize them to keep them out of the way.
- Start up Flash Media Encoder (or just click on your command prompt if you followed the optional guide) & start broadcasting!
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