CT Chia
Smash Obsessed
Ok, so being extremely discontent with services like ustream, justintv, and more - I sought to find a superior service, and I believe I've found it.
I've considered plenty of things such as even creating my own custom livestream server, but none of the ideas were practical. Eventually I came across www.livestream.com. Simple enough of a URL right? lol
I've seen other people use this site before, though at first the basic accounts have multiple restrictions, such as having a max of 50 people viewing a stream at once, etc. Yea, that's not gonna fly. However, if you get confirmed through livestream and have your account set up in a certain fashion, you can get a certain type of account that essentially unlocks everything. Luckily enough, I have a full account.
Here is my channel:
http://www.livestream.com/chibosempai
Ads
The ads are fairly minimal, only like a 5-10 second ad when you first log into the channel, and then the standard small overlay ads on the bottom of the video, no different than ustream or justintv, and imo they appear far less.
Quality
The quality is superb for this serivce. For a free account you only have access to SD resolutions, reaching up to 900kbps iirc. This however is still much more than you can come to expect from any other free service. You can pay to upgrade to a pro account and have HD resolution streams with multi-megabit bitrates, but I don't have the money for it
"Smash Channel"
Beyond just providing the stream however, it's so much more. If you have already clicked onto my stream, you'll notice that videos are currently playing on it. Currently I have two sets uploaded to my account set to loop, Mew2King vs Ally from Apex, and Mew2King vs Shiz at RoM. I can upload any amount of matches I want to continuously loop so people can log onto my "Smash Channel" if they want to watch some high quality smash, but more in the style of a TV channel and not choosing videos like YouTube.
Video on Demand
However what if you want to watch a certain video? Livestream also has Video on Demand. Click on the Menu button on my channel and you can choose to browse my on demand library. I can organize everything into folders with categories such as choosing Brawl, Melee, Brawl+, and then further by tournaments.
Powerful Broadcasting
The methods used for broadcasting to Livestream are powerful. There are two main options, the webform which most free services use, and an external program known as Procaster. Procaster has support for multiple video sources with a bunch of cool effects. If you noticed my "Test" video in the Video on Demand library, this demonstrates some of the cool effects that are possible. I can have a webcam on one side, and direct feed gameplay on the other. I can also set it up to view the computer desktop on one side (how I showed the direct feed) meaning I can even show the bracket on the livestream! The two video feeds can be in full screen taking turns on which is up, side by side in a 3D view, or in sort of a 2D overlay view. Additionally, you can switch between any of these effects whenever you wish. It doesn't stop with the video either... I can have the direct game audio from the system and a commentary microphone both on at the same time and adjust the audio levels so everyone can clearly hear the commentary while also getting a taste of the game audio in the background like you're really there.
Video Recording
All of this is so awesome, that you want to see it again and again. I'm sure you've guessed it already by now by seeing my Test clip, but whatever you see on the stream can be recorded to a file (which you can then upload to your video on demand). Since Procaster works on your computer and not through a webform, the video can be directly saved to your hard drive for a high quality record unlike the awful recordings that ustream provide.
Chat
Of course chat is standard like all other livestream services. Sometimes people claim that the chat can be the source of lag on services like utstream, but the chat works perfectly in livestream and causes no problem to the stream.
Additionally, I can embed it here on the boards for anyone that wishes to watch in a thread if they wish.
<script src="http://static.livestream.com/scripts/playerv2.js?channel=chibosempai&layout=playerEmbedDefault&backgroundColor=0xffffff&backgroundAlpha=1&backgroundGradientStrength=0&chromeColor=0x000000&headerBarGlossEnabled=true&controlBarGlossEnabled=true&chatInputGlossEnabled=false&uiWhite=true&uiAlpha=0.5&uiSelectedAlpha=1&dropShadowEnabled=true&dropShadowHorizontalDistance=10&dropShadowVerticalDistance=10&paddingLeft=10&paddingRight=10&paddingTop=10&paddingBottom=10&cornerRadius=10&backToDirectoryURL=null&bannerURL=null&bannerText=FR Tourney Central&bannerWidth=320&bannerHeight=50&showViewers=true&embedEnabled=true&chatEnabled=true&onDemandEnabled=true&programGuideEnabled=false&fullScreenEnabled=true&reportAbuseEnabled=false&gridEnabled=false&initialIsOn=false&initialIsMute=false&initialVolume=10&contentId=null&initThumbUrl=null&playeraspectwidth=4&playeraspectheight=3&mogulusLogoEnabled=true&width=400&height=400&wmode=window" type="text/javascript"></script>
Tournaments
The first tournament that I will have to use this awesome service will be my DSO 9 Biweekly coming up this Sunday. Be sure to tune in to watch awesome players such as Atomsk, Inui, Myself, Pyronic Star, Vex, Xzax, AndyG, Keitaro, Eazy, Yes, and much more.
After that, I will certainly be using this for my Beyond the Limit 2 tournament, a Brawl+ tournament you sure do not want to miss.
Additionally, I am working with other tournament hosts like Alex Strife to get this running for their tournaments as well.
I've considered plenty of things such as even creating my own custom livestream server, but none of the ideas were practical. Eventually I came across www.livestream.com. Simple enough of a URL right? lol
I've seen other people use this site before, though at first the basic accounts have multiple restrictions, such as having a max of 50 people viewing a stream at once, etc. Yea, that's not gonna fly. However, if you get confirmed through livestream and have your account set up in a certain fashion, you can get a certain type of account that essentially unlocks everything. Luckily enough, I have a full account.
Here is my channel:
http://www.livestream.com/chibosempai
Ads
The ads are fairly minimal, only like a 5-10 second ad when you first log into the channel, and then the standard small overlay ads on the bottom of the video, no different than ustream or justintv, and imo they appear far less.
Quality
The quality is superb for this serivce. For a free account you only have access to SD resolutions, reaching up to 900kbps iirc. This however is still much more than you can come to expect from any other free service. You can pay to upgrade to a pro account and have HD resolution streams with multi-megabit bitrates, but I don't have the money for it
"Smash Channel"
Beyond just providing the stream however, it's so much more. If you have already clicked onto my stream, you'll notice that videos are currently playing on it. Currently I have two sets uploaded to my account set to loop, Mew2King vs Ally from Apex, and Mew2King vs Shiz at RoM. I can upload any amount of matches I want to continuously loop so people can log onto my "Smash Channel" if they want to watch some high quality smash, but more in the style of a TV channel and not choosing videos like YouTube.
Video on Demand
However what if you want to watch a certain video? Livestream also has Video on Demand. Click on the Menu button on my channel and you can choose to browse my on demand library. I can organize everything into folders with categories such as choosing Brawl, Melee, Brawl+, and then further by tournaments.
Powerful Broadcasting
The methods used for broadcasting to Livestream are powerful. There are two main options, the webform which most free services use, and an external program known as Procaster. Procaster has support for multiple video sources with a bunch of cool effects. If you noticed my "Test" video in the Video on Demand library, this demonstrates some of the cool effects that are possible. I can have a webcam on one side, and direct feed gameplay on the other. I can also set it up to view the computer desktop on one side (how I showed the direct feed) meaning I can even show the bracket on the livestream! The two video feeds can be in full screen taking turns on which is up, side by side in a 3D view, or in sort of a 2D overlay view. Additionally, you can switch between any of these effects whenever you wish. It doesn't stop with the video either... I can have the direct game audio from the system and a commentary microphone both on at the same time and adjust the audio levels so everyone can clearly hear the commentary while also getting a taste of the game audio in the background like you're really there.
Video Recording
All of this is so awesome, that you want to see it again and again. I'm sure you've guessed it already by now by seeing my Test clip, but whatever you see on the stream can be recorded to a file (which you can then upload to your video on demand). Since Procaster works on your computer and not through a webform, the video can be directly saved to your hard drive for a high quality record unlike the awful recordings that ustream provide.
Chat
Of course chat is standard like all other livestream services. Sometimes people claim that the chat can be the source of lag on services like utstream, but the chat works perfectly in livestream and causes no problem to the stream.
Additionally, I can embed it here on the boards for anyone that wishes to watch in a thread if they wish.
<script src="http://static.livestream.com/scripts/playerv2.js?channel=chibosempai&layout=playerEmbedDefault&backgroundColor=0xffffff&backgroundAlpha=1&backgroundGradientStrength=0&chromeColor=0x000000&headerBarGlossEnabled=true&controlBarGlossEnabled=true&chatInputGlossEnabled=false&uiWhite=true&uiAlpha=0.5&uiSelectedAlpha=1&dropShadowEnabled=true&dropShadowHorizontalDistance=10&dropShadowVerticalDistance=10&paddingLeft=10&paddingRight=10&paddingTop=10&paddingBottom=10&cornerRadius=10&backToDirectoryURL=null&bannerURL=null&bannerText=FR Tourney Central&bannerWidth=320&bannerHeight=50&showViewers=true&embedEnabled=true&chatEnabled=true&onDemandEnabled=true&programGuideEnabled=false&fullScreenEnabled=true&reportAbuseEnabled=false&gridEnabled=false&initialIsOn=false&initialIsMute=false&initialVolume=10&contentId=null&initThumbUrl=null&playeraspectwidth=4&playeraspectheight=3&mogulusLogoEnabled=true&width=400&height=400&wmode=window" type="text/javascript"></script>
Tournaments
The first tournament that I will have to use this awesome service will be my DSO 9 Biweekly coming up this Sunday. Be sure to tune in to watch awesome players such as Atomsk, Inui, Myself, Pyronic Star, Vex, Xzax, AndyG, Keitaro, Eazy, Yes, and much more.
After that, I will certainly be using this for my Beyond the Limit 2 tournament, a Brawl+ tournament you sure do not want to miss.
Additionally, I am working with other tournament hosts like Alex Strife to get this running for their tournaments as well.
