Snow Leopard + Quicktime Broadcaster + Camtwist + JTV = Sweet

I.T. (In Theory) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:34:02 +0000

I have now had Snow Leopard installed on my 24″ iMac for one week and I am impressed with how much better my machine handles video, both for playing and live encoding using Quicktime Broadcaster.

For what I do, broadcasting live internet TV show, it was like getting an upgraded machine. I am able to use the 64 bit processor I have, 2.16 Intel Core 2 Duo, to its full capacity now because of Quicktime 10 and other Apple programs having been upgraded. Sure there were a few programs that needed to be upgraded and I had to replace NeoOffice with Open Office, but not a big deal for me.

This is how I broadcast live streaming video and how I am now able to stream a h.264 640 x 480 resolution picture to Justin.TV with Snow Leopard. I had not been able to do so with Leopard successfully. Trying to do so with 10.5 would lead to my frame rate to drop to 2 or 3 fps and eventually stop after 10 minutes at that as it was. Doing 2 hour shows meant that wouldn’t work and so I was broadcasting a h.264 stream at 320 x 240. The reason I was interested in sending my Justin.TV channel a h.264 stream rather that the using the browser based solution they offer, is that it the picture is clearer. Of course an even higher resolution makes it that much clearer. The reason I use Justin.TV to rebroadcast my show is that they have ways for me to send them the clearer broadcast for free that I haven’t found in the other live streaming companies.

First off I use CamTwist to manipulate my video stream. I can show different video clips, add effects, have graphics overlay parts of my picture, etc. It is an open source piece of software and I had a read a review where it was likened to $250,000 piece of TV broadcasting equipment from a few years back. I had been using version 2.0, but that did not work with Snow Leopard. I searched for the problem and I found that author of Camtwist was working on the fix 2.1 and to email him to try it out. Which I did and I was emailed the new version and it worked with Snow Leopard. Usually Camtwist is set to output a 320 x 240, but you can change this in the preference panel to other resolutions and I picked 640 x 480.

The next piece of the puzzle is that I have been using Quick Time Broadcaster, a free program from Apple. This program allows you to send a single video stream to another computer or video server. For me I send the single stream to Justin.TV which rebroadcasts it so multiple people can watch live at the same time. You can send out different kinds of streams such as the 2.64 stream I send and the program encodes video in real time. This encoding puts the processors to work! Which with Leopard installed could not handle the real time encoding at the 640 x 480 level, but could do the 320 x 240. This was the part I was wondering about when I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Does Quick Time Broadcaster use the Quicktime engine of ones installed Quicktime? I guessed that it did from my research and was excited to see if Quicktime 10’s 64 bit program would be an improvement of the latest version of Quicktime 7.4 I was running. I could not find anything specifically about this by searching the net before I bought the software, and I’m glad to report that it makes a huge difference and that indeed it now works! I did both a 2 hour show and a 1 hour show, no problems. I can’t get near 30 fps this way, but it stays around 15 or so fps. This is acceptable for streaming video as I was told anything over 15 fps is not that noticeable to the human eyes. My viewers tell me they can tell a difference in how crisp my picture looks and how smooth the video flows.

Also when I watch other streaming video online (HD Youtube videos) I notice they play better and faster with Snow Leopard.

If you are interested in doing something similar and want the different settings I suggest you search for the information how to configure the programs and Justin.TV. The information is out there and easily found with the right search terms. Note: I only explained how I sent the video portion of the show out, there are 4 different programs I use together to get the mixed sound sent out at the same time. I don’t have time to explain how that works, but I’ll give a list of what they are: Audio Hijack, LineIn, Soundflower, and Soundsource. You could do it with just Audio Hijack (well worth the $30 or so it cost) and Soundflower, but I also do live interviews with Skype, both audio and video, so I need the extra programs to mix the sound without sending feedback loops or having to hear myself say something 10 seconds after saying it.

I you are interested in seeing the show I do, In Theory TV, click on Video Stream above or the archive link in the sidebar to the right here. All shows before the 14th of September were recorded using Leopard. After that date they are using the new system I just explained.

Go Snow Leopard Go!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In Theory TV » Review

Top Documentary Films

Snow Leopard + Quicktime Broadcaster + Camtwist + JTV = Sweet