Broadcasting

So I've recently gotten into watching stuff on Justin.tv, and so one night I got to thinking, 'how does one go about doing a screencast?' And so, being the nerd I am with the free time I have, I looked into it. Because I'm sure the world is SO interested in what I do on my computer...like, uh, my homework? Because I DEFINITELY am not condoning the use of these steps for showing things like...whatever you have in your video library that's copywritten? Such as tv shows and/or movies? ...DEFINITELY not suggesting anyone do that. Because that's DEFINITELY not what justin.tv is all about...uh, anyway...

01 - The Video Capture

I downloaded multiple programs (all free...cause I'm cheap) and found a lot of them were crap. To be honest, even the legit ones that had a 14 day free trial weren't that good - I don't know why anyone would pay money for them. What did work, though, was Manycam. You can get it here:

http://www.manycam.com/

Don't be thwarted by what it pitches, about being able to 'add animations' or 'add a water or fire effect' - it's not only a video effect tool. It does have the screen capture feature in the sources tab (where you select desktop instead of your camera). It's free and it does what you want for a screen-capture internet-webcast...thing.

NOTE: if/when you download manycam, don't get confused when a window won't open when you launch it - look in your hidden icons (the bottom right corner of your screen) and double click the manycam thing, and THEN the window will open.

Downsides? The video is REALLY choppy. And as far as I've seen, you can't edit the frames per second to make it faster.

How DO you make the video fluid and nice? I downloaded UScreenCapture (get it at: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/UScreenCapture ) and had ManyCam use UScreen instead. (in ManyCam window go to sources > cameras > uscreencapture) and the video works like a dream. You can edit where the box sits, the size, the frame rate, whatever.

So, happy day - you now have something to record, but how do you get it up on a video streaming site like justin.tv?

02 - Broadcasting

It helps to have a justin.tv account. From there you click the big red 'Broadcast' button in the upper right corner, and go through the steps, invite your audience (if you want to - you don't have to) until you come to step 3, which is starting the broadcast.

In the Adobe Flash Player settings, go to the little webcam symbol tab, and select ManyCam from the drop down menu. Then go to the microphone tab, reduce echo, and select 'wave in' or 'line in' or whatever you have from the drop down.

Or, if you're like me and have a computer without the wave in record feature, select Microphone and stretch your headphones to the mic on your computer, cause that's the best that can happen, cap'n.

Select 'Allow' from the privacy tab (computer with an eye) and you should be ready to go.

03 - You're Done, playa!

I'm sure there are better solutions to broadcast in this manner, but I sure haven't found them online, or you have to pay to do it. In the way I listed, everything is free.

So open up a can of awesome and curtsy to the world, because your fly desktop is now visible to the world of the internet, and a dozen people await your broadcast. PEACE!