Getting better picture from live streams

[lindsayanng]

I am very VERY green at video streaming. I can use Final Cut Pro, and my husband was a video editor for a pretty big BMX video company - so he knows a lot about video as well.. What we do not know about is streaming.

I recently joined ustream and did some test streams using my canon ZR950 mini DV camcorder and firewired directly into my MBP which was running camtwist and then into ustream. I was told camtwist will keep the video more stable than just running direct inot ustream from my MBP (apparently ustream does NOT like macs)

Anyways.. the video quality was crap, and it would have been even crappier if it was video of people, and not just a sleeping dog.

So my question to you is.. there is ANY want to get a much higher quality video out of a live stream? What types of things do i need?

Better compressions software?
faster internet connection with higher upload rates?
Different streaming client (instead of ustream)
or new hardware?

here's the link to my "ustream show" which is pretty lame.. but just so you can see the quality that I am getting now and where i want to go UP from
power nubby ustream shows

[huntercr]

Originally Posted by lindsayanng

I am very VERY green at video streaming. I can use Final Cut Pro, and my husband was a video editor for a pretty big BMX video company - so he knows a lot about video as well.. What we do not know about is streaming.

I recently joined ustream and did some test streams using my canon ZR950 mini DV camcorder and firewired directly into my MBP which was running camtwist and then into ustream. I was told camtwist will keep the video more stable than just running direct inot ustream from my MBP (apparently ustream does NOT like macs)

Anyways.. the video quality was crap, and it would have been even crappier if it was video of people, and not just a sleeping dog.

So my question to you is.. there is ANY want to get a much higher quality video out of a live stream? What types of things do i need?

Better compressions software?
faster internet connection with higher upload rates?
Different streaming client (instead of ustream)
or new hardware?

here's the link to my "ustream show" which is pretty lame.. but just so you can see the quality that I am getting now and where i want to go UP from
power nubby ustream shows

My guess is that your quality issue is probably your upload rates since you're doing this live.

I know this isn't probably what you want to hear, but why stream live? Seems kind of limited. I would rather have more control over the video bandwidth and quality via youtube or vimeo.

[neutrino23]

I think you need to pay if you want to have good performance. Just as a reference here is a site that hosts your video via Quicktime streaming server.

http://www.systame.com/html/quicktim...ng-server.html

This lets you do live broadcasts or they host media on demand.

They start at 5GB/month for $24. With fair compression that sounds like at least ten hours of video.

You would send the video via QuickTime Broadcaster which is free.

I haven't tried this site but I have been nosing around to learn about video streaming for a while.

[lindsayanng]

are you sure that online upload times (from the ISP) have nothing to do with it??

I do own my own server - i could probably get away with hosting something like this on my OWN web server IF i knew the equipment that I needed. I just do not know how to pull a live stream..

I am also OK with paying monthly.. but i do not have a lot of faith in a company that can't put a couple hundred bucks into a nice looking website. Looks like a highschool kid runs that one