Shoutcast based video recording systems.

[toqer]

This is going to be a thread about how I do things. I'm sharing this info here because I'm really starting to meet a lot of nice people here, and I'd like to give some of you the tools I use to create my stuff.

Before I get into the tech side, i'd like to make a little legal disclaimer on how to protect yourself. Do not sell your videos of your singers, you do not have the rights. Instead upload your video to sites that do have most licensing in place, namely google, youtube, and aol's uncut and give them out for free. The fact that these sites are actively seeking licensing so their users can use background compositions in thier videos, and the fact that you're doing it for free should relieve you of any intent to commit copyright violation.

With all that said let's get onto the requirements of the system.

 

[toqer]

Shoutcast overview

So what exactly is shoutcast?

Shoutcast is the streaming media engine created by the same guys that brought you winamp. It's free, it's good, it works yummy with winamp and instantly gives you a +1 to your epenis.

Shoutcast recording systems aren't for the faint of heart. You should have some understanding of networking and how to edit config files.

If all this sounds too tough for your girlyman I can't turn on my PC persons, then skip to another thread, this isn't for you.

 

[SoftJock Rick]

I get no audio...

 

[toqer]

Requirements

The *REAL* requirements.

2 computers. Your KJ machine, and your video machine.

Any Winamp based karaoke system.

A camera. DV camcorder with firewire is prefferred, but a webcam can work just as well.

Shoutcast DNAS software on the video machine, and any winamp title updater on the KJ machine(our soft happens to have a title updater built in) You could try to use the shoutcast DSP for winamp for title updating, but it can get messy since you'd also have to use a DSP stacking plugin. all availiable at www.shoutcast.com

Nullsoft video tools. Availiable from www.nullsoft.com

Streamripper software. http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/

 

[Travis B]

also folks if you need help with either Hosting services or the like, let me know I specialize in this. I can handle the configuration of such services off site and allow you to roam wild... Be weary, bandwidth costs big money these days!

 

[toqer]

I get no audio...

That was one created by one of my singers.... I think he ****ed up somehow Try the ones I created at google and aol uncut.

 

[Travis B]

any links toqer?

 

[toqer]

The image below shows the basic setup of a shoutcast based recording system. Due to the load NSVenc or NSVcap (included in NSVtools) it's recomended you run nothing else on your video encoding machine.

Unless you have a dual quad core (8 cores) it's really recomended to split off the different programs onto as many computers as possible.

 

[toqer]

So why shoutcast?

Sure, you could just point a camera at the stage, hit record, and record video. That's not taking into account the time you're going to have to spend editing 5 hours of video into 70 clips of your singers. The image below pretty much sums it up. Using a shoutcast based recording system, your video is automatically edited for you. Whenever the title in winamp changes, a new file is started (i.e. a new singer)

 

[toqer]

Setting up the DNAS

Download DNAS from shoutcast.com and set it up. Can you click the "Next" button a bunch? After installing it, look for it on the start menu, it should say "Shoutcast DNAS Gui" Fire it up and you should get a window up like this..

Sweet, you have it running. You should also make sure any firewall software is disabled, most of it is junk anyways.

 

[toqer]

Simple broadcasting, NSVcap

Ok we're going to assume some things here in this section...

The camera machine has an ip of 192.168.0.3
The KJ machine has an IP of 192.168.0.2

Walk over to your camera machine. Make sure you installed the NSVtools from nullsoft.com.

Click on the start menu, go to NSVtools>nsvcap. You'll get a window like this.

Next go file>set capture destination
http://shup.com/shup!/320/107627151431-NSVCAP-Shoutcast-205.188.215.2298014.png

The default pass of the shoutcast server is "changeme" (minus "") Fill out all appropriate fields here.

Next go to devices, make sure you have your video and audio sources selected.

VERY IMPORTANT You cannot record and preview video at the same time. Make sure preview is unchecked before you start recording.

Go to capture, make sure capture audio is checked off. One more step to go before we start capture.

Go to nsv>config

Click on encoder config

Now we get to set the different bitrates and what nots for the audio and video. My install is specialized and has a bunch of improved codecs, but we won't worry about that for now. We just want to get you rolling here. So choose mp3 for your audio.

 

[toqer]

Simple broadcasting, NSVcap part II

So we left off at audio nick nacks.. Basically if you set your encoder options to what I have below, it should work fine.

Now that you have all your encoder stuff setup, hit the OK button, then again on the next window till you're back out to the main NSVcap window. It's time to hit capture> start capture.

 

[toqer]

I'm gonna nap for a bit, between my show last night and my baby girl this morning, i'm lacking sleep. She just went down for a nap, so this is the perfect oppertunity for me to take one before tonights show. I PM'd jokerswild to cover the streamripping part of the process, and afterwards i'll get to the google video conversion/upload stuff.

 

[toqer]

Streamripping AKA recording your stream.

At this point you should be broadcasting. A good, quick test would be to point your browser at http://192.168.0.2:8000 (if you setup this way) and click the "Listen" link. Winamp should start up and show your stream.

If your video stream in winamp, congrats, you're broadcasting nsv video. Now it's time to get your streamripper running.

We use streamripper32. There are many others, each with it's own interface.

You might want to click on the options button and copy my settings here.

If you set yourself up just like I did, streamripper32 will automatically record your stream, and break it up whenever there is a title change. Next episode, converting from NSV > google video/youtube/uncut.

 

[kayleigh]

Are you able to use lame_enc.dll or specify the audio/video bitrate quality?

 

[toqer]

Converting the NSV rips to google/youtube

Are you able to use lame_enc.dll or specify the audio/video bitrate quality?

Refer to the picture in post #12

Ok so you've done a whole night of streamripping and you have a directory full of performances. Time to put it on youtube/google/uncut or whatever.

Streamripper32 will rip the files with a .mp3 extension. You have to change them to .nsv, this is easily accomplished in a dos box by

cd\directory of your streamrips
ren *.mp3 *.nsv

Now your videos are ready for conversion...

If you're a unix pimp, then just use mencoder to convert the nsv to a mp4. If you're like the rest of us, you can use Super from Erightsoft. Finding the download on thier website is a challenge, but i'm sure most of you can handle it. Install Super, fire it up. Right click anywhere and choose "Add Multimedia Files"

You should also go to "Output file management" and select a directory for the converted video's to go into. Most of the audio/video bitrate options are fine at their defaults.

Once you're done adding video's to the list, click "Encode" on the bottom left, and like magic Super will transcode your videos from NSV > Mp4. After Super finishes doing it's thing it's time to upload your video's to youtube/google/uncut.

 

[jokerswild]

Are you able to use lame_enc.dll or specify the audio/video bitrate quality?

Yes you can... and if you hare casting this to a localhost rather than online for online viewers that you can set this rate higher say around 128 and you can set your frame rates higher too...

What constricts things is bandwidth... my first attempt at video casting went about as well as could be expected with a upload bandwidth of just over 350 and the video requireing more... it buffered a lot that's where your bit rate combined with your fps play a factor big time... basically for me it was like trying to blow mayonase through a coffee stir stick.... now if I had the bandwidth of a slurpee straw I probably wouldn't have turned purple.

If you can afford it pushing your video cast to a server with a huge bandwidth and so forth will fix that problem and you'd be able to cast at pretty much any bit rate. Now if you just want to cast to a localhost computer and not broadcast live then you should be fine at 128...

I'd experiment until you hit on the right combo... camera's differ and you may witness your audio lagging or even going ahead of the video.

The reason toqer said to uncheck audio is so that you aren't captureing the audio from your camcorder but instead the audio from your sound card... this assumes that you are using your computer to both reproduce the music as well as the singers or have a line in from your external mixer to your sound card.

 

[toqer]

Closing thoughts...

While the initial setup of a shoutcast recording system is complex and time consuming, once you have it all set up, it's all pretty automated. These methods aren't just limited to video either, if you're familiar with shoutcast radio, you can use the same streamripping methods to create individual audio files of your singers performances.

2 great sites to read up on NSV video...

http://forums.winamp.com in the NSV section
http://www.scvi.net Best NSV info site ever.

 

[JoeChartreuse]

.....just can't figure out where to hook up the tape deck.....and do you use a slide show projector to show the mimeographed lyrics on the wall??:sqconfused:

 

[jokerswild]

.....just can't figure out where to hook up the tape deck.....and do you use a slide show projector to show the mimeographed lyrics on the wall??:sqconfused:

ROFLMFAO