If you want to stream your desktop to your friend or the world, it quite easy. Twitch, Youtube and even Facebook now support live video streaming on their site.
But what about streaming live video on your website, without relying on an external source? This is where the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) can help you.
All you need is an access to your hosting server. FTP is quite common and can be used for HLS. I've done a few experiments with ScreenStudio and I got really good results.
Create a folder on your hosting HTTP server to receive the video stream
In ScreenStudio, enter the full URL address to upload the video stream to the selected folder
FTP Url looks like this: ftp://username:password@ftp.yourserver.com/public_html/live...
Create an HTML file that will be used to view the video stream.
The HTML viewer file must have this code so the video stream will work on almost all computers and mobiles devices:
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/hls.js/latest/hls.js"></script> <video id="video" width=100% height=430 src="stream.m3u8" autoplay> </video> <script> if(Hls.isSupported()) { var video = document.getElementById('video'); var hls = new Hls(); hls.loadSource('stream.m3u8'); hls.attachMedia(video); hls.on(Hls.Events.MANIFEST_PARSED,function() { video.play(); }); } </script>
The scripting part is used for PC browsers not supporting HLS natively like mobile devices do.
When your stream starts, there will be a slight delay for about 10 seconds. ScreenStudio will update the video files on your FTP site and viewers will be able to watch your live stream.
To download ScreenStudio: http://screenstudio.crombz.com
Here's a video I made when testing HLS with ScreenStudio:
As you can see in the video, I was even able to AirPlay the video stream from my iPad to my AppleTV, letting my Ubuntu PC display it's desktop directly on the AppleTV. Cool ;) !
As you may already know, I got myself a brand new iPhone, the iPhone 7 Black.
I have downloaded the newest game called Oz: Broken Kingdom. It's a nice RPGish game where you are fighting your way out in the land of Oz.
After a few minutes, I saw in the top right corner a small icon named "Rec"... A bit curious, I checked it out to discover that I could record my game into a local video file or stream it directly to... Periscope.
Actually, it seems to be able to stream to other services also, I have tested Twitch or Youtube yet.
Anyway, I've made a few tests on my Twitter/Periscope account and it does work... once in a while. It seems unstable and that could be an issue with my WIFI setup having some issues. But I'm pretty sure that things will work better with a few updates.
Nevertheless, when you activate the recording/streaming, iOS will ask your permission to capture the screen, the microphone and camera (if selected). So it seems that iOS 10 does bring a native streaming functionality that is build in...
Have you found another game that could use that feature from iOS 10?
Select the desired server and secret key from your Twitch account.
Adjust encoding bitrate and format by selecting the profile...
ScreenStudio has already optimized advanced encoding parameters so all you need to set is the bitrate and preset settings to your needs.
Select your video sources
From the Sources tab, select your audio and video sources that you wish to stream.
Display: The screen to stream. If you have more than one screen, a special one will show up combining all of them in to a single super large screen.
Webcam: The webcam you want to use for streaming. Optionally, you can use the "Mouse" which is a zoomed view of your mouse location. You can set the webcam location as you like from the parameter buttons...
Note: Webcam will only show-up if a Panel is selected..
Microphone: Audio source for your microphone
Internal: Audio source for your internal sound system
If you select both Mic+Internal, ScreenStudio will mix them automatically.
Audio Rate: The quality encoding audio settings
Watermark: If PNG files are available in your "Overlays" folder, they will be shown here. This will add the image as a static overlay in your stream in the bottom left corner.
Customize your stream
This is where ScreenStudio shines. You can select a size panel from a pre-configured HTML file.
Instead of cluttering your desktop view with overlays everywhere, ScreenStudio is adding a side panel (top, left, bottom, right) to display custom informations.
All you need to do is to create a basic HTML file to populate your side panel. A default sample will be available on your first run. Not all HTML tags are supported but it does give you a lot of possibilities.
The side panel also supports TAGs as the content is dynamic. For example, @TEXT will show the content of the text entry at the bottom.
Images (even GIF format) are supported and you can update the content of the HTML file with something else. Any update on the file will show up in your stream as it is updated.
For example, you could you a generated template file called "Panel.html". Using a script or any software, you can update that file to update the content as needed, live. Each time the file is updated, the content will show instantly in your stream.
The @COMMAND tag is used to embed the result of an external command in your panel. Enter the command line and its output will be shown where you have set the @COMMAND in your HTML file. That can be useful to create alerts and notifications.
Here's what it looks like when streaming...
Note: Images must be referenced by they full path...
Start streaming
Once everything is setup, you can start streaming by pressing the "Capture" button or by using a keyboard shortcut.
When capturing, ScreenStudio will hide itself and you can either use the shortcut keys to stop the streaming or use the tray icon at the top.
Enable privacy mode
While streaming, you may want to hide your desktop from your viewers temporarily. Use the Privacy Mode from the tray icon menu or by invoking the shortcut key.
While in Privacy Mode, the tray icon will be red and you viewers will only see a black screen. If you add a file "privacy.png" in your Overlays folder, this image will be shown instead of the default back display.
This is a neat way to protect your personal information without having to stop your streaming.
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