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Looking at building or purchasing a dedicated encoding machine for our studio. We webcast about 10 weekly video/audio shows weekly and currently the encoding takes place on the same PC as the video switching (i7 Core, Windows 7 running VidBlaster).
Any advice on what hardware is most important for this application or tips from those of you who currently have a dedicated encoding box. How is the streaming to multiple CDN's at once handled best?
I just switched to encoding with WireCast, on a dedicated PC. It is an older core 2 quad running at 2.8Ghz, windows 7/32, 4GB ram. It is unbelievable what WC does here. I encode to three other CDN's, and it runs between 30% and 50%. Also, instead of paying high dollars for the BM Intensity card, I followed Nick Craig's (radargaming.net) advice, and got the Avermedia AVerTVHD HD DVR High Definition Video Capture Card MTVHDDVRR ($79.00 on eBay).
Going with a dedicated machine is a great idea. You can get a pretty good i7 machine for around 500 bucks now. the most important thing to get is the capture device and video card. For a capture card I would get the Black Magic Intensity Pro You can pick one up on amazon for 189 bucks. For a video card I would go with the Nvidia GTX 660
Wirecast is great at handling encoding to multiple CDNs. you should see no issues with an i7
I would go with the Black Magic card if you don't mind spending a few extra dollars.
I am playing with an Avermedia LGP which is under $200.00. You can either choose to use it as a recorder or as a streaming device. So far it has performed really well as both in all my testing. I also have a Avercaster Duet...much more expensive....but is it rock solid on the streaming and multicasts two seperate streams at once. Both devices capture HDMI and Component and the LGP has pass-through so you can daisy chain devices. THere is also a new device announced by Avermedia that falls between the other two that is worth looking at.
As per Amnon's post about Wirecast, Wirecast 5 has potentially even lower CPU utilization with the x264 encoder. It makes single laptop switching encoding in the field more viable.
For inputs though going to a encoder machine the Blackmagic MiniRecorder has both HDMI and HD-SDI inputs. There's a Thunderbolt version which is about $137.50 at B&H on Windows mostly supported by Asus which supports Thunderbolt but HP has just announced Thunderbolt support on desktops and laptops as well. There's also a PCIe version now also for $137.50 so now you can use on traditional desktop.
BlackMagic MiniRecorders at B&H
I can give a thumbs up to the BMD mini recorders. I use one to bring in video into wirecast and it works great. They work great for input to skype too.
The quality on the black magic is a little better then the aver products.
