Game Streaming: A How To Guide

If you've ever been interested in streaming and would like to know how to do so, you've come to the right place!  The guide below will provide you with the tools you need and all the steps required to get your very own stream up and running for free.


1.  Sign up for a streaming site -  I recommend Twitch TV (I use Twitch myself).

2.  Sign up for an Adobe account -  You'll need this to download the software needed to stream.

3.  Gather Software - Since you're all signed up with Adobe, we'll download Flash Media Live Encoder 3.2 (FMLE) first.  Once the download is complete, install the software as you would anything else.  All install defaults are fine.

Next, you'll need to download SCFH DSF (I have no idea what the acronym means).  Extract the downloaded file and run either install.bat (for 32-bit systems) or install64.bat (for 64-bit systems).

You now have all the software you need to stream!  Onto step 4...

4.  Open FMLE - Be prepared for any web cams you have plugged in to turn on as FMLE will use that by default.

5.  Run SCFH.exe - This will launch SCFH DSF.  Once this opens, you'll see a list of detected processes...

If you're not seeing "FlashMediaLiveEncoder" in this box, you may have installed the wrong install.bat file, didn't run either of the install.bat files or you do not have FMLE running.  If you open FMLE after opening SCFH, click "Refresh" you should see it show up.

Once you do see FMLE, select it and click OK.  Your screen colors may change, this is normal.  You'll also see a new window, we can ignore this for now.

5.  Configure SCFH to work with FMLE - Select SCFH DSF from the "Device" drop-down.

Once this option is chosen, you'll see the top area of FMLE change to your desktop rather than whatever your webcam (or other device) had displayed.

At this point, you're ready to step screen regions, we'll come back to these quality settings later...

6.  Setup Screen Regions Using SCFH - It is possible to setup multiple regions (a lot of broadcasters do) but for this guide, we'll setup just 1 region, we'll say it's the "game screen" of an SNES emulator. 

Open your emulator of choice and in SCFH click on "Area Selection".

Select the area you'd like to broadcast then double click on the selected area.  This will load the selected area into the Layout area.  Now click on "Layout" and expand the area that you selected within the Layout Window to take up the whole area...

You now have your screen region setup.

7.  Adjust Video and Audio Settings  - Now that you have your region setup, you can make and inal adjustments to your broadcast quality (which is the best part about FMLE!) .

Assuming you're simply broadcasting older video games, you shouldn't need to change much.  I'd recommend the following settings for broadcasting any video game emulator...

Frame Rate: 30 FPS
Input Size:  640x480
Bit Rate:  700
Output Size:  456 x 342 (Sounds strange, but works great for me)

All Audio settings should be able to remain the same.  Just make sure you have the Audio box checked.

8.  Setup Twitch Login Information and GO LIVE! - First thing you'll need to do is check the box next to "Stream To Flash Media Server", this will open a few fields, the only fields you'll need to fill in are FMS URL and Stream.

In the FMS URL field, put in the Twitch Flash Media Server...

rtmp://live.justin.tv/app

Next, generate your STREAM KEY (click SHOW when you're on the page) which you'll put into the Stream field.

Once you have that in there, click Connect then click START.  You're now broadcasting!

Now you can still use xSplit to broadcast, it's great software, but it is now out of Beta and live, so not all features are available without purchasing the full product (mainly quality tweaks from what I've seen).   I hope this helps you out!  Happy streaming!