Stream to other PC, video/audio only, not control

Eriol

Eriol

Does anybody here know a way to stream a game from one PC to another in the same house? So basically twitch streaming, but locally.

I don't mean the steam in-home streaming, as I already know how to do that, and do, I mean that I'm playing the game at my desk, but I want to stream the output to the PC downstairs and somebody else is watching from there.

Googling for this is near-useless. Everybody has guides how to get it online, but I don't want to do that. Hell, if my connection was better, I WOULD do that and just have the PC downstairs then download back from the internet (as stupid as that is) because it's "easy" to set up, but our connection sucks, so local network is the only option (gigabit local, shit DSL to the world).

Any help?
 
strawman

strawman

It looks like xsplit has a local streaming feature, so if you're willing to pay this might work for you. Try before you buy, I have no experience, just found it while researching RTMP servers.

If you want to do it for free, you need three things - a broadcaster, a media server, and a viewer.


So, for instance, you might run OBS on your computer (the game playing PC), then an RTMP server on another computer, then a media player on the viewing computer(s). The RTMP server may end up on the viewer, so you don't necessarily need three computers.

RTMP servers are plentiful on linux, so if you're comfortable with that then you may be in luck. If not, there are RTMP servers available for windows, but the little looking I've done suggests they can be hard to work with, and don't play nice with every broadcaster and every client. Could be very fiddly.

Clients abound - most media players will play an RTMP stream. Once your RTMP server is set up it should provide a URL to go to, and when entered in your browser it should pull up your default streaming app, if not simply play it in the browser.

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is free, and designed to stream to a variety of streaming services, but you should be able to get it set up to stream to a server you choose on the local network.

Here's a bunch of links that each have some interesting information, but none of them provide a total solution. Perhaps they'll give you a few paths to try out, though:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...al-server-which-can-convert-the-stream-into-a
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/send-obs-stream-to-another-obs-client-through-internet.33283/
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/locally-streaming-is-this-possible.1570/
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueofle...ltimate_beginners_guide_to_streaming_with_obs
Google search for "windows rtmp server"
Looks like NGINX is the preferred linxu RTMP server.

Let us know what you learn and find as you go along, this is an interesting topic.
 
Eriol

Eriol

ScreenTask won't work, as I require audio. I want to screen a game, so it needs to be responsive too.

I'm at least going to try VLC, as there's a guide I found from your search term: https://software.grok.lsu.edu/article.aspx?articleid=14625

We'll see what happens, but this is another case of "it's easy if you want to give it to the internet, but f'n hard if you just want locally." Which sucks. I was looking at nVidia's "Shadowplay" which has twitch broadcasting, but not to another PC. $%($@*!!!!

Edit: Thanks for the links steinman. I'll take a look at some of them. At worst I could set up the RTMP server on VMware on my streaming PC or destination. Both have plenty of memory. Kind of screwed up to stream to a VM to stream back to the host, but I don't have a problem with it.

I hope somebody knows something even simpler though.
 
strawman

strawman

Any reason you can't simply use an HDMI splitter, and a 50' HDMI cable? If it needs to be longer, use an HDMI booster.
 
Eriol

Eriol

stienman said:
Any reason you can't simply use an HDMI splitter, and a 50' HDMI cable? If it needs to be longer, use an HDMI booster.
Click to expand...
A few reasons:
  1. The rooms are more than 50ft apart.
  2. I already have gigabit between them.
  3. I live out in the boonies, where even the city 2hrs away is unlikely to have what you specify.
  4. It takes a week for amazon to deliver stuff here.
All of the above is why I want something I can do with what I have already.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I was successful with a good VNC server for playing games headless (games run on fast computer, but slow computer had better monitor/keyboard/etc), but VNC will not work with games that use 3D viewports (i.e., just about anything that doesn't have some form of windowed mode).

--Patrick
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
This may be a stupid question, but if the people downstairs just need to watch, could you just use steam broadcasting (not steam in-home streaming)? I broadcast all my games while I'm in steam, other people routinely watch them in 720p... so, in theory, all you'd need to do is enable broadcasting for people on your friends list, then create a new steam profile (or use an existing one) to log into the PC downstairs, then add the downstairs account as a friend, and when they see you in a game, they can just pull down your name on the friends list and click "watch game." There's like a 15 second delay on the stream, but it really is just that simple.

https://steamcommunity.com/updates/broadcasting
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
This may be a stupid question, but if the people downstairs just need to watch, could you just use steam broadcasting (not steam in-home streaming)? I broadcast all my games while I'm in steam, other people routinely watch them in 720p... so, in theory, all you'd need to do is enable broadcasting for people on your friends list, then create a new steam profile (or use an existing one) to log into the PC downstairs, then add the downstairs account as a friend, and when they see you in a game, they can just pull down your name on the friends list and click "watch game." There's like a 15 second delay on the stream, but it really is just that simple.

https://steamcommunity.com/updates/broadcasting
Click to expand...
That sounds like it would fall victim to the crappy ISP speed.

--Patrick
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
PatrThom said:
That sounds like it would fall victim to the crappy ISP speed.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
It's possible, though I was surprised how little bandwidth it used. It can scale down to as low as 1 megabit, though it can go as high as 3.5 if you want.

Of course, 1mb up might be too much if the DSL is THAT crappy.[DOUBLEPOST=1447177282,1447176847][/DOUBLEPOST]You know what... I almost think... I almost think I'd done this once with skype.[DOUBLEPOST=1447177343][/DOUBLEPOST]Yes, I'm pretty sure in fact I once accomplished this using "view/share screen" in skype. It was years ago, and no doubt skype has changed since then, but it seemed to work at the time... maybe try that?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
I'm pretty sure in fact I once accomplished this using "view/share screen" in skype. It was years ago, and no doubt skype has changed since then, but it seemed to work at the time... maybe try that?
Click to expand...
Skype used to allow you to do P2P conversations, but since Microsoft bought them, everything now has to go through one of Microsoft's central spy relay servers.

--Patrick
 
Eriol

Eriol

I'm going to look into the steam thing, as I know we've done Space Engineers over local, even though it uses remote to "find" me. I'll see if the streaming also goes directly, which would bypass the upload part.

Thanks for all the suggestions all.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

GasBandit said:
Maybe try TightVNC projector? There might be framerate issues though.

http://www.tightprojector.com/[DOUBLEPOST=1447178994,1447178853][/DOUBLEPOST]Or maybe Teamviewer. I think it only uses online servers for matchmaking, and then the stream is p2p?
Click to expand...
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/help/40-Can-TeamViewer-be-used-within-a-local-network-LAN-only
You can establish Remote control sessions on your local network directly by using IP addresses or computer names. By default this feature is deactivated because software firewalls may open an acceptance dialog when configured this way
Click to expand...
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Could also try something like this:
17-707-054-Z01.jpg

Just split a VGA signal over CAT5 cabling to the remote receiver at your destination. I'm sure something similar has to exist for DVI if you'd rather go that route.
This would also obviate the difficulty of having to work around streaming from the GPU's local framebuffer. Just split off a copy of what's going to your monitor and send it downstairs.

--Patrick
 
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