About Camera Splitters
What is a splitter? On Windows your camera can be used by a single application in the same time. The splitter will divide the signal of your camera between the different applications which will allow you to use them simultaneously while broadcasting your camera image. By default we do not recommend the use of a splitter as it will degrade the quality of your stream.
OBS Studio
OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is a free-to-use software designed for video recording and live streaming. It is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.
You can download OBS from the following sources: https://obsproject.com/
Overview
The guide for OBS is broken down into five segments, each detailing a setting panel in the software. Necessary information and a step-by-step guide how you should set up OBS in order to be able to stream on our sites.
1. Preview window and Scenes
The video feed which is visible in this field will be transmitted to the site. You need to check your stream for defects in OBS and handle any issues there.
Scenes function as a group of settings for different type of outputs. (For detailed explanation and examples, check the menu named: Preview window and Scenes).
2. Scenes
Choose your previously set “Scenes” (set of settings) here.
(For detailed explanation and examples, check the menu named: Preview window and Scenes).
3. Sources
This panel allows to add different kind of sources that are then displayed in the Scene they are added to. (For detailed explanation and examples, check the expand named: Sources).
4. Audio Mixer
Streams will need audio too; this is where the Audio Mixer comes in. All available audio output devices are listed there and the ones that you want to use must be selected correctly. (For detailed explanation, check the expand named: Audio Mixer).
5. Settings
A wide range of settings that allow configuring technical aspects of the stream. If you would like to stream on our sites, you have a set of values that need to be properly adjusted. (For detailed explanation, check the expand named: Predefined Profiles).
Preview windows and Scenes
Preview window
This is the part of the stream that shows what will be transmitted to the site. If there are multiple sources added (like in the example picture), it will appear in the same way on the site too. It is important to note, that the preview’s resolution can be adjusted separately so if this is set to a higher or lower resolution than the webcam, the stream might appear with borders around it or zoomed in.
You might also notice, that there are two parts of the stream, one of the image and another one which shows the webcam’s feed in the bottom right corner. This is due to being able to set up several sources at once. The preview’s size can be adjusted by dragging the thin red border around the image you want to change.
Sources
This panel is the main tool for setting up streaming devices which will then be used by OBS to transmit. Since there are several options here which can naturally cause confusion, this guide focuses solely on the needed configuration for you to be able to stream on our sites.
Important to know: sources have a priority order so if there are multiple video sources selected, they will show on top of each other, according to their order in this panel.
The gear icon opens the settings of the source.
With the arrow icons you can re-order sources.
In order to set up streaming, you need to add the following sources:
- Audio Input Capture
The audio gets selected automatically, but if you wish to use a different one from the built-in, you can do so by right-click & selecting Properties. The Device dropdown will show all available input devices.
- Video Capture Device
Click on the “+” button to ad a new source, and choose your webcam device. Click okay or give it a unique name (optional), to arrive at the following setup window:
Settings that need to be applied here:
- Resolution/FPS type: Custom
- Resolution: 1280×720 or 1920×1080
- FPS: 30
- Video format: Any
- Color space: 709
- Color range: Full
- Buffering: Disabled
Audio Mixer
You can choose which audio input device is active on this panel. The ones you do not wish to use can be muted by clicking on the speaker icon.
Check the Volume sliders to monitor your volume levels. Should they hit the yellow area, that means your volume is ideal, or just slightly above it. Should you see it hitting the red areas, that would probably mean your volume is extremely loud, and you are possibly having distortion in your audio. Lower the recording volume of your audio device when you experience this.
VISIT-X Video Splitter
This splitter provides fluent camera picture and is compatible with our site with most cameras and resolution settings.
You can download the supported version here: VISIT-X-Video-Splitter-9.0.1.3.exe (right-click on the link and hit ‘Save link as…’)
Make sure you untick the ‘Autoupdate’ box as later versions will cause heavy lagging with our software.
After downloading the program, you will find its icon on the taskbar in the right corner:
When you launch VISIT-X this settings panel will pop up:
Main menus:
- Camera: You can select your camera here as source.
- Format: You can adjust the resolution. We suggest to choose ‘wide’ 1280×720, 864×480, or 864×486 resolution for the perfect image.
- FPS: You can also adjust the frame rate here, 30 Fps is the required value as a setting here in order to have a continuous image. If you can’t find the desired resolution or FPS, click on the Format button and select it there.
- Autoupdate Make sure it is always unchecked!
- Extras: Deinterlace, brightness, contrast and color settings.
Deinterlacing: If you notice lines in your video feed, it means that your image is “interlaced”. The deinterlace feature helps to reduce these lines.
How to setup VISIT-X and OranumCam?
- Open your VISIT-X Splitter software.
- Select your webcamera below the ‘Camera’ sign from the drop down menu.
- Choose the desired resolution and 30FPS next to ‘Format’. Then click ‘OK’.
- Press the ‘Format’ button.
- Make sure to select ‘MJPG’ or ‘RGB’ under ‘Color Space / Compression’.
- Click OK, and make sure 30FPS is still selected.
- Open the OranumCam standalone software and choose ‘VISIT-X Video Splitter’ as the source of the video feed.
- Make sure that the ‘Microphone’ in OranumCam is the microphone of your camera.
- Choose the same resolution as in your splitter next to ‘Quality’.
Tips:
- Ticking the box of ‘Preview’ you can see your actual image.
- VISIT-X can be completely closed with the Exit button.
- You can enable ‘Launch on startup’ in VISIT-X thus the software will be opened right after your system starts, however we do not recommend it.
- After clicking on ‘Default’ in ‘Extras’ you can have all your settings on factory levels.
Visit-X issues you may encounter:
- Check you have the same resolution selected in both Visit-X and OranumCam. So if you have 1280×720 selected in Visit-X, make sure you have 1280×720 selected in OranumCam also.
- Make sure that the ‘Deinterlacing’ setting is turned off in Visit-X.
- If the FPS can’t be set to 30 in Visit-X, press the ‘Format’ button, and set the ‘Color Space / Compression’ to ‘MJPG’ or ‘RBG’, and try setting the FPS to 30 again.
- The Visit-X version should be 9.0.1.3. If it is not, uninstall the application, install it again from here, and untick the ‘autoupdate’ setting.
- If you are streaming on multiple sites, that means that a faster connection is needed, and your connection speed might be inhibiting your ability to stream smoothly on multiple sites.
- Streaming on multiple sites can also cause your CPU usage percentage to increase, and when this is closer to 100%, it can cause your computer to slow down, therefore making your stream lag. To check your CPU usage percentage, open your Task Manager (press CTRL + Shift + Esc together).
- If the stream is black, make sure you have your actual camera selected as the camera, and not another software or splitter.
- It is not possible to open a new instance of the application when one is already open. If you receive this, open your Task Manager (CTRL + Shift + Esc), and close Visit-X from there. Then try opening the application again.
Verysoft Webcamsplitter
A camera splitter program which supports most camera types. The full version costs 19.95$ This splitter works the best with our recommended handycams and camcoders.
You may download the splitter form here: http://very-soft.com/product/webcamsplitter
After downloading the program, you will find its icon only among the task bar icons, where you can adjust its settings.
Main menus:
You can select the menus by right clicking on the VerySoft WebCamSplitter icon on the task bar.
- Source: Select the input source of the splitter. (Should be your capture card in case of handycam.)
- Resolution: Select from a wide range of resolution formats.
- Source Settings: Open the settings window of your selected source device.
- Capture: Enables/disables the splitter.
- Output Settings: Opens a preview window where the resolution, fps and aspect ratio are displayed also you can adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation.
- Options: Opens the option menu where you can set the global frame per seconds limit, snapshot timeout, deinterlace, etc.
Help: Support of the software and here you can also activate the full version product.
How to setup Verysoft Webcam Splitter with OranumCam?
- Right click on the icon of your Verysoft Webcam splitter on the taskbar.
- Select your camera as ‘Source’.
- Choose the desired value (1920x1080p, 1280x720p or 864x480p) as resolution from ‘Source Resolution’.
- Go to ‘Options’ and make sure that the ‘Global FPS limit’ is set to 30 and enable ‘Constant Output FPS’.
- Make sure that the ‘Transformation mode’ is ‘Crop’ and the ‘Deinterlacer’ is ‘Always off’.
- Open OranumCam and select ‘Verysoft Webcam Splitter’ as ‘Camera’.
- Make sure that the ‘Microphone’ in OranumCam is your actual microphone.
- Choose the same resolution has been set in your splitter in OranumCam next to ‘Quality’.
- Enable ‘Constant output FPS’.
Verysoft issues you may encounter
- Check you have the same resolution selected in both Verysoft and OranumCam. So if you have 1280×720 selected in Verysoft, make sure you have 1280×720 selected in OranumCam also.
- Open ‘options’ in VerySoft, and set the ‘Deinterlacer’ to ‘Always off’.
- Go to ‘Options’ and make sure that the ‘Global FPS limit’ is set to 30 and enable ‘Constant Output FPS’.
- If you are streaming on multiple sites, that means that a faster connection is needed, and your connection speed might be inhibiting your ability to stream smoothly on multiple sites.
- Streaming on multiple sites can also cause your CPU usage percentage to increase, and when this is closer to 100%, it can cause your computer to slow down, therefore making your stream lag. To check your CPU usage percentage, open your Task Manager (press CTRL + Shift + Esc together).
- If the stream is black, make sure you have your actual camera selected as the camera, and not another software or splitter.
For the proper image quality always make sure to select the same resolution in OranumCam and in the splitter program as well.
