Anyone able to help me get setup properly to stream?

[itsjustmyopinion]

I have a few things going on at the moment so I apologize for the length on this. If you can only help with one of the issues I still greatly appreciate it.

I was wondering if there is a thread I missed here that shows the optimal setup for using a netduma while in a party? As of late I have set my location between all the members in our party (we are in AZ, CA and TN). We would always get put on this southern California dedicated server. We are having a lot of trouble finding lobbies (1 to 3 max regardless of game mode and everyone has their ports and NAT open) yet I have tried putting the ping assist between 50 and 100 and even dropped it to 20-30 and 0 once just to see if anything changed but it did not. I have the geo filter searching for games from CA to the west coast of Michigan. I tried putting the entire US and we still only find 1-3 games. I've tried strict or not strict and I still get people from Australia, Japan, Netherlands, the east coast etc in our lobbies. I have to be missing something here. Is there somewhere with screenshots of what I should have for every setting available? My speed is about 120-140 down and 25-27 up. All the video tutorials I have seen seem to have different settings and they all seem to be playing solo. Anyway, I was having a lot of lag so I tried to lower the internet speed to my PS4. In doing so I now always get connected to a server in New Jersey even though it's outside of the range I have set. It's very confusing. Once again, something HAS to be wrong here, right? Also, when I have my connection lowered so I'm not messed over by as much lag comp, do I need to be on reactive or preemptive? From what I've heard you use one for slower speeds and one for faster speeds. But if you're throttling your connection do you need to switch that to ensure a smoother ride?

As for how everything is physically setup the only way I was able to get the netduma working was using a network switch. No matter what I did I could not get it to run through our ASUS router, nor our old router. My PS4 is directly plugged into the netduma and then I have our ASUS router plugged into the switch as well and we use the WiFi off of that as I found the WiFi on the netduma was inconsistent and also that it was interfering with our baby monitors whereas our ASUS does not. The other reason I have it that way was so both my wife and I could have open ports as I cannot open up the same ports on different static IPs on the same device without getting an error. This setup works and we both have an open NAT.

 

Here is the other issue I am having and it's not really related to netdumas but if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.

 

I have streamed for a few years and on this generation it has been tough to get party chat to come through into the stream. Last gen it was easy as there was a simple setting to turn on. This gen they removed that. Anyway, I'm using an Elgato HD60 Pro and I just got the chat link cable they came out with to help me broadcast my party's voice chat. The issue was plugging it into my Astro A40's mixamp was causing a lot of buzzing. So much so that I had to stream straight from the PS4 instead of using the Elgato. They say to fix it I needed to get a sound card because ones on motherboards that are built it do not have proper EMI shields to reduce that noise. So I did that. I was also told to plug the astros USB cable into a power supply / wall outlet with USB ports to reduce noise on the other end. However, if it's plugged into let's say a power bar or surge protector, how in the world is the PS4 supposed to recognize it? Yes, the optical cable will be plugged into it but the USB cable will not be so it does not recognize my microphone or anything. The other issue is that the chat cable plugs into the line in / mic port on the sound card. But when you use a sound card that isn't onboard it doesn't let you use USB devices like microphones. So now I do not have any buzz but at the same time my AT2020 USB mic will not work. Also, if my line in / mic port is in use from the chat cable I can't use an analog mic. So how in the world do streamers setup this way? I don't get it. Both ways I'm not finding a way to be able to plug a microphone in. It wouldn't recognize the mic on my webcam either.

I know this is a lot and it's probably a bit confusing as I'm typing this as quickly as possible while watching my three kids. So thank you for your patience, I do appreciate it. Best wishes. -Mike

Edit: I would also like to add we saw the most Australian, Japanese and Netherlands joining our lobbies when we were on a dedicated server claiming to be in Antarctica. I thought I read somewhere that that should be Australia and it is mismarked? Not sure but maybe this is what's happening with the New Jersey one I have been on lately?

[JConnor]

The ability to stream Party Chat as part of a stream's audio has been a major thorn in the side of many streamers this generation.

 

What you want to do is separate your Desktop (Stream Commentary) audio by plugging in a USB mic to the front ports of the PS4, and then route the analog audio chat audio from the controller to the audio in / line in on your streaming PC. Then just mix them using OBS, or XSplit.

 

The hard part is you may have to buy a bunch of secondary audio cables in order to "isolate" you and your party chat because you also need to have your console headset / mic plugged into your controller to play the game, of course. There are a few video tutorials on YT that show what cables you need and how to set it up. I just gave up because it was too much of a hassle in the long run, unfortunately, and just play solo using my PC as the main commentary audio.

[AnonymousBleach]

Buy the ASTRO A40 TR series headset... (With MixAmp) This set I got for my Xboxone is amazing.. and it comes with the Stream import plug, so All you have to do it plug that right into your capturcard (Elgato for me) and enable analog audio.. You pick up anyones vocies easily.

Only Issue I have is sometimes the Xbox chat in general will time out? Game audio is always 100% but I only noticed it was the xbox doing it because my turtle beaches would do the same thing before I got the new headset. (And when that happens you just have to hard restart your console.)

Best of luck!

[Netduma Fraser]

Hey, I'll comment on the first half. 

 

Firstly are you on the latest firmware 1.03.5? If not you can find that here

 

Also ensure you have auto&bleeding edge cloud ticked and applied. 

 

With strict on and PA at 0 that will ensure you don't get anything outside your radius. I take it you are the host of the party?

[boxone]

My set up for chat to be heard on stream is use XB1 Kinect for chat.  When using it chat is heard but I'm still using my mix amp from my Triton headphones mic and the mix amp's usb is plugged into my pc for OBS to capture my voice and sound from the XB1's optical to the Triton's mix amp.  If I use the regular Mic from the controller the stream doesnt capture game chat or party chat voices unless I use all kind of audio wire adaptors to feed into my pc and that causes all kind of buzzing in stream.  Flat out using the XB1 Kinect for game chat or party chat and Triton Mic/Mix amp to PC seems to be the easiest for me.  Down side is to mute yourself in the chat sucks since you have to do it in the party chat app (no saying xbox mute me, etc).  Oh I forgot to mention I use Elgato Gamer Capture USB (old version).

 

Again this is for xb1.  I'm wondering if this will also apply to PS4 Camera since it too has a mic???

[JConnor]

As an aside, I think the reason they didn't make party chat easy in this generation is because the consoles have the ability for anybody to upload clips without any external hardware. I'm betting a lot of the test audience just didn't use party chat audio and instead went for musical montages and such?