UStream and the TriCaster - Announcing TC Launch

UStream(at UStream.tv) is a free live streaming service. It can stream from any standard windows video capture device on your system. The good news is TriCaster 2.0 has a Windows Video driver installed that will work with UStream as well as other applications. The bad news is the TriCaster user interface takes over the machine and disables all the multi-tasking features of Windows. So it was impossible to switch back and forth between the TriCaster and another application without actually shutting off the TriCaster interface.

I've solved this problem with a little program called TC Launch that you can drop onto the Admin screen and use to launch the TriCaster in a special multi-tasking mode. Now you can use free services like UStream on your TriCaster with 2.0.

A few other hints to streaming with UStream:

• Use the standard encoder not the "High Quality Encoder" I couldn't get the high quality encoder to work on my TriCaster Studio.
• Watch out for the cropping. UStream does a pretty radical crop of the TriCaster's output so if you frame normally you will trim the top of peoples heads off.
• Make sure you set the UStream audio capture to the VT audio device. It wants to default to the windows audio device.
• I had better luck with FireFox, IE crashed on be a couple of times.
  

I'm selling TC Launch for $10 over on www.digarts.com you can go directly to TC Launch here. Be sure to change the payment system to PayPal from credit card if you want to download the program immediately. You can still use a CC with PayPal. Our normal CC processing is done by hand to it can take up to 24 hours.

If you have any trouble with or have any questions about TC Launch you can email me at jcupp@digarts.com

Important Update: The guys over at NewTek want me to make it clear that you use TC Launch at your own risk and if you have problems while using it don't go crying to tech support (they put it a little nicer than that but you get the idea). TC Launch makes no permanent changes to your TriCaster so if your application doesn't work just delete it and you're good to go.