I have a standard HP laptop and I can stream on procaster, listen to music, talk, play games, and watch youtube.

Maybe there is something bogged your computer down?

could also be you internet, or if anyone is using something that requires them to use wifi or if playing an online game

That wouldn't affect the speed at which my computer registers pen strokes.

I don't know what. Mine's an HP too. Maybe it's the fact that I'm also using an art program and trying to draw on a large file with layers.

Though admittedly, tonight, I only had one layer and was working at half my normal image size and it was STILL screwing up.

I had nothing else running though. Three things: Firefox with music streaming, Paint Tool SAI, and Procaster. And before I started Procaster, no issues.

I dunno then =/ I run 3 art programs and use layers as well, I hope you figure it out then

"Standard" is a highly subjective term in an era where computer hardware becomes completely outdated in less than five years.

As an old saying goes, any unpacked computer is already obsolete. These days it applies more to smart phones than desktops but it's still quite true.

Well, first I'd recommend running a few anti-virus programs to make sure there's nothing eating up processing or internet power on your laptop. I'd need to know the specs f your laptop to help you more (processor and RAM). If your laptop is 5 years or older, or if it's a netbook like an Eee PC, then it's possible you may not have the power to use those programs.

dude, i just reinstalled windows and i have an i7 2600k @4.5ghz, and procaster STILL eats it up

Really? I've got an i7 3.5 ghz quad core and I have no problems at all.

are you trying to draw in photoshop with a 7000:7000 - 12k:12k photo? i can normally do that, but with procaster open its cut down to lines 5.5k:5.5k and colors at #

Typically I draw in Sai, 8000x8000.

sai is a lighter weight program that photoshop

Then why use Photoshop? XP

Thing is, I was using Procaster and Photoshop on my old computer that just had a 2.5 ghz dual core, windows xp, and 3 gigs of ram, and I never had a problem with CPU usage. Very strange to me.

i like photoshop a lot more than sai, like i commented on my comment, i was using a stupid way of coloring when it was that limited
the new way im coloring ill probably be able to do it at full resolution with little performance hit (i dont use the max resolution i can) but i havent tried it yet
but procaster is still a hog =\

Hmm. Well, there are other programs out there. Gunmouth uses a different one, I forget what it was though.. Might be worth it just to look up 'streaming programs'.

i dont stream anymore, no one comes, i wouldnt really expect anyone to come i just did it the few times i was asked

these resolutions were from when i tried to color using photoshops "water brush" which is a very... slow... brush

Odd I have a amd fx 8150 8core 3.6 and an old amd athlon xp 2600+ 2.08 ghz single core and it runs great on both. Might be graphics card there's twin 6950's in the 8150 and a ati 4650 in the athlon 2600+

I have an AMD Athlon II P320 dual-core processor, 2.10 GHz, 3GB RAM, 64-bit system.

Not top of the line by any means, but no excuse for Procaster to use 60% of my CPU. Which it does, by the way.

Yeah, with a dual core that shouldn't be happening.

I know there are other streaming programs... but they're not as easy to use.

You could always try Ustream.

Athlon dual cores are iffy, and three gigs is also potentially insufficient if you're using a memory monster like Photoshop. Which isn't what you want to hear, I know, but there's not a whole lot of optimizing that can be done with that hardware, so be leery of throwing money at technicians. If you have a buddy who runs a repair shop that you can have go over it for free then go to town, can't hurt, but in your shoes I wouldn't hand a computer store cash to try to get more performance from your system, as there likely isn't much more to get. The only thing jumping out at me from your description as a possible easy fix would be checking for free drive space and file fragmentation; if your paint program is hitting the page file or a cache and the drive is either slow, fragmented, or running out of space, it will murder your performance like nothing else.

I don't use Photoshop, I use Paint Tool SAI. There's plenty of space on my hard drive, and and I defrag regularly. I'm just thinking Procaster is a memory/CPU whore, and I need an alternative. I mean for heaven's sake, it automatically downgrades your Windows 7 display settings when it starts, so obviously the program is DESIGNED to take up as much as possible.

procaster wasn't intended to be used along with cpu intensive programs

It does the same on mine, in fact it seems to steadily suck up more resources the longer I go, and that's with a webcam and firefox as the only other two things going.

I use Join.me. It's not real time stream in the sense of video smooth stream with sound, but it shows a full screen that is CLEAR, doesn't bog down the system and lets the viewers chat as well as zoom in on the screen itself without you needing to do it for them while you work. If you move things gently, it doesn't get as choppy as it would if someone moved it too fast.

The problem I have with join.me is I've looked in on join.me streams before, and they're BORING. You can't chat with the artist, because they have to stop drawing to switch screens and type to say anything. There's no music, unless you run your own.

Mostly it's the chatting though. There's no point in streaming if I can't interact with my viewers. I might as well just not stream and lurk in FurryMuck or some other chat medium while I draw.

Since when? I have my chat box overlay right ontop of my program, you just click on it and talk lol.

I'm not there to entertain people with my music taste (Some people's streams I find their music is fail, and I tend to mute it anyway) XD

You're there essentially to watch someone create art, not be entertained by music, though I DO suppose that sharing music can be part of it and I can't knock that. I've just had countless experiences of 'oh I got it muted, I got itunes running' for example. So I tend to find it meh.. Livestream lags the hell outta me so I just avoid that resource hog. :)

Hope you find something that will provide what you're lookin for though, if you find alternatives that aren't resource hogs, let me know. I enjoy experimenting with those.

I highly recommend join.me. Can't use it with traditional art though.

Watchtail has shown signs recently of coming back.

Watchtail has shown signs of coming back since it went down seems like over a year ago. They've been "coming soon" and "almost done" for months and months, if not longer. I will not believe it until they ACTUALLY go live. They're becoming DukeNukemForeverTail. Except Duke Nukem Forever came out already.

I understand where you're coming from. I've felt the same way, but after almost a year of nothing, there was a major update last month (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/watchtail/). I can't say if they ever really will come back online, but right now with my machine's specs, they are my only option.

Try running U-Steam, it's another free broadcasting service,
and you don't have to run an external program like Procaster.

http://www.ustream.tv/

Use ManyCam along with LiveStream's Webcaster. Uses a lot less resources.

Gonna try this for now.

Also it puts an overlay over the video by default, but you can turn that off in the video settings.

i used to use adobe flash media live encoder and justin / twitch tv, way better than any other website but its annoying to set up, in order to get audio to play you have to use virtual audio cable, and play audio through winamp or the internet

i could get 1080p streams and still use less resources than procaster

Well there is Flash Media Encoder and I think... Multicam? Or use an older version of Procaster.

what is procaster do you ablolutely need it for streaming on livestream. or is it just a videocapture program if it's that back when watchtail was still active (which i think nedded says it's pretty much almost done he's just looking for funding which i've offerd to help w/ but we need more people.) i used manycam. as for computers you guys should get macs JK I understand they're expensive but there the best. unfortuanately they don't make SAI for the mac OS but true reason for getting a mac is for it's hardware it's the best. you can still run windows on one and run SAI on that. anyways i use Join.me for now but Hopefully we can find some more funding and get watchtail back up soon. also i don't know how it works i think it works similar to livestream but another streaming websight is ustream.

It's the program used to stream. The only other options are their Webcaster, which also failed me, or some Flash Media thing that looks like a bitch to set up.

And by the way, if I had the money for a Mac, I'd have the money for a laptop that could power through Procaster AND run Windows without me having to ditch my favorite art program or install some kind of shell. I HATE IT when people say "Oh you should switch to a Mac lol their so superior" because if I wanted a Mac and could afford a Mac, I'd have one already. So unless YOU are buying me a Mac, discussion over.

yup sorry i was just joking a bit but my jokes get carried away sometimes.

There's Watchtail, once it's up and running again. just check out  nedded.

Judging by his journal, WatchTail is dead. I've never seen a furry site come back from the "owner is flat broke". The only hope is someone either funds it or straight up buys it and finds a way to monetize it. I have no hope for this service at all, after reading that.

WT has to come back it will we just need to find more owners/admin's and some donations.  nedded 's problem before was he was trying to fund the entire thing on his own. as i've already told him i can contribute to 5-10% of monthly cost. his second problem is he takes forever to get online and read his email and his notes and such on FA. it's been forever since i've seen him on skype.

I was thinking of using LiveStream, but this pretty much changes my mind.

I too am looking for that perfect streaming soluiton. So far, I haven't foudnd it.

uStream: Works, but low quality and I have real troubles not turning into a cylon in the audio feed. The video is usually poor quality and I can't do anything to improve it.

Livestream: Procaster sucks up resources horribly. You'd think a desktop with a 3 Ghz CPU, 4 Gb of memory, no other apps running would be able to stream decently, but it can't. It sucks up CPU usage horribly and skips. I *have* found it will improve dramatically if you turn off the local monitor. Yeah, you can't see what you're doing/broadcasting, but that's where I use a small tablet (The Amazon Kindle works well for this) to log into the stream and us it as the monitor instead. That works decently, but the quality is still poor.

WatchTail: I liked this one a lot. I could get decent quality, had good control of the feed, and it wasn't a resource hog. Unfortunatey it too is down for the count. If anyone knows what steraming back end they were using, perhaps another person will be willing to set up a server? Any volunteers out there?

# This is a live meeting / desktop sharing app. While you may think you can't share traditional media, you can. Set it to share an application window and choose the local monitor for your webcam. Most webcams have some sort of built in local monitor and now you can stream that video content. The quality and speed seems to be the best of the bunch, but it's still a hassle and you don't have the nice branding or channels that the others offer.


Lastly, while I'm still searching, I have found my biggest restriction is my internet connection. Comcast does decently in many areas, but my connection to the worls is pretty flakey. Download speeds are acceptable, but uplaods are badly hashed and until I move, I'm not sure I can do anything about it. Most of these streaming services (ustream and livestream) will adjust your video stream quality based on best / most reliable signal they can get. In my case, that limits me to pretty low quality and that just sucks rocks backwards through a straw for me.

If I could find the streaming stack they used, I could look into it. But, I also have a lower end server - the services would kill it. I'd need a bigger box than Bast....

Since Xsplit is still in it's beta, and still free, perhaps you could try it? I've used it plenty, and it is in-fact what I use to livestream my games while playing them. While it's far from perfect, and it takes a bit of work to hook it up to livestream.com, I would definitely recommend it.

http://www.xsplit.com/

i use livestream and procaster and I don't have any problems minus a second or two lag sometimes. But they have webcaster on their site which doesn't take up pc room to stream. I hope that can help

Just tried webcaster. It cut out after less than an hour, went black, and refused to stream any further even after restarting the stream.

I desperately wish Watchtail would come back. ;.; Preferrably with a bigger watcher cap.

Yyyyyeah that was the biggest beef with WatchTail, the 10-15 person limit. Nowadays, though, I usually stay below that number in my LiveStreams, but I'm guessing that's because of my habit of dropping off the face of the planet. If I get back into it regularly, though... I'm going to want more viewers to be able to drop in.

i stream off of one computer and use another to watch.. and if you notice, after a while there becomes something like a full minute delay between sent and receive.

=^.,.^=

I've witnessed this effect as well whenever she was streaming prior to her move to Chicago - be it from my desktop or my Chromebook.

Justin.tv and Twitch.tv are good ones, dunno if its possible to stream nude stoof though

There is a program called xsplit, it's very tiny and very efficient. I myself use it for my own streams. You can get it for free right now that it's in public Beta, and you can link it directly to your livestream account so when you begin streaming, it'll automatically go live online. Hope that helps ^^