MinecraftOnline TV

MinecraftOnline TV, or MCOTV for short, is an experimental internet television run by the staff of MinecraftOnline, primarily for the benefit of players in-game.

Technology

The station works over RTMP, a popular protocol used for streaming video. The streaming server, run on separate hardware from the game server, runs nginx-rtmp-module with custom code to authenticate players based on their unique "stream keys."

The streaming server, tv.minecraftonline.com, automatically broadcasts to MinecraftOnline's Twitch.tv channel, but could be configured to stream elsewhere if the need ever presented itself.

Streams are controlled through the ingame /tv command. Players can use that command to receive a link to the stream.

Getting involved

While we are currently beta-testing the MCOTV system, we are selectively allowing community members to utilize the station. If you're interested, get in touch with an admin!

What you need

You will need a client capable of streaming to an RTMP server. We recommend OBS Studio, a free and open-source streaming software with features for beginning and advanced streamers alike.

You will also need a fairly-capable internet connection. We recommend testing it with Speedtest.net. Your upload speed is the key metric, but latency (and, more importantly, jitter) are important as well. Twitch allows for up to an 8Mbps (8000Kbps) bitrate for 1080p 60fps streaming, but it will happily accept much lower bitrates and resolutions. As a rule of thumb, you should be capable of consistently uploading at least 25% more data than your intended stream bitrate (e.g. if you're streaming at 8000Kbps, you should be able to upload at least 10000Kbps).

Connection tips

If you're using Wi-Fi, we recommend being as close as is reasonable to your access point ("router"), and using 5GHz where available. However, when it makes sense, wired networking is almost always far superior, even when through a modern powerline adapter.

For additional set-up advice, feel free to contact  techkid6 or  Ted1246.

How to stream

• While ingame, use /tv stream to receive a unique stream key.
  • After receiving your key, you have ten minutes to start your stream!
• Enter your stream key into your streaming software, connecting to rtmp://tv.minecraftonline.com/live
• Only one client can be streaming at once, so please wait your turn!

Streaming guidelines

As we are streaming to an external service (Twitch.tv), all MCOTV broadcasters are required to follow some ground rules. Failure to comply with these rules will result in termination of your streaming privileges.

• You must follow Twitch.tv's Terms of Service at all times. If you are not sure if what you are doing is allowed, either ask an admin first or don't do it at all.
• You may not use copyrighted material to which you don't have a license. There are some very kind musicians who create royalty-free music which is great for streamers to play in the background.
• For now, we are only allowing streams of MinecraftOnline gameplay, though we may expand this in the future.
• Please keep streams to 1080p (1920x1080) resolution or less.

Tips

Streaming can be a fairly intensive process on many computers. As a broadcaster, it is recommended that you limit the number of open applications both to free system resources and to reduce your outgoing network bandwidth usage.

• If you are having issues with dropped frames, look at your encoder settings. If you have access to "hardware" encoding (NVIDIA NVENC, AMD VCE, Intel Quick Sync Video, etc.), that may perform better than h.264 encoding, but may incur a reduction in video quality.
• We recommend setting a "keyframe interval" between 1 and 4. Values greater than 4 are not recommended and values greater than 10 are entirely unsupported.
• Reducing your output resolution may also help with performance, though it also incurs an obvious reduction in video quality.
• You may choose to both stream and record simultaneously. If you do this, it can be much more demanding on your computer.
• Discord has a Streamer Mode which automatically hides sensitive information when on-stream.

Future

There are plans for streamers to edit the "stream title" that displays on Twitch.

Eventually, when streams begin, there will be a notification ingame and on IRC via McObot.