Why Chatting On Hoodstream Improves Stream Quality

Link to Hoodstream Chat page

We all want the best stream quality possible and chatting on the streamers chat can bog down the stream and cause buffering and dropouts. The best strategy is to leave the streamers chat for communication with the streamers. You can watch and chat on Hoodstream, or use the chat page in a separate browser window while watching the streamer on ustream (if you have an older machines that doesn’t like all the flash on Hoodstream).

One of the reasons for Hoodstream’s creation was in the early days of streaming there were quality issues with the streams because of heavy chat usage. In June 2009 phishtube, joephus0311, bonaboobs, and other streamers would get so many viewers on their ustream page. Hundreds of users would log into the streamer’s chat (like on a typical show night on Hoodstream) and if there wasn’t good connectivity the stream would start buffering.

The problem is when you chat in the streamers chat room that data from the chat text is written back to the streamers phone. When you are streaming in the ustream broadcaster app it displays the chat on your phone. As a streamer it is nice to have the gratification and outside knowledge that the stream is working, but all that chat can cause buffering and ultimately hurt the overall quality of the stream. On some nights this isn’t an issue when we have a fat 3G pipe, but in many venues we do not have that luxury and every bit and byte can count.

Last but not least another reason for Hoodstream chat is the streamer’s chat can turn into chaos quickly. With no moderators in the chat room people are free to spam or be abusive in the chat room. It was always annoying in June 2009 trying to get spammers to leave or people who did not care about phish but just saw the number of viewers on the stream and hopped into the chat to spam us with links to their url or just generally be annoying. Hoodstream chat moderators can remove those people and keep the fun flowing.

Chat on!

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