Tweet
Okay, so a lot of people have difficulty getting set up with streaming, thinking they don't have the required hardware/internet. I'm here to help you out. I know people who have streamed with less than a 400k upload (this is extremely low), and I stream with a piece of crap computer (you can see the specs in my profile). You do not need some beast of a computer, nor do you need an amazing upload.
One thing that will help you stream with a clunker of a computer is OBS rather than XSplit. OBS is better than XSplit in almost every way, it is lighter running, it can do everything XSplit can do (and then some), it has fewer bugs, and best of all, IT'S COMPLETELY FREE! The one downside to OBS is it isn't very user friendly and the user interface is intimidating (though it's actually very simplistic once you know what to do). I'm going to walk you through how to set it up right now.
First things first... download OBS and install it. You can do so at: https://obsproject.com/download
Once installed we need to set you up. Once you open the program click on that button that says "Settings". This will give you a wonderfully simplistic options menu. The first tab we go to is encoding. This is the most important tab here, it's where most people think they can't stream. "Max Bitrate" is the box we want here. Most people have no idea what this is, but if you're stream keeps dropping, stuttering, freezing, etc, this is likely why. The value depends on what your internet can handle. I run at 1000kb/s because I have fibre op, however, if you have mediocre to poor internet, try lowering it to 700, if you still have problems, try 500, and so on until it works. I think 500 is what my friend at less than 400k upload ran at.
So that was encoding, now to Broadcast settings. Here you want to have your mode as live stream, your streaming service as twitch, and your server as the closest one to you. For play path/stream key, this is an important field. This is what tells the software to stream to your channel. You can find your stream key by logging in to twitch and going to www.twitch.tv/broadcast. There should be a "show key" button. Copy this key (highlight and ctrl+C or right-click and copy), then paste it into the field in OBS (ctrl+V or right-click and paste) [yes, I explained how to copy/paste]. You will likely get a red warning message at the bottom here because of some recent changes to twitch... ignore them, we will fix that when we get to the advanced tab.
Next is Video. Here is where you choose your resolution. I use a 750x480 resolution, but many people wish to have higher. Remember, the higher it is, the better your computer needs to be and the better your internet needs to be. Also keep in mind that if your resolution is too high that some people may not be able to watch your stream as their download speeds may be too slow. Just in case you don't know how to enter it, there are 2 boxes in the custom tab, to enter resolution just enter the length and width in each box. (for example mine would be 750 in the left box and 480 in the right box). There are some other settings such as downscale you can use, though they are unnecessary (feel free to play around).
Next is Audio. Playback audio device and microphone are what we want here. Whatever you select for playback audio device will be what your audience hears. For instance, if your game sound comes out of your computer speakers, set this as computer speakers. If it comes out of your headset, select your headset. Microphone should be pretty self explanatory... select your microphone. I should mention as well, if you ever load OBS while one of these devices is not plugged in, they may change back to the default settings, so check here before every stream to make sure your devices are selected.
Now the advanced tab. Here there is only 1 thing you need to look at. Look for where it says "Keyframe Interval". The value should default to 0, twitch now wants us all to set this to 2 (this is what that error was about before). Once this is set, hit apply and voila, settings are configured.
Now it's time to add sources/scenes. I will ignore scenes for now, but basically a scene is a grouping of sources, you don't require them to get up and streaming, but they can make things easier if you have a lot of sources in OBS or want to switch a lot of settings fast. Feel free to play around with them on your own time. So back to sources, these are what tell OBS what to broadcast. To create a source, simply right click the white field under "Sources", hover your mouse over "Add", and you should see some options. The main ones you want will be "Window Capture", "Game Capture", and "Video Capture Device" (or something similar, I'm going by memory). Game capture doesn't work with a lot of games, so I never use it actually... I stick exclusively to Window Capture. The only problem with Window Capture is that should you bring anything over what is being captured, it too will be broadcast (so keep your skype/facebook off of that window).
We will look at Window Capture first. Once you select Window Capture you will get another settings style window to configure everything. Basically all you need to do is select the program you want to capture from the drop down menu at the top of this box (the program must be running for you to set it up). After you select it I recommend unchecking "show mouse cursor" unless you want people to see your mouse on the window as well. After that, just hit okay and voila... you can broadcast that window now. But wait you say... I can't see anything. Well hold your horses, we will get back to that.
Next is "Game Capture". This works the exact same way as Window Capture does (in terms of setting it up), however with Game Capture you don't have to worry about windows over your game being broadcast. The downside however is that most games (at least that I've tried), and all emulators, fail to work with Game Capture. You will get nothing but a black screen.
Finally we have "Video Capture Device". This is where you add your webcam or capture card (depending on the card). When you select this you will get another menu like in Window and Game Capture. Just select the device you want to capture from the drop down menu (If using a capture card there may be audio settings that need changed, this is beyond the scope of this guide), and hit okay. You are now done setting the essentials. There are a few other sources you can use, however they aren't a necessity, and feel free to play around with them. They are very easy to use, and it doesn't hurt to test them out.
Now, I told you to hold your horses earlier, and now we're getting to that. You have your sources set, but you can't see them. Click the "Preview Stream" button to the right. This will bring up all of your sources and show you what your viewers will see. Next click the "Edit Scene" button. This will allow you to move and resize everything in the window. Some objects may be outside of the window, so grab them by the corner and shrink them. If you can't grab them by the corner, try moving them until the corner is visible. You may get upset over the fact that OBS only allows you to shrink diagonally (in other words, forcing you to maintain aspect ratio). You can stretch up and down, or side to side as well simply by holding the shift key as you resize.
Now, you may want certain sources to overlap others. You will notice that the order your sources are listed in the white field below, tells you how they will be stacked on your stream. For instance, if you have a game and a webcame as your sources, and you want your webcam over the top corner of your game. Well you will need to make sure that the webcam is listed at the top of the source list. If you already set up the webcam, you can right click it in your source list and select "Order", then move up, or move to top. This will move the order of the sources so you can stack as you see fit. You can also turn off a source by unchecking the little check mark next to the source name. You can permanently remove a source by selected it and pushing the delete key as well.
When you are down getting everything pretty, hit stop preview. You can now broadcast at any time by clicking the start streaming button. Congrats, you're live.
If you have any problems feel free to post a comment and I'll help out as best I can. Furthermore, if you have any requests for me to include information in this guide, please let me know and I'll edit it. I hope you all enjoy.
Signed,
AmazingSully
The Cher of Twitch (yes, The Cher of Twitch)
One thing that will help you stream with a clunker of a computer is OBS rather than XSplit. OBS is better than XSplit in almost every way, it is lighter running, it can do everything XSplit can do (and then some), it has fewer bugs, and best of all, IT'S COMPLETELY FREE! The one downside to OBS is it isn't very user friendly and the user interface is intimidating (though it's actually very simplistic once you know what to do). I'm going to walk you through how to set it up right now.
First things first... download OBS and install it. You can do so at: https://obsproject.com/download
Once installed we need to set you up. Once you open the program click on that button that says "Settings". This will give you a wonderfully simplistic options menu. The first tab we go to is encoding. This is the most important tab here, it's where most people think they can't stream. "Max Bitrate" is the box we want here. Most people have no idea what this is, but if you're stream keeps dropping, stuttering, freezing, etc, this is likely why. The value depends on what your internet can handle. I run at 1000kb/s because I have fibre op, however, if you have mediocre to poor internet, try lowering it to 700, if you still have problems, try 500, and so on until it works. I think 500 is what my friend at less than 400k upload ran at.
So that was encoding, now to Broadcast settings. Here you want to have your mode as live stream, your streaming service as twitch, and your server as the closest one to you. For play path/stream key, this is an important field. This is what tells the software to stream to your channel. You can find your stream key by logging in to twitch and going to www.twitch.tv/broadcast. There should be a "show key" button. Copy this key (highlight and ctrl+C or right-click and copy), then paste it into the field in OBS (ctrl+V or right-click and paste) [yes, I explained how to copy/paste]. You will likely get a red warning message at the bottom here because of some recent changes to twitch... ignore them, we will fix that when we get to the advanced tab.
Next is Video. Here is where you choose your resolution. I use a 750x480 resolution, but many people wish to have higher. Remember, the higher it is, the better your computer needs to be and the better your internet needs to be. Also keep in mind that if your resolution is too high that some people may not be able to watch your stream as their download speeds may be too slow. Just in case you don't know how to enter it, there are 2 boxes in the custom tab, to enter resolution just enter the length and width in each box. (for example mine would be 750 in the left box and 480 in the right box). There are some other settings such as downscale you can use, though they are unnecessary (feel free to play around).
Next is Audio. Playback audio device and microphone are what we want here. Whatever you select for playback audio device will be what your audience hears. For instance, if your game sound comes out of your computer speakers, set this as computer speakers. If it comes out of your headset, select your headset. Microphone should be pretty self explanatory... select your microphone. I should mention as well, if you ever load OBS while one of these devices is not plugged in, they may change back to the default settings, so check here before every stream to make sure your devices are selected.
Now the advanced tab. Here there is only 1 thing you need to look at. Look for where it says "Keyframe Interval". The value should default to 0, twitch now wants us all to set this to 2 (this is what that error was about before). Once this is set, hit apply and voila, settings are configured.
Now it's time to add sources/scenes. I will ignore scenes for now, but basically a scene is a grouping of sources, you don't require them to get up and streaming, but they can make things easier if you have a lot of sources in OBS or want to switch a lot of settings fast. Feel free to play around with them on your own time. So back to sources, these are what tell OBS what to broadcast. To create a source, simply right click the white field under "Sources", hover your mouse over "Add", and you should see some options. The main ones you want will be "Window Capture", "Game Capture", and "Video Capture Device" (or something similar, I'm going by memory). Game capture doesn't work with a lot of games, so I never use it actually... I stick exclusively to Window Capture. The only problem with Window Capture is that should you bring anything over what is being captured, it too will be broadcast (so keep your skype/facebook off of that window).
We will look at Window Capture first. Once you select Window Capture you will get another settings style window to configure everything. Basically all you need to do is select the program you want to capture from the drop down menu at the top of this box (the program must be running for you to set it up). After you select it I recommend unchecking "show mouse cursor" unless you want people to see your mouse on the window as well. After that, just hit okay and voila... you can broadcast that window now. But wait you say... I can't see anything. Well hold your horses, we will get back to that.
Next is "Game Capture". This works the exact same way as Window Capture does (in terms of setting it up), however with Game Capture you don't have to worry about windows over your game being broadcast. The downside however is that most games (at least that I've tried), and all emulators, fail to work with Game Capture. You will get nothing but a black screen.
Finally we have "Video Capture Device". This is where you add your webcam or capture card (depending on the card). When you select this you will get another menu like in Window and Game Capture. Just select the device you want to capture from the drop down menu (If using a capture card there may be audio settings that need changed, this is beyond the scope of this guide), and hit okay. You are now done setting the essentials. There are a few other sources you can use, however they aren't a necessity, and feel free to play around with them. They are very easy to use, and it doesn't hurt to test them out.
Now, I told you to hold your horses earlier, and now we're getting to that. You have your sources set, but you can't see them. Click the "Preview Stream" button to the right. This will bring up all of your sources and show you what your viewers will see. Next click the "Edit Scene" button. This will allow you to move and resize everything in the window. Some objects may be outside of the window, so grab them by the corner and shrink them. If you can't grab them by the corner, try moving them until the corner is visible. You may get upset over the fact that OBS only allows you to shrink diagonally (in other words, forcing you to maintain aspect ratio). You can stretch up and down, or side to side as well simply by holding the shift key as you resize.
Now, you may want certain sources to overlap others. You will notice that the order your sources are listed in the white field below, tells you how they will be stacked on your stream. For instance, if you have a game and a webcame as your sources, and you want your webcam over the top corner of your game. Well you will need to make sure that the webcam is listed at the top of the source list. If you already set up the webcam, you can right click it in your source list and select "Order", then move up, or move to top. This will move the order of the sources so you can stack as you see fit. You can also turn off a source by unchecking the little check mark next to the source name. You can permanently remove a source by selected it and pushing the delete key as well.
When you are down getting everything pretty, hit stop preview. You can now broadcast at any time by clicking the start streaming button. Congrats, you're live.
If you have any problems feel free to post a comment and I'll help out as best I can. Furthermore, if you have any requests for me to include information in this guide, please let me know and I'll edit it. I hope you all enjoy.
Signed,
AmazingSully
The Cher of Twitch (yes, The Cher of Twitch)