Did you know that over the course of the pandemic, the live streaming platform Twitch has seen an increase of over 100% of viewers watching? It is now at over 1.5 billion hours viewed every month. There has never been a better time to jump into the world of streaming, but you’re most likely wondering where to even begin. Enter OBS studio! OBS software is a free-to-use, open platform recording and streaming studio, making it the go-to for both fledgling streamers and dedicated pros alike.
Even big names like xQc and Ninja use OBS streaming software to broadcast to thousands every day. So if you’re looking to kickstart your streaming career, you can read about our top 5 tips to utilize OBS in your streaming set-up below.
1. Why Use OBS Software
The simple answer is because it’s easy! You can get OBS software downloaded and running at just the click of a button. Head to OBS’s website and download the software package straight to your PC. It will take you through its start-up wizard, and then you’re good to go.
Because OBS is free to use, and the easiest of the bunch, it’s considered one of the best types of streaming software for beginners. Its interface is super user-friendly, and it has a great community of streamers and producers that you can lean upon for support.
OBS studio software is also compatible with multiple different streaming platforms. Whether you’re streaming on Twitch, Youtube, even Facebook Gaming, you can connect OBS to your platform of choice using a stream key. If you’re streaming live video games, creating and editing for a Youtube channel, or recording videos, it’s this versatility that makes it the perfect software option.
2. Find Your Frame Rate
Everyone wants that glossy, 4k, sharp-as-a-knife content. But what you don’t want is your stream or video dropping frames because it’s being run too high. A happy medium for frame rates tends to be between 30fps and 60fps and this will be dependent on what type of content you are streaming or recording.
You’ll want higher frames, more around the 60fps limit, for graphics-heavy games like first-person shooters. If you’re streaming 8-bit style farming games, you’re better off keeping the frame rate at 30fps. Just because you can stream at a higher frame rate doesn’t always mean you should.
It’s all about finding the right balance, which sometimes can be a bit trial-and-error. But it’s worth playing around with it in order to optimize the quality of your stream or video. You can adjust your frame rate in OBS by clicking ‘settings’, heading to the ‘video’ tab, and altering the amount under ‘common fps values’.
3. The Best Bitrate
With video quality in mind, adjusting the bit rate in OBS is also worth playing around with. You’ll need to know your upload speed to discover what bit rate is best for you, and there’s plenty of free internet speed testing sites to choose from. You want to set your bit rate just a little lower than your upload speed.
Even with the best upload speeds, you still don’t want to slap your bit rate to the highest it will go – this may cause issues for viewers on the other end, even if it looks great for you. On the other side of the coin, it’s advisable to keep your bit rate at least above 2000kps to avoid pixelation. No one wants to watch a muddy, blurred stream!
You can adjust your bit rate in OBS by heading to ‘settings’ and selecting ‘output’. Your bit rate can be found under the ‘streaming’ header.
4. Run OBS as Administrator
If you’re someone new to the streaming world, you want to be able to utilize as much power from your PC as possible before having to spend a load of money on upgrading your rig. By running OBS as an administrator, it will vastly improve the performance power of your stream or video.
If you’re finding your feet producing videos or streams and don’t have the best quality hardware, it’s an easy way to boost a low-powered system. By running OBS as administrator, your PC is actively prioritizing OBS over anything else, which is why it improves performance.
Find the desktop shortcut for OBS and right-click it. Head down to the bottom option that says ‘properties’, and from there head to the ‘compatibility tab. Check the box that says ‘run this program as administrator’, click ‘apply’, and then click ‘okay’.
5. Sorting Your Sources
Keeping your sources in check and tidy will greatly improve the quality of your stream. Sure, it’s tempting to add in a load of fun little widgets and buttons, but the more sources you have running, the more processing power is needed from OBS. Too many can even make the software crash.
If you utilize platforms like StreamElements with OBS, you can actually compress your sources into one, meaning far less power is needed from OBS and your PC. Doing this also makes them very easy to edit, as everything is in one place and easy to access.
By sorting out your sources, you also tidy up your scenes overall. Scenes are each different view of a video. Examples of different scenes can be between a ‘Just Chatting’ screen (with a camera and chat box sources) then to a gameplay video and face cam scene.
Keeping these scenes and sources organized also means you’ll have a far easier time transitioning between them during a live broadcast. Technical mishaps are a standard for all streamers, big and small, but you can mitigate the risk of these by taking a few easy steps. A tidy house is a tidy mind, as the saying goes!
Best for Beginners
OBS software is the easiest streaming software to use for streamers and video producers who are just starting out. But that means the more you learn, the better your production value will be.
If you want to know more about how to use OBS, we have lots more tips and tricks on our blog.
