So, you decided to become a famous streamer. You have a powerful computer, desire and skill. But you don’t know how to stream on Twitch. We will try to deal with the streaming platform and related programs. In the meantime, first things first.
The beginning of the story
Before you figure out how to start streaming on Twitch, we’ll learn about the history of the project. And it begins almost 10 years ago. In 2007, four young and ambitious young men created their own project. His task was to show the performance in real time. Justin Kahn volunteered and began broadcasting his life 24 hours a day. He was with the camera daily and hourly and showed the audience all his life's adventures.
The rest decided to do the technical part. The project was decided to be called JustinTV, and work was launched. For the entire period of the expected effect from the new brainchild, the guys did not get it. Most often, the audience did not take him seriously and often made fun of Justin. Once the police were called to him, saying that they were stabbing in the apartment, once they announced a fire to the rescue service.
I must say that the guys who are smart and have already had experience in such a business undertook the project. Justin and Emmett, even after university, created an app that later sold for a quarter of a million dollars.
When the guys realized that JustinTV could not continue to work, they decided to listen to the opinions of people. Many asked to allow users to create the broadcast themselves. Just a few months later, the developers responded to these wishes, and each one soon started its own broadcast.
But then the guys ran into another problem. It became a copyright violation and a difficult situation with the servers. Well, the worst case was the student's suicide live. Then the project met a lot of criticism and criticism.
Twitch to replace JustinTV
But the positive thing was that a lot of gamers joined the platform. In fact, it was thanks to them that the project kept afloat. And then in 2011, Justin decided to simultaneously create a platform for gaming streaming. Then few people knew how to stream to Twitch. Nevertheless, the project developed and lived.
A year later, Twitch became the official Internet channel that broadcasted from eSports events. Thus, the community of gamers found a home and took root on this platform. Popular games went to the top of the views: CS: GO, Dota2, LoL, etc. Right there, and on this base began to form their own channels and eSports organizations.
In 2014, Twitch bought for $ 1 billion. Around the event there were a lot of rumors. But the guys themselves claimed that the main thing for them was to maintain the independence of the platform. By the way, users were immediately banned from leading the Stream in half-naked form. Many streamers earned it with their appearance.
Today, more than 100 million registered users spend a lot of time on Twitch. According to statistics, 60% of viewers watch channels more than 20 hours a week.
Streaming Software
If you do not know how to start streaming on Twitch, then first of all pay attention to the software. You probably know that in order to view the broadcast, you just need to go to the platform’s website, and from your smartphone or tablet to the appropriate application.
But if you do not know how to stream to Twitch, then you will have to get acquainted with the programs Open Broadcaster Software and XSplit. Of course, the software is much larger, but these programs are the most popular and, most importantly, almost free. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. One program requires more resources, while another requires certain system requirements. But most importantly, before you figure out how to stream through Twitch, you need to configure these programs.
XSplit setup
How to stream through XSplit? Twitch will start broadcasting if you configure the program correctly. First of all, you need to register on the site. This is easy to do, so it makes no sense to describe the process. Now download the program itself and understand.
So, for starters, configure the channel. To do this, go to the Channels tab and click Add. Add all the data. Next, you need to configure video and audio. The default video codec value is set to X.264, so we leave it. Bitrate / Max value bitrate is responsible for picture quality. The larger it is, the better the quality, but also take into account that the computer will absorb a lot of resources.
In terms of audio, tuning is much simpler. Here you need to adjust the codec, bit rate and format. If you downloaded the program for free, and did not buy the add-on, then there will be few options. Therefore, establish the possible.
When you have prepared the channel, go to the main menu. Everything is ready to start the broadcast. A preview is a window in which your broadcast is displayed, everything that is visible there will be broadcast to the audience. Further, under the preview, the volume of the microphone and stereo mixer is shown. So you can check the sound on the stream. Below in the window you create a broadcast, select a game, you can also add titles, additional elements there.
What is OBS?
If you don’t know how to stream to Twitch TV via OBS, this section is for you. This program is free and easy. The difference between OBS and Iksplit is that the first software allows you to capture any event that occurs on your screen. You only need to create the desired “scene” and add the program, the game, etc. But setting up OBS is more difficult: if you take into account that XSplit is configured automatically, you will have to torment yourself with the OBS.
Channel setup in OBS
So, we registered on Twitch. How to stream (OBS), we will understand further. In the program, there are several modes that allow you to record video live or on your PC. In the "Broadcasting Service" you need to choose the platform that you are going to stream to, in our case - "Twitch".
To install the server, you need to check the data transfer rate. But if you have fast Internet, it is best to install Amsterdam / Frankfurt. Next, you need to take the key for streaming. Find it on your own Twitch account. There, in the Broadcast tab, select "Show Key".
Next, check the box next to "Auto-reconnect" to resume broadcasting. The time indicator is set equal to five seconds. You can use the broadcast delay, or you can not think about it. If you don’t need someone to stream streaming, you can set half a minute.
Setting up video in OBS
If you don’t know how to stream to Twitch, follow these guidelines. Although, as practice shows, you still have to change something. So:
- "Constant Bitrate" - put a tick near the "Twitch".
- We put a tick in front of “CBR padding”.
- The higher the quality, the higher the bitrate. The maximum value is 10, which means that try to set the average, and in which case you can adjust.
- “Maximum bitrate” is a thing that will also have to be changed. Setting this value depends on your original speed. If you have a fast Internet connection, then set the rate to 2500 Kbps.
- “Buffer size” corresponds to the size of the “Maximum bitrate”.
Audio Tuning in OBS
So, we have not yet fully answered the question of how to stream to Twitch TV. It remains to take time to configure the audio. There are three sections in the settings: for the codec, select AAC; the average value for the bitrate is 112. The 44.1khz stereo format will be quite sufficient.
Further, many other settings will become available, but these will be enough to start the broadcast. Setting up a scene is practically no different from setting up a broadcast in XSplit. You need to add a scene, and in the sources enter the address of the broadcast game. This also includes capturing webcams, captions and other elements. So we decided how to stream to Twitch TV.