How to Setup Your First OBS Stream

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Getting started with OBS can be a little intimidating. So, in today's article, I'm going to walk you step by step through how to set up your first OBS stream. By the end, you'll feel confident going live.

Downloading OBS Studio

The first thing you're going to do is go to Obsproject.com and select the operating system that you're utilizing. I'm using a Windows, so I'm going to select Windows.

This will begin to install and download the file. I'm not going to skip any steps, because I don't want you to get lost along the way. Now, open up the file where it was downloaded by double-clicking it. This will pop up a window and ask if you want to allow the app to make changes on your device, and you'll select 'Yes.'

I'm going to select 'Welcome to OBS Studio 32.2.1.' You may be on this version or a newer version, but the process is exactly the same. Select 'Next' and then hit 'Next' again. It's going to ask where you want to install OBS Studio.

Program Files/Obs Studio is fine to use. If you want to save it somewhere else, select 'Browse' and find the destination of your choosing. We'll press 'Install', and it's going to begin installing OBS Studio for us. 

Setting up Initial OBS Settings

Once this is done installing, we'll go through how to get everything set up from here. Select 'Launch OBS Studio,' hit 'Finish,' and this will open OBS.

The first thing it's going to ask us is if we want to use the Auto-Configuration Wizard.

You do not want to skip this, because it's going to figure out what kind of PC you have, what kind of internet you have, and it's going to give you the best settings so that your stream looks smooth.

We have three options here. It says 'Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary,' 'Optimize just for recording, I will not be streaming,' and 'I will only be using the virtual camera.' We want to select 'Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary.'

Next is the 'Base Canvas Resolution.' For me, I'm going to select '1080p stream,' because it's the most universal. However, if you want to use 1440p, you can select that. My monitor is at 1440p, and it doesn't affect it.

For FPS, it's going to ask you whether you want 30 or 60. You can go with 30 or 60, but here's how I want you to think about this. If you're going to do a stream that's just talking straight to the camera or just chatting, then going with 30 is more than enough. If you're doing gameplay or sharing videos, then we want to select 60. So, I'll be selecting 60 FPS.

Next, it's going to ask where we want to stream to. You are not locked into whatever you select here. I would not select Twitch, even if Twitch is where you're going to stream to. We want to be able to test our stream before we go live, and YouTube allows us to be able to send the stream unlisted. That just means that nobody can see that stream except for yourself. This allows us to test how the gameplay looks, how the audio sounds, and more. We're going to select YouTube.

 If you do not have a YouTube channel, check out this video: How to Create a YouTube Channel the Right Way. That's going to walk you through it step by step. Even if you don't have a channel and you want to be able to stream, I encourage you to make a channel because content is how you get found and how people can find your stream.

Once you've gone ahead and selected YouTube, we're going to go ahead and select 'Connect Account (Recommended).'

For the next thing we need to select, we want to keep things simple. We don't want to overcomplicate it. You can either use a stream key, which is a little bit more complex, or select 'Create Account (Recommended).' We're going to choose 'Create Account (Recommended).'

This will bring you over to your YouTube channel. It's going to ask you to log in. Then, it's going to ask if you want OBS Studio to have access to your Google account, Select 'Yes,' and hit 'Continue.' It will say, "Authorization completed successfully. You can now close this page.' So we will close that page, go back to OBS, and now you can see that your YouTube channel is linked. 

It says here, "Prefer hardware encoding," and "Estimate bitrate with bandwidth test. May take a few minutes." Let's leave both of those things checked and hit 'Next.' This is going to check your internet speed to know what you can use to be able to stream, and it's also going to tell you the best settings based on your PC's specs.

Once that's done, we're about 90% through getting everything set up. It says here, "The program is now executing a set of tests to estimate the ideal settings." Now, it says, "Testing complete." All the settings that it recommends are what we are going to use because, again, it's going to give you the best experience. 

Once you get a little bit more advanced and start to understand and feel comfortable navigating OBS, you can then begin to start optimizing and changing settings. I have videos on my channel showing you how to do that.

You're going to see several windows pop up here.

You'll have the YouTube Live control panel, and then you'll have the YouTube chat. If you want, you can just drag this chat and then paste it and put it anywhere that you like. We don't need this necessarily right now, but we'll just leave it there for the time being.

We don't need the live control panel, so I'm just going to close that and say, "Don't show this again." If you ever want to bring these screens back, simply come up to where it says 'Docks,' and you'll see that you can add the YouTube Live control panel back.

Adding Elements to OBS

Now, let's walk through a bit of what we see here so you understand what you're seeing.

On the left-hand side, you're going to see Scenes and Sources.

A quick way to explain this is that scenes are going to be a folder. Then, sources are going to be everything inside of that folder.

We're going to come to the scene and right-click it. Let's rename this to 'Gameplay.' Later, you can add in more scenes. Now we have our folder, our gameplay, and we have this clean canvas.

For sources, this is everything that we want to put inside that folder, like our gameplay, microphone, and a camera or a webcam.

The first thing we want to do is add in our microphone. The easiest way to do this is to come to the bottom right-hand side and select 'Settings.' On the left-hand side, we're going to select 'Audio.' Where it says 'Mic/Auxiliary Audio,' this is where you want to go ahead and select your microphone.

You can have a microphone plugged in, or you can have your headset plugged in. Whatever the case is, you're going to see it pop up here. I'm going to go ahead and select my microphone.

If you don't know what microphone to get, check out this page. I've gone ahead and put together budget microphones, budget webcams, budget capture cards, and everything that you're going to need to stream. 

I'm just going to select my microphone, and you can select whatever microphone you have. Once we have that selected, we can see at the bottom that our microphone is moving. 

Here's the thing that I want you to learn when it comes to your audio. As you're talking, if you get too loud, you can see here that I'm getting into the red. You don't want your audio to be in the red, because your viewers will have to turn down your stream or they won't watch it at all. 

What I encourage you to do, and the safest thing to do, is to bring this down until you're at about -6 (negative six). This is going to be a nice standard spot to have it.

Now, no matter how loud I get, my audio is going to stay at the right level. That way, my stream sounds good. Once you get that in place, we have our audio ready to go. 

The next thing that we want to do is bring in what we're going to stream, which is going to be our gameplay. We're going to make sure that we're selected on our folder, which is 'Gameplay,' and we'll come down to where it says sources. We're going to open this up and hit the  plus icon. For now, all we want to do is go to where it says 'Game Capture.' 

There are two ways to capture gameplay. These are based on what you utilize to be able to game. 

So if you play on a console or if you have a secondary PC where you solely game on that, you're going to want to be able to get a capture card. Okay? Now, again, what is a capture card? A capture card is simply a device that connects to your console or your second PC and connects to your streaming PC. Okay?

So let me again show you what that looks like. If you're gaming and streaming on the same PC, just like I am, select 'Game Capture.' 

If you have a capture card, you would select 'Video Capture Device.' That's the only difference. Everything else is pretty much exactly the same. 

Select 'Game Capture,' and then choose 'Add a New Game.' When you select this, it's going to say 'Capture Any Full Screen Application.' Before doing this, you'll want to open up the game that you'll be playing so that it pops up.

For this example, I'll be opening Gears of War. I'll open it and let it load up. This way, when you have your game open and we go into OBS Studio, it can see the open game and understand what's happening. Once you set this up one time, you don't have to keep doing it over and over again. 

In order for you to select just the game, go to 'Properties.' Right now, we have 'Capture any full screen application' selected. That's not exactly what we want. We want to capture a specific window. To do that, select 'Capture Specific Window.' Then, find and select your game, and now you should see the game showing there.

If you want to be able to capture the audio, you can select that here, and it will bring in the audio from the game. I'm going to select that and then press 'Okay.' 

For me, the game is just not in the frame. Again, I'm playing on a 1440p monitor, and my canvas is only 1080p. If you use the same aspect ratio as your monitor, this is going to look perfect.

If you, like me, are using a different aspect ratio, go to 'Game Capture,' right-click, select 'Transfer,' and hit 'Fit to Screen.' Now our gameplay and the gameplay audio are correct here.

Next, right-click on the gameplay audio and rename it 'Game Audio.' That way you know exactly what it is. Just as we balanced our microphone so that it doesn't sound crazy, we're going to do the same thing for our gameplay.

For the game audio, I encourage you to bring it down to about negative 20. This is personal preference, but I've been doing this for long enough to tell you that it will be a good balance. Every game is a little bit different, but starting at 20 is good. If it's too loud, go a little bit down. If it's too low, go up a little bit.

We now have OBS in place. We now have our game. The next thing we need to do is add in our camera. Many of you may not even want to use a camera. You may just want to use your audio and the gameplay. If that's the case, then this is all you pretty much need to get started. 

If you want to add a camera or a webcam, make sure it's connected to your computer. We'll come back to our folder, which is the 'Gameplay' scene. Go to Sources and hit the plus icon. 

We'll select 'Video Capture Device' because it's a camera. Whether it's a webcam or a camera, this is what you want to select. Then, you're going to look for your camera. For me, my camera is under 'Cam Link,' so I'll select this and press 'Okay.'

I'm going to make this a little bit smaller, and then I'll have it in the corner. You can place this anywhere that you want based on the game that you're playing. You don't want to block any kind of UI or anything that you're utilizing. A little trick: if you hold the Alt key on your keyboard, it will allow you to crop your camera. 

Now you can see that this is starting to look a little more professional. We have good audio, gameplay, and our camera. 

Next, my camera is bringing in some audio, and I don't want that. To fix this, you can go ahead and mute it, or bring it all the way down to zero. You don't want audio coming from your webcam and audio coming from your mic.

I would encourage you to come to the left-hand side and hit the little lock icons when you're happy with your layout. Now, I can't come in here and move things around or mess things up accidentally. 

Going Live

Now we want to be able to begin this process of going live. If you just created your YouTube channel, you'll have an extra step to follow here. 

Once you create your channel, you'll want to come to the top right-hand side, hit 'Create', and then select 'Go Live.' The first time that you press this button, it's going to tell you that you need to enable live streaming. That enablement takes up to 24 hours, so if you've gotten to this point and then you have to wait 24 hours, do not panic. It takes a little bit of time. After 24-hours, you'll see the screen below. 

It will say that there is no data and that nothing is coming through. We'll go back to OBS Studio, and you'll see where it says 'Manage Broadcast' and 'Start Streaming' in the bottom-right corner. Select 'Manage Broadcast'. This is going to allow us to set up our first stream on YouTube.

Remember, we're using YouTube so we can test our stream without anyone seeing us going live. This is also a great way to practice before you go live as well. I'm going to type 'Test' here for the name. You don't need to worry about the description right now. 

Where it says Privacy, this is super important; you want to select 'Unlisted.' 'Private' is also fine as well, but 'Unlisted' is the best way. When it says, "Is this video made for kids," you'll want to say 'No'. Even though your content could be for kids, you still should select No, because that's different. When it says 'not for kids,' it wants to know if you are making content specifically for children. You don't want to select that. 

We're not going to worry about a thumbnail right now, again, because we're just testing our stream.

For Latency, this is going to be super important for you to understand. Not to make it complex, but if you decide to be able to stream in 4K or higher, you're now going to be able to put it on ultra low. 1080p means ultra low. The latency is like when somebody says, "Hey," in the chat, and you say, "Hey," back. It's almost instant. When you do it normally, there's about a one-six second delay, which is totally fine.

I typically put it on low. Again, it doesn't really matter if you go higher to 1440p or 4K. If you're using the settings that I use now, just follow along with what I'm doing here, and you'll be good. 

You'll want to leave it set to 'Enable DVR,' and then you want to go ahead and select 'Create Broadcast and Start Streaming.' 

You don't have to worry about hitting 'Create Broadcast and Start Streaming' because it's unlisted and nobody is going to see it. Now, it's creating a new broadcast. You'll know that you're streaming because it will say 'Stop Streaming.'

Now, head back to YouTube and select your channel. Go to the top right side. You're going to select 'YouTube Studio,' then select 'Content.' You're going to the top where it says 'Live,' and now you see a live stream there.

When you hover over this, you'll select 'View in Live Control Room.' This is going to show your stream. 

You can see here that we are live. It says 'Excellent,' which is what you want. Then, on the right-hand side, you can see the chat. We can also see the chat in OBS Studio if you want to be able to see it there. This is going to allow you to see if your audio sounds good and if the stream looks good.

I encourage you to go back to your game and start to play a little bit. Pay attention to whether it lags, stops, starts, and notice how everything looks. 

If you start to notice that your audio is out of sync, I'm going to teach you a little trick. A lot of the time, what happens is that if you have a camera and a microphone, your audio can be out of sync. The easiest way to fix that is at the bottom where it says 'Options.' 

Hit the gear icon, and you'll see where it says 'Offset.'

 Typically, putting this at 400 syncs it, but you'll have to tweak it and mess around with it. Start with 300 and see if it's in sync. If you don't need it, you can leave it at zero.

If you start to lag or start to experience anything, then I encourage you to watch "OBS Lag Fix: Reduce CPU Usage & Stop Drop Frames."

Once you've tested everything, simply hit 'Stop Streaming.' That will be the process of you going through to start and stop your actual stream. 

When you come back to YouTube, you can see that your stream was there and that it's now ended. Once you hit Stop in OBS, it automatically stops the stream. If you still see it showing that you're live on YouTube Studio, you can just select End Stream. I always double-check just to be sure. 

Once that's done, you can see where it says 'Edit in Studio.' I'm going to click that to go ahead and watch it. Go to 'Details' on the left-hand side. There is now a link for the video. Click it, and you'll be able to see your stream. You're going to see that it's 1080p HD quality. It should look really good; ultimately, you want a high-quality, smooth stream.

Once everything is running exactly how we want it to run, you'll have the option to go live once you're ready. Going live by itself is just not enough.

The question is, 'How do people actually find me?' It's not by streaming; it's by creating content. If you’re struggling to grow your stream and you want my help, I created The Streamer Academy Pro™. 

It’s my coaching community where I work with educational gaming creators to build a clear system to grow their channel and, eventually, go full-time.You can learn more about The Streamer Academy Pro™ here.

Coming back to OBS Studio, this is going to be just a basic stream. You can get away with what you see here; however, if you want to have a professional-looking stream with overlays, graphics, transitions, and more, I encourage you to watch this video right here. I'll walk you step-by-step through how to add overlays and graphics to your stream to make it look professional.