How Do I Upload Media Monkey To Stream On My Phone

I keep writing about alive-streaming like it'south accessible and like shooting fish in a barrel to do — which it'due south non. Information technology'southward actually quite difficult to go started. Sorry! My bad. I didn't mean to atomic number 82 you off-target. If you lot're notwithstanding Twitch-curious, I accept a souvenir for you lot: a guide for how to become started.

Before I dive in, I'll begin with a few caveats. Offset, in that location are many ways to stream. Zoom allows you to stream directly to YouTube, for case, and yous tin e'er go live on Instagram. Some ways of streaming are easier; others are more difficult. All require a bit of noesis almost how to read forums and not want to dice while doing the necessary troubleshooting. This is not a comprehensive guide.

Second, this isn't meant to be exhaustive. I've been streaming for a little while on my own channel, and virtually of what I'm going to lay out is just the stuff I've picked upwardly since I've been on Twitch. Third, please know that even if you do everything right, something volition still probably not work. That'southward okay. Go one with the troubleshooting, and do things systematically then y'all're always able to work backward and find the source of your problem. As well, think that troubleshooting live on stream is a rite of passage.

Fourth, this guide also assumes you're a beginner and that yous're not planning to either buy a new PC only to stream or to extensively modify one y'all already own (e.m., buying an internal capture carte). It's also focused on streaming using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), an open-source piece of software that a ton of people use to alive stream. (If you've already got your setup working and just want to learn how to use OBS, feel free to skip ahead to the section "How to Stream with OBS.")

If that's you, let'south dive in!

Step 1: Hardware

This is where your journey begins, traveler. Actually, now that I recall of information technology, nosotros should back upward a piddling.

Stride 0: Why exercise you want to stream, and what practise you desire to go out of it?

This is the real start of your adventure. Why exercise yous desire to stream? Be honest with yourself. (And experience complimentary to message me about why! I volition probably include your answers in a future entry of this column.) Is information technology because you desire to proceeds fame, fortune, and influence online? Is it because you desire to accept your friendly gaming sessions upwardly a notch? Is it because you have a specialized skill — e.k., cooking, yoga, etc. — that y'all desire to share with people? Is information technology just crusade it seems similar a fun matter to do?

These are all valid reasons to start streaming, but it'southward as well important to inquire the questions in the first place considering it'll influence what kind of setup you're somewhen going to want. Merely that's a later footstep.

Stride one (once again): Hardware

This is where you'll determine the bodily quality of your stream. At that place are three questions to enquire: What machine practise you plan to stream on? What kind of webcam and microphone do you have access to? What's your cyberspace connection like?

Any respond is fine; I used to stream PS4 gameplay through a 2017 MacBook Air via the console's remote play office, which should honestly exist illegal. (It did work; however, I would not recommend doing this.) The reason these questions are important to answer is twofold: your software options will alter based on what operating system yous're running (Windows, macOS, mobile, console), and the quality of your stream will differ based on what your webcam / microphone / net connexion is like.

Ideally, yous're going to desire to use the fastest, newest figurer yous've got, and the best microphone and webcam in your armory. Your computer is the brains of the performance, no affair what you lot're streaming. Information technology has to exist fast plenty to both handle whatever you're doing on information technology — DJing? Gaming? — while information technology's also encoding and uploading a video stream to Twitch (or any platform yous've chosen to use). If it'due south older, your computer will scream at yous, which is fine. Ignore its screams and the wild amount of heat it's generating. Do not wonder whether you could bake a cookie on the heatsink.

And so here's what to practice: connect your mic and your webcam (no shame if those are on board) to your computer, and test them to see if everything is working. A tip: getting clear audio is more important, at least initially, than having slap-up video. If everything works, great!

Side by side, check your internet speed. Y'all're going to want a fast connexion — specifically a fast upload speed. I'd say around 8–9 Mbps upload is the minimum for a stable HD video output. If you don't quite accept that, don't fret! There are some software settings I'll go over later that yous tin crunch to fit your pipes.

If y'all're planning to stream console games, the other piece of gear you might want to have on hand — bated from extra HDMI cables and a long Ethernet cable — is a capture carte du jour. A capture card is a absurd device that duplicates the audio and video coming out of your consoles and sends it to your computer as a video input, which your streaming software can then recognize and stream. The electric current standard is Elgato's HD60s, which retails for around $200, though you tin get a refurbished 1 for a slightly cheaper price. (The Southward+ has way more features but is commensurately more expensive.)

Other hardware to consider: lighting and dark-green screens. Probably the virtually important thing you lot can practise for yourself afterwards getting a expert mic is investing in good lighting for your streaming space. It helps your camera exercise the vital work of making y'all look good. That tin can mean anything from setting up a lamp behind your camera so information technology lights your confront / torso properly to investing in a dedicated ring light that will ensure that everything looks fifty-fifty. Green screens are some other pop tool to upgrade what your stream looks like. Basically, you set it upward behind you lot, and you can use your streaming software to edit out your background so you lot're directly in front of your video output. (Retrieve Zoom's virtual backgrounds, only with the game y'all're playing.)

Got all that? Great! Now it's time to move on.

Stride two: Software

I'1000 not going to lie to you: there are a lot of buttons, and you lot're going to need to click a lot of them. This can be intimidating. But you lot can do it! It'southward a affair of trying everything until you lot find a solution. It'south time to wrinkle your brain.

I'll divide this department by platform.

Windows

Congratulations! Y'all take the most options. In the beginning, alive-streaming was developed mostly for enterprise users and hardcore gamers, which means the software was developed for people who had Piece of work Machines — machines that needed to be powerful enough to return Crysis or practise corporate Excel sheets.

Allow's focus on the free offerings. You take basically three options: Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), Streamlabs OBS, and XSplit. (In that location's too Twitch Studio, which streams specifically to Twitch.) Each has its charms; of the 3, I adopt regular OBS because it feels standard in a style that my brain appreciates. In fact, I'd recommend using OBS for the majority of people. Streamlabs is also incredibly customizable and fairly easy to set up up, with a built-in ecosystem of overlays, extensions, and themes baked right in.

macOS

Hi, Mac users. You're actually quite lucky because it's only within the concluding year that it's get easier to stream on a Mac. Elgato introduced OBS Link, which greatly simplifies the employ of a capture card on Macs — which you literally couldn't exercise before without processor-intensive, hacky workarounds — and Streamlabs made its macOS debut, at very long terminal. Your options are Streamlabs OBS and regular OBS, which are both very solid.

Mobile

The first thing I should say is: yeah, yous can do this. Twitch and Mixer will let you stream from your phone if you download their dedicated apps, for example. But your options will be limited and fragmented by platform. There's Periscope, which lets you stream to Twitter, and Instagram Live, which does exactly what information technology sounds like it does. (You tin can likewise live-stream to YouTube from a mobile device if you have more 1,000 subscribers.)

What y'all can stream depends on the platform and the app you're using. Mixer allows yous to stream mobile games, while Twitch doesn't. Streamlabs' mobile app, on the other hand, will let you to broadcast whatever's on your screen to the platform of your choice. If you lot're really dedicated to streaming off your phone, godspeed. Yous have a tough row to hoe. While information technology'southward possible to stream, the audio and video quality is mostly much lower, it's harder to customize the stream itself, and it'southward very limiting in what you tin can really practise on stream. (It should be said that you lot tin can, in fact, stream from iOS devices to OBS using Elgato Screen Link — which is good if you'd similar to stream mobile games.)

Console

This is the easiest way to stream. All yous have to do is connect your Twitch / Mixer / YouTube account to your PlayStation four or Xbox I console, and you're good to go. There are, yet, pregnant drawbacks. You can't customize your stream at all, and in that location are weird UI elements that kind of get in the way of gameplay. The consoles handle audio just fine, but adding video gets a lot trickier. (Translation: If you want to upgrade your stream, you're going to buy a console-specific webcam. Distressing!) Hither's a more in-depth guide for how to start streaming on console.

How to stream with OBS

Correct. And then now that nosotros have the options out of the style, it'southward time to dive into the software. For this part of the guide, I'm going to stick with regular OBS because it'southward what I know all-time and because it likewise translates to Streamlabs OBS. (Information technology's likewise the same on both macOS and Windows.)

Step two.5: OBS

Don't be afraid, traveler. OBS tin seem similar the Big Bad in the alive-streaming universe, but it's really a powerful ally — if you lot can master what it'south trying to tell you. OBS is a way station: it is the point where your inputs (webcam, microphone, game capture) and outputs (your stream) merge.

The get-go thing to know almost OBS is that it looks similar this.

This used to scare me; now, it comforts me because I am in control (more often than not).

The first affair you'll notice are the menus down at the bottom: Scenes, Sources, Mixer, Scene Transitions, and Controls. The second matter you should look at are the numbers at the very lesser, labeled "Live," "REC," and "CPU." In one case you open OBS, yous should start to see your CPU usage rising. When you're live, await that number to get higher.

Basically, OBS works like this: scenes are the building blocks of whatever stream. Whatever's in a scene is what's put on your stream. You lot customize scenes with sources, which you tin can add, and you check audio levels for basically any source within a scene via the mixer.

*From left to right: Scenes, Sources, Audio Mixer, Scene Transitions, Controls.*

Scene transitions are in that location if you desire to customize what it looks similar when y'all switch between scenes, but I haven't found that it matters much, personally speaking. (Think PowerPoint transitions.) Controls does exactly what it says. Those fiddling gray buttons are how you'll push button everything alive. Nosotros'll return to Settings in a moment.

What we're going to do now is set three scenes in OBS: a "stream starting shortly" scene, a "live" scene, and one that'due south for intermissions — you lot know, just in case you have to run to the bathroom or refresh your beverage.

So let'due south beginning with the Stream Starting Soon scene. The kickoff thing you lot should do is delete all of the preprogrammed scenes because they're empty and because renaming them is nigh 5 percent more than of a pain in the donkey than it should exist. To do that, highlight the scene and click the minus push at the bottom of the box. Great!

At present click the "+" button adjacent to it, and enter the name of the scene. Something similar "Stream Starting Presently." You're going to desire to be clear and specific because you don't want to be hunting for scenes while yous're streaming. This is role of OBS'south flexibility: you tin can have as many scenes every bit yous want, and they can be every bit specific as you lot desire them to exist. If you want to have silly graphics and not accept to remake them every time you want them on-screen, the Scenes tool is what you're going to use.

*Yous'll notice I'k using a Mac here considering that'south what I write on. It's likewise cool considering it's the aforementioned for Windows, even if the UI looks a piffling different.*

Now that we have a scene, let's move to sources. Click on the "+" button under sources. Whoa! It'due south a long listing!

Unfortunately, all of these things mean something. For now, let'due south focus on the almost important thing: creating a cool graphic that shows off our personality for the people who are going to run across our aqueduct. So now: open up Photoshop / MS Paint / etc., and get to work! Salvage that file somewhere specific, too, because we're going to need it.

Okay! Time to go dorsum to OBS. Highlight your scene again, and click the "+" button in sources; next, navigate to "Image" and name the source — again, be very specific — and make certain the "make source visible" box is checked. Peradventure name it something like "This is my starting soon screen lol." Hit scan, detect the image file, upload information technology, and then click okay. Here'south what mine looks like and then far.

Oh no, my image doesn't fit my streaming canvas because I didn't size it right in Paintbrush! If this is you, that's an piece of cake enough prepare. Just manipulate the image the same way you would if you were resizing annihilation else, by dragging the corners effectually. If you really beefed it, resize the image in your prototype editor so that it fits your screen dimensions, which you can notice in Settings > Video > Base (Sail) Resolution.

Anyway, great! We have our start scene. That wasn't then hard, was it?

The next matter you should know is what those things under audio mixer actually do. Pound for pound, Desktop Audio is probably the near powerful thing you should know well-nigh in the audio mixer settings. Basically, Desktop Audio sends whatever sounds are on your computer out onto your stream. That's Spotify, YouTube, game music from whatever you're playing on your computer — everything. With one major caveat: it plays everything that's pointed at Desktop Audio. If yous go into its settings by clicking on the gear just below information technology, you'll see a number of options for where information technology tin get sound from. And this is where it starts to get complicated. You can forestall a ton of troubleshooting downwards the line if yous make sure your audio is routed to the same identify.

This setting is not scene-specific, although it does change based on where the sources in the scene have their outputs pointed. Basically, if in that location is an audio source that has its output pointed at Desktop Sound, and the source is in the scene that's currently active, you'll hear information technology. Sources don't output video or audio if they're non in an active scene. Let's take a look at the scenes / sources / audio mixer triumvirate again. No reason, information technology'southward just overnice to look at.

When I'm streaming, I similar to exercise a little pre-show to give people fourth dimension to filter over to my channel. Mostly it's merely a "alive soon" scene with some arctic beats playing under it, while I putter around my apartment and finish setting things upwards. I use YouTube; yous can utilise whatever you want — whatever you're playing on your computer will output to desktop audio, provided desktop audio is getting audio from the place you've sent the music. Copyright policies differ based on the platform you're using, merely it's mostly a great idea not to apply copyrighted material; you don't want a strike on your business relationship or a temporary pause. (If y'all're into more advanced stuff, you can observe and make animated overlays for your starting soon screen, but that is definitely beyond the scope of this how-to.) We'll talk briefly about audience stuff later on, just the primary affair to call up is that streaming is something of a second-screen activity — like a podcast, most.

The next thing you should do is repeat the same steps as above to create an pause scene that you can quickly flip to if you demand to. You got this!

Finally: the alive scene. This is where things get a bit more complicated. Start the same way you did earlier by creating a new scene. In the source tab, add together two new sources: 1 for sound input capture and i for video capture device. What nosotros're going to do here is add your webcam and your microphone to your sources, so that your audience tin can see and hear you. In the menus that pop up for those sources, select the devices that you're going to apply, and give the sources appropriate names ("logitech webcam," "blue yeti microphone," etc.).

The video capture device — your webcam — should pop up on the OBS sheet, merely your audio device won't. A note here that should save you some troubleshooting time: if your webcam is being used past a different slice of software, it volition not bear witness up in OBS. Brand sure y'all shut any other software that might be using your camera.

Your microphone volition bear witness up as a new set of bars in your sound mixer. Now'south the time to brand certain your levels are advisable. Generally, you desire to be peaking in the yellowish part of the mix for everything; if you lot hit the red bit of the bar, it's going to sound terrible. Your audition will tell yous to arrange as needed — just slide the volume bars underneath the offending input to modify the levels.

Now it'southward time to build in everything else. One of the best things about streaming is that it'south infinitely customizable; y'all can add browser sources to capture audio, play alerts on your channel when someone subscribes or follows, and basically anything else you lot can think of. For correct now, we'll keep it unproblematic. Allow's add a game to your streaming output. (If yous're non planning to play a video game on stream, feel costless to skip this chip.)

We'll start with games on your reckoner because the process is slightly easier to explain — and information technology'due south dissimilar on Mac and Windows. We'll start with Mac this time.

To add a game to your sources listing in OBS, you're going to have to practice a bit of a workaround, for now, and use a Window Capture. These work similarly to Video Input Capture sources, simply instead of capturing a video, you're going to capture the specific window of the game you're playing. Find the window that has the game running in the menu in the same way, and add / name the source in the same way you did the others. On Windows, in that location'due south an option called Game Capture, which allows you to either capture any currently full-screen window or option a specific game to broadcast.

To add a console game is harder considering it introduces another piece of software — Elgato Game Capture HD. (This is if you've decided to become with the Elgato HD60s/south+.) Remember, you lot're going to need the capture menu to send its video and audio to your calculator and your tv at the same time. Nosotros'll start with Windows.

First, make sure your panel is on, and that you lot've correctly attached the HDMI cables to the capture carte and that the capture card is plugged into the appropriate USB port on your streaming PC. (If you're using a PS4, make sure you lot disable HDCP copy protection on PS4 in settings, every bit yous'll brand your screen look weird and have horrible clicking noises come out of your Boob tube otherwise. For other consoles, go here.)

Next, y'all'll need to boot up Game Capture HD. Y'all should run into whatever's on your Boob tube in this app. Look at the top right where a minor image of your capture card should be, and click through to its settings by clicking on the gear under information technology. You lot should exist able to change the settings there based on which panel you have plugged into your capture card. It's important to change the settings to lucifer your console here because this changes what's going on inside the carte itself, and the signals information technology outputs to your figurer.

Finally, render to OBS and add a new video capture source to your live scene. You lot should meet your Elgato capture card equally an pick, labeled by the port it's in; cull it. Your console'south video will at present be mirrored in OBS.

For Macs, the process is different. Y'all have to download a separate piece of software chosen OBS Link, which is what volition allow your estimator to recognize the input indicate from the Elgato capture card as a video capture device, which you can and then add to your stream. (It's important to note that the South+ can connect to Macs direct and doesn't demand OBS Link to part.) You can notice more information about how to set that upwards here.

Phew. Lots to do, correct? And yous're not set up to stream yet. Only you do have a live screen!

Step two.7: OBS Settings

Now nosotros dive into the settings. This is extremely important considering, equally I mentioned above, this is how we're going to optimize for our pipes. (If you're using Streamlabs, the software has probably done this for you at startup.) The get-go matter you should exercise is open up settings, navigate to video settings, and and then alter the frame rate — "Common FPS Values" in OBS — to xxx. This will drib the processor load considerably. To futz with it further, feel complimentary to go to town on the "Output (Scaled) Resolution"; if your stream is however inclement, drop the output resolution. Your viewers will probably notice a commensurate drop in quality, withal.

There are a ton of other options in here. The other of import box is under output where you lot can discover your computer'southward streaming settings. Irresolute the encoder, bitrate, and presets will change how your viewers feel your stream, so feel costless to play around in hither. If something breaks, you lot'll know what did it.

But the almost of import part of this section is connecting OBS to your streaming platform. Go to the Stream tab and cull your service. If it asks you for a stream key, go to your settings on the platform you've decided to use; it should be in at that place somewhere. Never give out your stream key because if someone else has it, they tin can stream annihilation they want to your aqueduct.

Step 2.97: Tape yourself

You're almost there. And you're probably wondering: huh, what does this actually expect like? Well, I take some proficient news for you. Whatsoever is showing on the screen in OBS is what the stream will output. But if yous want to see and hear what your mic and webcam are like in activity, you should grab a quick recording of yourself so you can see for yourself before you lot stream to an audience. To practice that, hit the "Beginning Recording" button under Controls. It'll record whatsoever is happening in OBS, and save it to the location delineated in Settings > Output > Recording. Yous tin can watch your broadcast there!

Pace three: Stream!

At present that you take your hardware set up and your software configured, it'south time to do some final checks before you get live. The commencement: practice you have a place where you lot can hands read chat? That tin be your phone, a tablet, an quondam computer — just some place where you can see what people are saying and reply to them. The divergence between alive-streaming and something like live Television set is that streaming is about interaction; yous talking with your viewers is what people come for. The other thing is having a channel folio that shows you off: what you're interested in, what you lot play, and what kinds of things yous similar to do. Go ahead and play around with themes, overlays, and extensions until you observe a look and branding that y'all like.

The primary thing to recollect, though, is that streaming isn't actually about the audience you draw in — though that is really absurd — information technology's about being social and having a good time.

If you know you can keep information technology fun, you're set up to become alive. Go ahead and press that button. (Yous'll immediately be live with whatsoever is on your screen in OBS, just in case that wasn't articulate.) Ane terminal affair: to switch scenes while OBS is running, simply click on the scene. A last tip: if you're taking an suspension and your microphone is active on the intermission scene, make sure y'all mute it until yous get back.

Oh, and if you take any questions, y'all know who to call.