you've hooked up your latest xbox
playstation or nintendo game console and
you want to share your gameplay with
friends
family or the greater world on twitch
youtube
facebook gaming or maybe a new site like
blemish while most consoles these days
have a built-in streaming app
they leave a little bit to desired let's
upgrade today we're covering the basics
of streaming your console games to
twitch youtube etc
from your computer let's take you from a
boring basic gameplay only stream
from your console to a full professional
looking stream quickly
and easily i'm eposvox the stream
professor and welcome to a new console
oriented episode of stream guides
sponsored by evga
[Music]
if you haven't already before investing
any money into streaming i do recommend
checking out the twitch and youtube
streaming capabilities on your console
that is
if you're on playstation or xbox
unfortunately the nintendo switch only
has
quick recording capabilities not
streaming this will give you a feel for
the process that you can expect and if
you're lucky some chat interaction as
well this is a great way to get started
but with thousands of new streamers
every year
joining the trend expectations for
quality and presentation have gone up a
bit
let's upgrade your stream by using your
computer and some obs know-how
first you'll need a couple things to
make this happen a computer will be
needed to
stream with the computer of course a
laptop will work though heat will be a
concern and your laptop's fans may get
loud
and it will need to be plugged into
power but a desktop computer is usually
preferred
these days you pretty much need windows
10. windows 7 is 12 years old and no
longer supported by most devices
releasing today and many
programs as well the actual
specifications of your computer will
matter a bit i know this can be
complicated and annoying to look at
newer and higher end computers will
perform best but the easiest way to know
if you'll have a reasonable time is to
check what graphics card is in your
system
this is the part of the computer that
handles video related tasks
such as building your scene for your
stream ideally you want to have an
nvidia gtx
1050 or newer or an amd rx 480 or newer
you can technically get away with
something like an nvidia 950 or newer as
well
but these will be a rougher experience
overall the easiest way to find out what
graphics card is in your system is to
right click
the windows taskbar assuming you're on
an updated copy of windows 10
and click task manager click the
performance tab it should be the second
one
then on the left hand column scroll down
and there should be a gpu listing
you may actually have two of these on a
laptop one for an intel or amd graphics
built into your computer's processor
and one for the dedicated gpu and that's
fine another option is the
free program specky which lists your
computer specs and will display your
graphics cards under display
it's possible you don't have a dedicated
graphics card at all
if so you may still be able to get away
with streaming if you have an intel core
i5 or i7 processor starting with an 8
or 9 or higher for the number for
example an intel core i7 9700k
these have integrated graphics
processors that can mostly handle the
streaming process
okay next you'll need the all capture
card a capture card is a small device
that takes the video output of your game
console
in this case hdmi and converts it to a
video
format that your computer can see and
record or stream
this will be usb or an internal card
that for desktops that fits into the
pcie expansion slot
some capture cards only have one hdmi
plug and require an hdmi splitter for
you to see your game on your tv
some will have an hdmi pass through port
which will allow you to connect it to
your tv or monitor as you always have
to see your game in real time
for this video we're using the evga xr1
capture card as evga was kind enough to
sponsor this video this is a neat little
capture card that connects over usb
passes through your game back out to
your tv or monitor and lets you connect
audio to your controller to capture
party chat or in-game audio
the xr1 is obs certified which is great
since we're using obs studio for this
stream
it's got a striking look as well you can
use any capture card i've reviewed
many on my youtube channel but the xr1
is great for newcomers
and comes with everything else you need
for connections in the box so you get
a second hdmi cable to connect back to
your tv a usb cable for connecting the
card to your computer
and an audio aux cable for connecting to
your controller
should you wish to use that for audio
the evga xr1 also supports 4k
passthrough meaning if you have a fancy
4k tv you can still
game in 4k on your xbox one x xbox
series x or playstation 4 pro or ps5
while still capturing or streaming in
1080p or 720p
nice the xr1 works best if you have an
available usb 3.0 port on your computer
but it will still work with usb 2 as
well just a
worse quality and it's usually not
advised although a lack of usb
3 ports usually indicates that your pc
may not be up to spec for streaming
in 2021 usb 3 started rolling out in
2010
by the way to get started i recommend
using a gaming
headset you may already have one that
you use for your console anyway
you can plug your headset directly into
the headset port on the xr1 capture card
and then plug the aux cable from the xr1
to your controller and still use in-game
voice and party chat and let your stream
hear it as well which is very useful
if your headset has the two plugs one
for headphones and one for microphone
you can buy a super cheap adapter
to convert them back down to the
singular plug to plug into the capture
card
but you would have need this needed this
for your controller anyway so you
probably already have it
you can of course just use headphones
and a dedicated microphone for your
stream probably over usb connected to
your computer
however doing so leaves no easy way to
get the microphone audio back to your
console for party chat so keep that in
mind if that's important to you it's not
for everyone
if you don't plan on using party chat
and just want to hear your gaming your
headphones then you can just plug your
headphones into the headphone jack
on the xr1 as usual this capture card
has a very high quality headphone amp
inside so you may find that your games
sound better than ever
once you're using it let's hook
everything up you need to connect one
hdmi cable from the video out jack of
your console to the hdmi in port on your
capture card
then connect a second hdmi cable from
the hdmi out port
on your capture card to your tv or
dedicated monitor for playing your games
next connect the usb cable from your
capture card to your pc
try to use usb 3 ports on the back of
your computer rather than the front
if possible if you want to use
headphones or a headset
connect them to the capture card on the
headset side of the
inputs run the aux cable to your
controller if you're using party chat
if you just want normal gain sound you
do not need to connect to your
controller
now that everything is hooked up turn
everything on on your computer we need a
free program for streaming and recording
called obs studio this is by far my
favorite program for all things
capturing streaming and video
making it's free and open source so
anyone can use it head on over to obs
project dot com
and download the installer and run it
once installed run obs studio the first
time obs studio opens it should prompt
you with the
auto configuration wizard this is a
quick and easy way to get your settings
ready to go without diving too deep into
into the complicated nerdy details if
this didn't show up for you click tools
at the top and choose auto configuration
wizard from the menu
this presents you with options for what
your goals are recording streaming a mix
of both
follow the prompts and it will generate
what it estimates to be the best
settings for your pc
boom easy peasy now you may be thinking
cool but i just have a black screen
well have no fear this is the blink
canvas for which to build your stream
there's endless possibilities for the
way that you can build your stream
layouts the different scenes involved
but for the purposes of this video we're
just going to set up a singular scene
with your gameplay shown and a note on
how to add your webcam on top of the
gameplay if you wish to use one
if you want to learn more about setting
up scenes and sources etc i highly
recommend checking out my obs master
class
linked below which walks you through
everything you could possibly need to
know about obs studio
we're covering the very basics here
first let's add your capture card so
that we can see your console
at the bottom of your obs window towards
the left you should see two boxes
scenes with a blank scene one already
listed in sources which should be empty
scenes are different layouts you can
configure but we're not focusing on that
we're just building one today so we're
just going to leave that alone however
under your sources list
click the plus icon to add a new source
click video capture device this is how
we're going to find our capture card
from the drop down menu choose evga xr1
capture box video and click ok
if you're using a usb or other separate
microphone that is not attached to the
xr1 you'll have to go to settings
and then audio and choose that
microphone under mike ox device
there otherwise with your microphone and
possibly party chat connected to the
capture card
you can use the dial on the card itself
to adjust your volume
pressing to the left will adjust your
mic in volume pressing to the right will
allow you to adjust the party chat audio
volume as well
pressing the button all the way down
into the capture card will mute your
microphone outright
when you're not adjusting settings the
default led indicators show a solid
white when it detects a proper usb 3.0
connection and solid red when your mic
is muted
you can however adjust lighting modes by
pressing up and down on the dial on the
xr1 and choosing from the lighting
presets as well
now add your webcam or any other sources
you want to your scene a webcam would
also be a video capture device
and then you can just use the default
settings once you find it consider using
one of the one-click stream layouts from
our friends over at nerd or die if you
want some cool graphics i have a video
on that linked below as well
next let's do a couple test recordings
and check audio levels
make sure everything is balanced and all
of that and adjust as needed test test
and more test
once you're ready it's time to link obs
to your stream go to settings stream
if you're using twitch you can choose
twitch from the menu and sign in with
your account to get
linked up and get some cool extra docs
for chat or for changing your stream
settings directly in obs
for youtube you will have to go to your
live control room settings on youtube
and copy over your stream key and input
that here
now here's the fun part stream play your
games chat with your friends
or your viewers and have fun create
something awesome whether you're gaming
on switch playstation xbox or pc
streaming is a great way to
connect with a new community and have a
blast better yet you can combine your
streaming with the
existing record that capabilities of
your game console to
have a quick or funny or exciting clips
recorded on the console itself to share
online without having to hunt them down
from your stream vod later which a lot
of people end up
losing the momentum to do i'll have a
link below for the evga or xr1 capture
card if you want to pick one up for
yourself use affiliate code eposvox to
save up to 10
at checkout too just for my subscribers
for more stream guides and tech
education subscribe and check out my
channel page for everything you could
need to know about streaming
join us on discord at discord.gg eposvox
for more help and tips i'm your post fox
your stream professor and i'll see you
in the next one