Getting Started

So you’re all ready to get started streaming. What now? There’s a lot of things out there to use for streaming these days, so which ones do you use?

We’ll take a look at some the best things you can use for your setup.

SoftWare

Choosing which software to use can either be really simple or require some research depending on what you want out of your streams. Below I’ll go over the most popular options for streaming.

Free Software: OBS, OBS Studio

OBS/OBS Studio,- OBS, which stands for Open Broadcast Software is probably THE most used program for streaming. It’s a free software that is very versatile and customizable, although not too user-friendly for most beginners without first taking a look at a guide or two. But with practice and patience, OBS can be a very powerful streaming tool.

I also recommend checking out Strexm, for ready-made layouts if you want to for a fancy professional look or just some inspiration in designing your own. Strexm layouts also come with alerts virtually ready to use on startup. Just a few clicks and you’ve saved a ton of time. Not everything on this service is free, however. The site runs on a coin system where “donating” awards coins you can use to purchase premium features.

Paid Software: GameShow, Xsplit 

Gameshow,-  My personal favorite as far as paid software goes. It’s the cheaper of the popular paid tools at $29 USD. Gameshow is easy to use and comes with built-in layouts and scenes, with social media tools, icons already made.

Gameshow offers some really cool layout templates, all fully modular, so you can arrange things however they fit best. The Fallout 4 layout is shown above, which you can find for download here along with some others including a Halo 5 layout. After choosing your desired layout, you can edit it with all of your information via a fill in the blank type system.

Settings like bitrate, CPU speeds, buffers, and fps are simplified into a list of typical choices.

These are best for beginners or non-tech savvy streamers. GameShow does also come with a free version, however, it only allows 30fps streams at max 720p. 1080p 60 fps streams will cost you about $30 with this program. This program is excellent for starters and veterans alike, due to its ease of setup and its bonus features, such as built-in instant replay, previewing changes made to stream before releasing them to viewers, and setting music playlists.

Xsplit,- Another very popular and widely used, mostly by already established streamers, software to use. Xsplit comes with basically everything OBS has only a little better, as well as a built-in video editor for those of you wanting to also go into YouTube as well, or even Twitch VoDs (if people really watch those. I don’t but I’m sure someone does).

Xsplit also offers two separate programs. One all-inclusive streaming software and one quick start streaming overlay. Just load up your game, press a hotkey and you can be online streaming in seconds. minimal setup while able to make small changes on the fly.

Xsplit offers many of the same features as GameShow and a few more, however, to fully utilize them, this program will run you at least $4.17 a month…provided you pay for 36 months upfront. That’s $149.95. Quite the investment. Or you can go the short-term route of 8.32/month….for 3 months upfront. That’s only $24.95 but I personally would not recommend this program if you aren’t already making decent money streaming or just have money to blow on this new hobby.

 

Keep in mind, GameShow offers about the same in features and is only $29 one-time fee and OBS is free and can do almost everything Gameshow and Xsplit can do, it just requires a lot more time and effort and maybe some additional plugins.

 

Now that we’ve covered the Software, let’s talk about hardware.