Best OBS Stream Settings for Twitch and YouTube (Streaming Resolution and Bitrate)
63Streaming on Twitch or YouTube comes with the obstacle of finding the right OBS settings for your stream. Each stream may require different settings due to differentials in upload speed or hardware specs.
The main settings that you will need to adjust for streaming are bitrate and resolution. Other OBS settings will be universal, however depending on your hardware and upload speed your resolution or bitrate may vary.
Bitrate is how much information or data is being used for every second of the stream. The higher the bitrate the higher upload speed that is required to stream. A high bitrate also improves the quality of the stream, however Twitch is limited to a bitrate of 6000. This means that even if your upload speed supports using a higher bitrate the quality won’t actually be different. YouTube also has a higher maximum bitrate of 9000.
If your bitrate is restricted and the stream quality is suffering then a good option is to use a lower frame rate or resolution. A video or stream is made up of multiple individual images, these are called frames. A higher frame rate will make the stream movement looks smoother, however, this means each frame will be lower quality as the bitrate is being shared between more images.
The resolution of a stream refers to how many pixels are being used. Typically a resolution is referenced as width by height. The most common resolutions for streaming to Twitch and YouTube are 1080p (1920x1080) and 720p (1280x720).
Another option to get the best stream quality possible is to adjust your resolution. Sometimes lowering your resolution settings will allow you to make the most of your bitrate to achieve the nicest stream possible.
The best resolution for streaming to Twitch is either 1080p or 936p. The resolution that you should use depends on a number of circumstances. If you plan on recording your stream with OBS then you may want to use 1080p. This will allow you to record in the best quality for YouTube while streaming. Also if you aren’t a Twitch partner then your streaming quality may be limited depending on the bandwidth being used across all of Twitch. This is why sometimes a stream may have quality options, and other times it wont. Because of this using a stream resolution of 936p is best if your only concern is the quality of your stream.
When streaming to YouTube the best setting for resolution is 1080p. You can go higher with the resolution on YouTube due to the higher bitrate limit of 9000.
The best settings for streaming gameplay will require you to use the NVIDIA NVENC encoder. This will use a dedicated chip on your graphics card to process the video and create the stream. Alternatively using the x264 encoder will use the CPU in your computer to encode the stream. Using x264 will put more strain on your PC, however the quality can be better. We only recommend using x264 if you don’t have the NVIDIA NVENC encoder, or you’re using a 2 PC setup.
The best settings for your streaming encoder are somewhat universal, and won’t need to be adjusted too much. For rate control you want to be using CBR to ensure that the bitrate is constant, and the quality will be shared equally across each frame of video.
An often overlooked OBS setting is the audio. Setting up the audio for your stream can be just as important as the visuals. A stream with poor audio quality can deter viewers. Ensuring your audio settings are correct is important and your bitrate will need to be set up for the streaming platform that you are using. An audio bitrate of 128 is recommended for YouTube, and 160 for Twitch.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:10 Video Settings
00:59 Output Settings
02:15 Audio Bitrate
02:27 Audio Settings
03:02 Audio Track Set Up
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Disclaimer: The advice provided in our tutorials and guides are based on our personal knowledge and experience. No advice given should be considered that of a professional, and comes with no guarantee. We strongly recommended that you do your own research to ensure what you're doing is safe, and will accomplish the results that you're looking for.
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