Livestreaming for Dummies

miseryhunting 2016-04-17 00:39:50 UTC #1

Heya guya,
I saw quite many people doing livestreams and I think it's quite cool. I wanted to try my hand at it as well, but I find it utterly confusing, do you have any tips? Or know any good tutorial/QnA?
I registered at Picarto, managed to download and install the Open Broadcast manager, but I'm not sure how that works? Do you only livestream? Do your livestreams store somewhere on your profile? Can you livestream privately to just check it out or?
Any help is welcome really ^^;
Sorry if there is a similar topic already started, I checked but couldn't find one.

Shiori_Saku 2016-04-17 00:54:06 UTC #2

Howdy @miseryhunting
On Picarto there is no log of past streams for viewers to watch. The stream is only active when you are actively streaming using the Open Broadcaster HOWEVER! Open Broadcaster dose automatically record your streams so if you like you can edit and then post your stream on any media sharing site (like facebook or youtube)

The most important thing to remember about Open Broadcaster is to get your "windows" set up in the correct order.
Right click in the "Sources" box and under the "Add" tab will be a Window Capture option and a Monitor Capture option.
The Window Capture will allow you to choose a specific program (Sai, Photoshop, ect.) and will only show tabs you open in that program during the stream. This allows you to open your web browser or other programs without blocking your watchers view of what you are currently working on.
Monitor Capture will record and stream anything and everything that is currently on your monitor, which is fine if you are working in multiple programs and you want to showcase that but it can get messy if you have a bunch of applications open at the same time.

You can preview what your stream will look like without going "live" by clicking the "Preview Stream" button. You must press this button again before the option to go live will become available. When you are ready to stream for the whole world to see click the "Start Streaming" Button and you will notice that at the same time the "Start Recording" button will also click on.

You can record your monitor without going live if you like and you can click the "FILE" tab at the top of the Open Broadcaster application and click on the "Open Recordings Folder" if your are not sure where Open Broadcaster is saving your streams.

Does this information help?

Wolven_Sister 2016-04-17 00:54:14 UTC #3

You can try join.me, it's free and pretty user friendly. If you want more of it's features you have to pay membership, but compared to picarto it's easier to install. And I guess you can do it privately depending on who you give the URL code to.

I personally use Picarto, but I had to have my husband install it because I had zero idea what I was doing @A@ I used to use join.me back in the day, but Picarto gives me more customization and a linking hub which is nice.

Youtube also has it's own livestreaming system, and I've heard of some artist's using Periscope and Twitch. But again, I have NO IDEA how these work haha! Though I've heard Twitch is easy....but I may be wrong DX

miseryhunting 2016-04-17 01:08:52 UTC #4

Thank you both for the replies!
@Shiori_Saku, thank you! I've been wondering how to hide all other tabs/programs running! ^^; But, how do you set Photoshop as the program to stream? When I try it out I get a choice between Inner and Entire Window and photos, explorer and groove music from the drop menu( this is when I go to Window capture)? Is it somewhere else I need to look?

@Wolven_Sister I wanted to try with Picarto because it seems like an artist community if it makes sense? I can use my youtube, but I also use it for University things which I'd prefer to keep seperate ^^;
EDIT: I figured it out! THANK YOU

Shiori_Saku 2016-04-17 19:36:08 UTC #5

First go in to the "Sources" Box, Right click and select "Add" then Window Capture....

IF you have Photoshop open than when you click on the "window" drop down bar you will either see "Photoshop" or "name of file you have open" among the options. Click on one of those....

For Photoshop make sure the "Entire Window" option is selected. Click OK and then click Preview Stream and it should pop look just like this:

somvi 2016-04-17 21:22:40 UTC #6

Picarto has a little vid to help you get set up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyz5CLj2WlQ
Twitch also has a help page for OBS: https://help.twitch.tv/customer/en/portal/articles/1262922

(most decent streaming sites have detailed setup tutorials in their help section)

You can stream to youtube and mark it as unlisted - not really private but nobody will watch unless you give out the stream URL. I let youtube or twitch record the stream for me instead of recording locally.