Author: Akemi Trinindad

Customize your streaming checklist

Starting a stream session can be daunting, frustrating even when you forget to check your audio prior to going live or if your presentation/scenes are all set – or if you suddenly deleted your chats!

Phew! Hold on, stop for a moment and take a breather. Don’t fret, here’s a customizable checklist that you can use prior to going live. Note that this is a sample and you can tweak the list according to your needs.

Here it goes…

Check your presentation

Are the scenes set up according to your liking?
Is your chat/comments section added on the scene?
Is the game being captured nicely on screen?

Check your audio

Is your system sound audio loud enough for the stream?
Is your microphone connected properly?
Is there an audio feedback loop?

Do a stream test

Check your bandwidth health

Update your dashboard

Make sure to update your stream title with something catchy or clickbait-y to catch the attention of your loyal and potential audiences or make them curious enough to click on your stream and watch it, don’t forget to include the name of the game that you’re playing to entice other similar players into watching your stream.

If your platforms enable you to customize your stream page or post, create consistent imagery that can attract current and potential viewers into staying and watch your stream. Make it interesting!

Use your socials

Surely, you’d have your social platforms – and it pays to have the same alias/nickname/game handle or username across social media so that people can easily search for you and your content. Your online name/alias can also serve as your branding and will help in the future if you decide to go pro. Make sure that your streamer name can be easily spelled and memorable, it adds to the branding that we’ll talk about in another blog.

Stick to a schedule

Your biggest fans aka friends and family – aren’t always online to watch your streams. It helps to have a schedule so that people will know when they can expect you to stream your content. It also creates commitment on your part to stick with a time and day to go live.

Don’t forget to share your schedule on your socials not limited to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – share it on Reddit, post it in gaming forums and/or your Discord server.

Enjoy!

In case if you’re streaming for an extended session, make sure to schedule bio-breaks and have some snacks and drinks in between. The purpose of streaming is to have fun and not restrict you from the things that you need to do to take care of yourself too.

If you’re still new to the world of streaming, we suggest you check out our XSplit Academy for some useful streaming tips!

So, you’re streaming on insert your platform here with insert awesome, highly anticipated trending game of the year here but you just can’t get the setup right. Here are the top 5 things that you should check to avoid streaming oopsies.

Here is a short and sweet list on what to check out before starting your stream.

Windows updates and drivers

Don’t you just hate it when a Windows prompt pops up and instructs you to update? Or worse, updates and requests for a restart. Exactly. Before anything else, check if the drivers and Windows are up-to-date to avoid untimely disruption to your streaming session.

Go to Start > Settings > Windows Settings > Update and Security > Windows Update.

If there are pending updates available, take your time in installing these prior to setting up your stream. And to avoid disruption due to update prompts, you can also change your laptop or PCs update active hours so that the device won’t automatically restart during the set active hours. Plus, the device won’t restart without checking if you’re still using it. Great trick, yeah?

Another thing, aside from making sure that Windows is updated, make sure that your drivers’ update (capture card and/or streaming software) does not have any compatibility issues with the latest Windows. You know that this can happen sometimes.

Optimizing scenes

Do you notice a slight delay when switching scenes? This usually happens when you have large videos or image files on the scene and it takes a bit of time loading the asset. So, what do you do to avoid this? The simplest way to solve this is to right-click the file source menu and click on ‘keep source on memory’. This helps the scene avoid loading and re-loading the video or image files every time you switch scenes. If you have time to convert the files, it is also recommended to compress sources file sizes by encoding them as mp4s or webms instead of avi or mov.

PC games capture

Most of the time, capturing PC games for streaming can easily be achieved with automatic game source detection, but sometimes this feature can also fail. If the auto game source fails to capture your game, what do you do?

The next step is to check if there are other running programs interfering with XSplit’s game capture, some of these programs may include NVIDIA ShadowPlay and AMD’s Radeon ReLive; if this type of program is running, close the program and see if the game is now detected in XSplit’s game capture.

Audio Echo

Audio is one of the most common technical issues encountered during a stream. Whether you experience – looping audio, no audio or audio echo; troubleshooting is easy when you use this guide:

If you opened your stream on a browser with the intention of monitoring it, check if you’re able to mute the audio. If an echo can still be heard, check your microphone settings – make sure that the ‘listen to device’ is turned off.

Go to Start -> Settings -> Windows Setting -> System -> Sound -> Input (Microphone) -> Device Properties -> Related Settings -> Additional device settings -> Listen -> Uncheck ‘listen to device’.

Dropped frames or stream lag

Now, dropped frames and a laggy stream is not fun to watch – at all. This can happen due to a multitude of things, one can be that you’re uploading a large file online and it’s messing with your stream bandwidth. So, make sure that you’re not uploading or downloading files during a streaming session; you can do that on a later time. If you’re not uploading nor downloading files through your connection and still experience dropped frames, check with your internet service provider if you have (at least) a minimum bandwidth capacity for decent streaming (usually between 1-5mbps, depends on what you’re streaming).

Okay, if the issue is indeed your internet connection and you’re aware that the bandwidth can fluctuate at times; the best thing to do is set ‘adaptive bitrate’. You can find this in the additional encoding options menu in the broadcast settings window. If you still see dropped frames after all these, then it’s best to lower the bitrate into a workable value for the stream to run smoothly (you can also do the adjustment even when your stream is live) – this one can be a trial and error so do have patience until you get the optimum combo for your set up.

Hope these help you out on your stream! If you have other questions, you can check out our blogs, search for FAQs or chat with our 24/7 customer support.