How to Configure OBS for Twitch Streaming 2021

You have asked us how to configure OBS for streaming on Twitch. Therefore in this post, we want to show you how to configure OBS for streaming on Twitch. We will give you a few simple steps to get everything ready to stream.

Nowadays, the most used platform for live streaming is Twitch. We can stream live video and audio and it allows us to interact in real-time with our audience.

In this article, we are going to see how we can broadcast on Twitch with OBS Studio, from our PC, and on our own channel.

Prerequisites for streaming on Twitch with OBS

There are some minimum requirements to stream on Twitch with OBS, such as:

A good connection to the Internet and to be able to be wired. A good and stable Internet connection will help the broadcasting to be of the best possible quality, especially if it is in HD. The technical requirements for Twitch can be found on the Twitch website.

A good PC with minimum requirements of 3rd generation Intel Core i5 processor or equivalent AMD, 8GB of RAM, and an updated operating system (Windows 10 for example). It will make broadcasting much easier. A decent graphics card would not be bad either.

As for software, Twitch practically from its beginnings has gone hand in hand with OBS (Open Broadcaster or OBS Studio). It is the program that we will use to broadcast our content. And it will also serve us for other platforms such as Youtube.

How to configure OBS to stream on Twitch 2021

First of all, we will explain and define what OBS Studio is, and how to configure OBS for Twitch.

What is OBS Studio

OBS Studio is known by its acronym Open Broadcaster Software, is an open-source software that allows us to record and broadcast live over the Internet. This is called streaming.

This software allows us to capture and mix sound and video in real-time, at a high quality. By creating scenes, which we can easily change.

It contains filters and video sources such as color masks, color corrections, chroma key adjustments, etc.

What you can do in OBS Studio

  1. Capture and mix sound/video in real-time with high quality.

  2. Mix audio with custom filters

  3. Make a configuration for broadcasts.

  4. I can preview my scenes and sources before going live.

Download OBS Studio

This is the first thing we must do, download and install OBS Studio. We must go to the official page of the OBS Project, we will see the possibility of downloading it for Windows, Mac or Linux.

Once we have selected the operating system version we have, the download of the OBS installer will start on our computer. Now we must simply follow the installation process like any other program.

If we have followed the steps that have been shown on the screen, we will have already downloaded and installed OBS Studio on our computer.

How to configure OBS for Twitch

Once we have it installed, we will have to start it to begin to configure OBS for Twitch.

  • Synchronizing or linking OBS Studio with Twitch

  • To configure OBS with Twitch we have to link our Twitch account with OBS Studio. To synchronize the service click on Settings.

  • Click on Broadcast.

  • Now we will be able to connect our Twitch account, the option that Twitch recommends, and we also, is that you do it from the button Connect account (recommended).

  • We introduce the user and password of our Twitch account to connect OBS.

  • Once the connection between OBS and Twitch is finished, we will be able to broadcast live through OBS Studio on Twitch.

Configuring the video output in OBS Bitrate

OBS is a very simple tool to broadcast live, the problem is that several of its options can be confusing, so I will explain some of them and how to configure them to get the best video output.

Now we must configure the Output settings, to do this click on Output. Here we are going to establish a resolution and bitrate, according to the specifications of our equipment and our Internet connection.

We must configure this section if we want to improve the quality of the stream, so that our audience can enjoy the best possible video and audio quality.

By default, this activates the Simple Output Mode. I recommend that you put it in Advanced, to be able to modify some parameters.

Video Output for Twitch

We are going to describe all the parameters that we can modify in the OBS Output.

  • Audio track. There are 6 audio tracks available, each one corresponding to the tracks configured in the Audio section.

  • Encoder. OBS gives us different options when encoding the video stream. Among them we can find x264 and H.264, which are the most used. A video encoder defines for example how the video should be compressed, how the color planes should be represented, etc. x264 is the most used, since it is a very high quality encoder, and it also produces an extraordinary quality in bitstreams.

  • Apply streaming service encoder settings. Activate it to adjust the encoding according to the service we are going to use, in this case Twitch.

  • Change the output scale. I recommend you to select the highest resolution at which you are going to broadcast. A standard resolution for Twitch can be 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720. If you are starting in the streaming world, Twitch will probably set the output scale to 720p. In that case I recommend you to change it to 1280 x 720 to spend the least possible resources on your computer.

  • Frequency control. CBR (Constant Bit Rate): Constant bit rate, VBR (Variable Bit Rate): Variable bit rate, ABR (Average Bit Rate): Average bitrate or CRF (Constant Rate): Constant quality. Personally for Twitch I recommend CBR, since in the case of needing more bitrate than our connection can support, it will cause the stream to drop or lose a huge amount of frames.

  • Bitrate. For Twitch streams, the maximum bitrate we can aim for is 6000 kbps. But to make a stream at that bitrate we will need at least an upload speed of 10MB.

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