The good thing about Twitch.tv is that there are multiple ways to access it. Streamers can show their video game chops to viewers across the world regardless of what platform the viewers want to use to access the site. Here’s a guide comparison of PS4 twitch streaming app vs Xbox one streaming app.
PS4 Twitch Streaming App
The advantage for the Twitch streaming app for PS4 is that it’s built into the operating system. You can livestream your gameplay to various services right from PS4, including Twitch.tv and a few other services. You do this by hitting the Share button while you’re in a game, and then selecting the broadcast gameplay option. You can then link your PS4 to your Twitch account and then stream the video immediately.
Here are some of the other pros and cons for the app.
PS4 Pros
One of the first big advantages to this is that you can stream to Twitch right from the PS4 OS, it’s built right into the system. This makes it much easier for you to get streaming with as little hassle as possible. Another advantage is that you can share to Twitch right through your PS4 controller with just one button: the Share button. Additionally, it’s certainly an advantage that you can use your PlayStation camera for picture in picture if you want it. You can see the chat room in real time as you play as well.
You can be a curator of conversations on this app as well and it lets you go longer than an hour. Many other broadcasts are limited to an hour. It’s important to broadcast on a regular schedule so your audience knows where to find you and so they can keep up with you and your universe. Fortunately, it’s easy to get your camera and mic fired up with the PS version.
PS4 App Cons
The downside of the app is that it only works on PS4. So if you don’t have a PS4 then this won’t be a terribly effective way to do it. You miss out on a lot of the PS4 app features if you do it through another source but it’s not going to be worth dropping a few hundred dollars on a PS4 for no good reason.
Xbox One Twitch Pros
Xbox One gives you achievements for doing various Twitch based activities. For example, there’s one achievement that allows you to get it only if you watch a certain number of Twitch video hours. There’s another that allows you to unlock it after you’ve watched Twitch all night long, which is called “Night Owl.”
There’s also an achievement that you can unlock if you join a stream that has 100,000 other people in it. This is called Standing Room only. So these achievements give you the ability to enhance your experience on Twitch beyond what you could get regularly on other apps in general.
Another advantage is that you can make use of the Microsoft Skydrive tool to upload your recorded videos there. There’s an entire video suite that comes with the tool that lets you record multiple 5 minute recording sessions at a time, and then put them all together with whatever other types of edits you might want in order to show to friends and family. This includes picture in picture, recording your own commentaries and other features. You can share these videos to other video streaming locations as well, even though your streaming features are a bit more limited.
You can also do this at 720p which is an advantage as well. This is because this is a higher definition of video than a lot of the standard ones that you get on other streaming sites which is typically at around 480p or something more in an SD range.
It has videos stream windows that are strewn about the main video window .
Xbox One Cons
One of the downsides of using Xbox One to access the twitch app is that it tends to be designed primarily for channels associated more with the television. Another big downside is that there are often limits on broadcasting. It may not let you initially broadcast videos normally the way you can with PS4 and other apps that are similar in nature.
And of course, the ability to broadcast yourself is something that didn’t come initially to this app. This is a major problem for people who are really into streaming and really need this. In general, the ability to broadcast is something that people who are really into Twitch generally regard as something that is absolutely required in order to really enjoy the app.
Conclusion
In general, the lack of the Xbox support for initial streaming is definitely going to be a no go for a lot of people. After all, many people consider that to be one of the initial best things about Twitch, namely that you can stream your videos directly to the Twitch network, but it seems like Xbox One doesn’t want you to do this for whatever reason.
It’s true that Xbox One app has extra abilities as well such as the achievements and the SkyDrive, but ultimately Ps4 is a better app since it can just do more and it has less downsides. The ability to have full integration is a major plus on the Ps4 side, and the fact that the ability to stream right to Twitch is something that you can do that will make the whole experience much easier.
The PS4 experience just tends to be better when it comes to Twitch, especially due to the added extra of being able to use the PlayStation camera. And since everything fully integrates, then this means that the whole thing works much better altogether. The more moving parts that you have, especially when it comes to third parties, the more difficult it is to make everything run smoothly without any kind of added difficulty when it comes to actually getting the video streaming that you want.