Overlapping Pre-recorded Videos on the Same YT Channel

[Sally S.]

Hi all.

I have 2 recordings that I want to continuously live stream on one Youtube channel while I am away. Hoping to fully automate this channel.
Each is up to 2 hours, will have it loop for 12 hours then have the streaming start all over again.
For example, video 1 will always run from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m. then from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. and video 2 will always run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

So there will always be 2 videos live streaming on the channel, different thumbnails, titles, and descriptions. One PC.

I've been trying things here and there with no success, maybe I am missing some basics as I am a beginner.

How would you, ideally, approach this?
And what plug-ins do I need?

 

[AaronD]

The looping part is easy. I think there's even a checkbox for it in the Media source. Separate instance of OBS for each.

In the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin, I think you only need one macro:

• Start of 12 hours:
  • Conditions:
    • If Date: 06:00 (6 a.m. in 24h format)
    • Or Date: 18:00 (6 p.m. in 24h format)
  • Actions:
    • Stop stream (does nothing if the stream isn't already running)
    • Wait 60 seconds (YouTube timeout, to create a new stream)
    • Start stream

Of course, the same macro in the other instance will have the other times in it.

You'll need an additional action if you care to have the stream start at the beginning of the loop every time. Most things in OBS are completely independent of each other; it'll produce a local display just as well as it does a stream, and you can just "turn the stream on or off" in the middle of the local production without disrupting the local.

As for how to manage YouTube's server, to have two simultaneous streams on one account that both timeout independently, reset, and accept data again as a new stream, I don't know that.

But I do wonder why you want a hiccup at all? Your program is already 2 hours long, not 12, and you're already looping that. Why not just keep the stream running for days or weeks at a time? Then maybe you *could* set up the server end manually for each one, each time.

 

[Sally S.]

The looping part is easy. I think there's even a checkbox for it in the Media source. Separate instance of OBS for each.

In the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin, I think you only need one macro:

• Start of 12 hours:
  • Conditions:
    • If Date: 06:00 (6 a.m. in 24h format)
    • Or Date: 18:00 (6 p.m. in 24h format)
  • Actions:
    • Stop stream (does nothing if the stream isn't already running)
    • Wait 60 seconds (YouTube timeout, to create a new stream)
    • Start stream

Of course, the same macro in the other instance will have the other times in it.

You'll need an additional action if you care to have the stream start at the beginning of the loop every time. Most things in OBS are completely independent of each other; it'll produce a local display just as well as it does a stream, and you can just "turn the stream on or off" in the middle of the local production without disrupting the local.

As for how to manage YouTube's server, to have two simultaneous streams on one account that both timeout independently, reset, and accept data again as a new stream, I don't know that.

But I do wonder why you want a hiccup at all? Your program is already 2 hours long, not 12, and you're already looping that. Why not just keep the stream running for days or weeks at a time? Then maybe you *could* set up the server end manually for each one, each time.

Hi AaronD,

Thank you for your detailed reply. Because the content varies, there are occasions when music or long meditation videos run in multiple streams simultaneously. Some viewers prefer watching live and interacting in the chat, even though they know the content is pre-recorded.

I've finally been able to achieve this by creating new stream keys without resetting the previous ones. Initially, going live directly with both streams resulted in only one of them actually streaming with one key activated. However, scheduling them did the trick.

I haven't added the Advanced Scene Switcher (AdvSS) macro to this setup yet. I hope it works for restarting. I'm unsure how it will interact with the scheduling aspect. Additionally, I'm adjusting it to check profile names along with the time to restart the corresponding stream.

I feel I've grasped the concept now, with lots of testing underway.

I'll continue to add further questions here for context, and I appreciate your continuous support, AaronD.