[21:8] What is the preferred method of setting up?

[elsewhere_95]

Hello! I am trying to set up my stream with my 34" 2560x1080 monitor. I've hit a few issues while trying to get this looking how I want to.

Video Tab - Base Res: 2560x1080 // Output Res: 2560x1080

Whenever I set up my scene, I have no black bars on the top or bottom- however, when I start the stream and go look on Twitch, it has black bars on the top and bottom. I've read several posts and stuff stating that Twitch uses 16:9 aspect ratio for the video player. Is there any effective way to get this to look more proper? Possible to remove those black bars? I've tried changing the video settings to 16:9 (1920x1080) and it ends up looking wonky eventually.

Another thing I have noticed, is some people actually utilizing those black bars by filling them with images/overlays, but how are they doing that? I do not see black bars on OBS, at all. Thanks a bunch!

 

[koala]

You need to capture a 16:9 aspect ratio rectangle.

If you want your video/stream appear with no black bars on the monitors of your viewers, you need to create the video with the same aspect ratio as the monitors of your viewers. This is completely independent from the streaming service. 90% of the common crowd has a 16:9 aspect ratio monitor according to the Steam hardware survey, so you should create 16:9 video to match most of your prospective viewers.

To create 16:9 video without distortion, you need to capture a screen region that has a 16:9 aspect ratio. Someone who has a 16:9 monitor can easily capture his whole monitor and satisfy the requirement. Someone like you, who has a 21:9 monitor such as 2560x1080, need to use some 16:9 rectangle part. The biggest 16:9 rectangle that fits a 2560x1080 monitor is a 1920x1080 rectangle.

So you need to set the thing you intend to capture to a resolution of 1920x1080, OBS to a canvas and output resolution of 1920x1080, so 90% of your viewers will be able to scale it to appear with no black bars. If your internet upload speed is not suited to output 1920x1080 video (needs about 6000-10000 kbit/s), use an output resolution of 1280x720 instead.

If you want to capture 21:9 and fill the black bars with your own content, set the OBS canvas resolution to 2560x1440 (this is aspect ratio 16:9) and place your capture of 2560x1080 into it. If you center it, you have two black bars on top and bottom which you can fill with other sources with OBS. You can add images, or text sources, for example.

 

[elsewhere_95]

You need to capture a 16:9 aspect ratio rectangle.

If you want your video/stream appear with no black bars on the monitors of your viewers, you need to create the video with the same aspect ratio as the monitors of your viewers. This is completely independent from the streaming service. 90% of the common crowd has a 16:9 aspect ratio monitor according to the Steam hardware survey, so you should create 16:9 video to match most of your prospective viewers.

To create 16:9 video without distortion, you need to capture a screen region that has a 16:9 aspect ratio. Someone who has a 16:9 monitor can easily capture his whole monitor and satisfy the requirement. Someone like you, who has a 21:9 monitor such as 2560x1080, need to use some 16:9 rectangle part. The biggest 16:9 rectangle that fits a 2560x1080 monitor is a 1920x1080 rectangle.

So you need to set the thing you intend to capture to a resolution of 1920x1080, OBS to a canvas and output resolution of 1920x1080, so 90% of your viewers will be able to scale it to appear with no black bars. If your internet upload speed is not suited to output 1920x1080 video (needs about 6000-10000 kbit/s), use an output resolution of 1280x720 instead.

If you want to capture 21:9 and fill the black bars with your own content, set the OBS canvas resolution to 2560x1440 (this is aspect ratio 16:9) and place your capture of 2560x1080 into it. If you center it, you have two black bars on top and bottom which you can fill with other sources with OBS. You can add images, or text sources, for example.

Awesome information! I really appreciate the detailed post.

What sucks is that I set up my area before I even thought of streaming and so my 1920x1080 monitor is wall-mounted above my ultrawide so it would be super annoying to switch out. >_>.

 

[koala]

If you plan to produce a stream, you need to answer two questions:

1. What do I intend to stream? Is it interesting to view?
2. how will it look like on the players of my intended audience and how can I make it enjoyable for the biggest possible viewer base?

Until now, you ignored question 2. All media players and the vast number of display devices 16:9. But additionally, there is a huge number of different players and player sizes. Your stream will be consumed on 15" laptop screens and on 32" large monitors, on smartphones, on tablets, fullscreen or as windowed player within the streaming website.

If you have text to show, be it the UI of some game or some extra text source, do test recordings and try different player sizes and see on which player the text is still readable or becomes too small. If you intend to stream some game, it might be advisable to increase the game UI for the viewers, although you yourself would rather play with some smaller UI because of your big monitor.