Question / Help First timer trying to stream to Twitch, but getting strange results

[Tooker]

First off, thanks in advance, and my apologies, because I'm sure I'll fail to provide some key info. I searched around a bit, but didn't see any issue like mine, which frankly makes me assume I'm doing something important wrong.

I just got an Alienware Alpha (the i7 model), which I mention because I figure the standard package would tell folks all they need to know about my hardware. It's basically intended to be a Windows-based console that you plug into your TV via HDMI. I'm getting back into PC gaming after a long time away from it, and I'm looking forward to it! I'm trying to get things set up to stream a game to Twitch via OBS, but things are really going strangely. I'll tell you about the problem, then about my settings, in case that's helpful.

I first set up a game capture source of the game, and I could preview the stream, but couldn't record or actually stream - I just got a black box in the preview window and 0 kbps down in the bottom right corner of OBS.

I decided to try streaming my whole desktop on a whim, so I added a Monitor Capture source to the same scene, and that actually worked. I am using a bluetooth headset, and I could even talk over it and hear myself on the recording. Progress!

After some experimentation, I found that if I got the stream/recording started successfully, I could then turn on the game source on, then start the game, and the stream would continue. The stream captured the game audio as well as my audio, but I couldn't hear the game in my headset, which is a bummer... but I can live with it if I have to.

Having gotten things to that point, I thought I might as well take it the last step. I'm going to be streaming on behalf of a website, and we always have someone join the stream who isn't playing, to watch the comments in the Twitch chat and pass on any questions. On PC, we usually do that via something like a Skype call. So I called up one of my colleagues on Skype and started the stream. Bizarrely, her voice came out of my TV speakers, but she could hear both me and the game. (I still couldn't hear the game.) When I checked the recording, she was only audible via what my mic was picking up from the TV.

So I guess I have multiple problems, but the audio issues are the ones I'm most interested in resolving, because I can live with jumping through a couple of hoops to get the stream started. (That said, if you know what's up with that, that's cool too.)

In terms of settings, I'm successfully streaming to my channel, so I know that things are at least partly OK. I didn't go for long, but it didn't seem to have lag issues (I'm not streaming a fast game anyway), so I trust that my resolution, FPS, and bitrate are fine. I have my audio just set to use "default" for both speakers and mic, and I don't have a way to plug in a headset. I can get log files if that's helpful, or tell you more about any settings, I just am not sure what would be useful.

Again, thanks for any help you can offer - I'm good with computers generally, but this is far enough outside my realm of experience that I'm not really even sure where to start.

 

[Tooker]

Good news, I got a couple of hints in the right direction from a couple of places and was able to resolve the issues. Thought I'd avoid being that guy who just says "everything's fine now" and actually say how I fixed it. :)

I changed the game to just be a window instead of being fullscreen, and OBS became willing to stream it right away. Now I can start the game, set the source to just that, and start streaming, and it works.

The audio took a few steps, but it seems resolved now too. Someone somewhere mentioned that they had to make sure whatever audio they wanted to use was in place before they started OBS, and that they had to adjust something in Windows' sound settings. I checked those settings from the control panel and discovered that my Bluetooth headset is on my computer as two separate devices. A "headset" with speakers and mic, and "headphones" that are just speakers. They both were set as "default." That raised a red flag for me. I right clicked on the headset and found a "set as default" option. I chose it, and then only that one was marked as default. I tried recording in OBS, and bingo, I could hear the game in my headset, and both myself and the game in the recording! Two problems down, one to go.

I messaged a friend and asked her about getting on a Skype call... but tragically, the dings from Skype still came out on the TV speakers. Thankfully, we found quickly that Skype's options menu has an audio tab that allows you to set the output for the sound. Sure enough, it was set to the TV speakers. I changed it to the headset, called her, and I could hear her, she could hear me, and OBS/Twitch could hear her too! She couldn't hear the game, but that's not the end of the world, since this particular game just has music. I mean, if we could work that out, it'd be cool, but it's something we can live with.

 

[raindeeers]

Twitch is garbage. It's the worst streaming service around, unless of course you're a partner. There's a constant issue of delivering your stream to viewers, even when you lower it down to 2000 kbps which is friggin adsl territory.

Dont base your experience off of twitch, it's an awful service.