[Guide] How to stream to Youtube

Heres a complete guide on how to stream to Youtube with lots of pictures and red numbered arrows pointing at things.

I. Setting up the Youtube stream event.

• 1. You need to be a youtube partner to stream, so go get partnered, its pretty easy nowadays.
  2. Go into you Channel Settings>Features to request Live Events(that's livestreaming)
  
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  3. After you get approved. You get a new tab under “Video Manager” called Live Events.
  4. In Live Events Create a “New live Event”
  
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  5. On the New Live Event page fill out the information as you would with a normal video.
  6. And also set the start and end of your live event. This is crucial cause your stream will be only viewable during that time.
  7. Tick the thing to agree to the terms and stuff
  8. Check out the Event Settings, Monetization, and adv settings tabs if you feel like it for some other cool options like DVR and Broadcast delay.
  9. Now Create the event
  
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  10. Select the bitrate range that suites you.
  11. Choose “Other Encoders” and Save the changes
  
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II. Setting up OBS

• 12. In Broadcast Settings choose Custom fro Streaming Service
  13. Copy the “Primary Server URL” from youtube into the “server” field in OBS
  14. Copy your “Stream Name” from youtube into the “Play Path/Stream Key” field in OBS
  
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  15. In the advanced tab add “keyint=60” into the “custom x264 Encoder Settings” field (without quotes). 60 is just an example, the value should be your FPS multiplied by two. Otherwise youtube won't let you stream.
  
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  16. Now OBS is ready to stream to youtube. So start the stream.

III. Going Live on Youtube

• 17. Go to the Live Control Room Tab.
  18. Now if the stream is running and you set up everything correctly the stream status should say Good. And you should be able to start streaming. If not double check the stream key and stream server url.
  19. Hit Preview
  
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  20. It takes a couple of seconds for youtube to prepare the preview but after that you can check it out in the preview window.
  21. Now you can Start Streaming by hitting the button.
  
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  22. And after another few seconds your stream is live. You can check what the public sees, read the comments, run ads, etc.
  
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So basically this is it. Remember you have to make a new Live Event everytime you stream, and it will give you a unique stream key each time. Have fun streaming on youtube,

Thank you very much for adding this.

Pretty sure my settings are for 720P. Why do I get this :

Primary stream:
We recommend you use a stream bitrate value of (2500 Kbps). The current bitrate value (224.00 Kbps) for the stream is lower than the recommended bitrate.

You streaming with VBR? I'd probably turn on CBR or something to keep the bitrate up, otherwise the bitrate might go down during lulls in motion, and may trigger that. Guess they don't like VBR either.

Also make sure in settings > advanced > Custom x264 Encoder Settings you add the following:
profile=main keyint=60

Do you really need profile=main? I've seen people successfully stream to YouTube with just the keyint set, but I could be wrong.

It can work with profile High, but Main is recommended by YouTube. See link below. Look for "Encoder settings - H.264, Main 4.1".
https://support.google.com/youtube/answ ... ctx=topic#

Thanks

dodgepong said:

Do you really need profile=main? I've seen people successfully stream to YouTube with just the keyint set, but I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

FYI, in the newest versions of OBS, you can set keyframe interval and x264 profile in Advanced settings, without entering in custom x264 parameters.

I guess I should have answered here as it's more appropriate. BUt I'm trying this for several days now and the only thing I get from youtube is a black screen. Followed the exact steps here and still, black screen. I don't undestand. Does it have anything to do with silverlight ? Do I need a special encoder in obs ? Do i need to turn aero off ?

Black screen can be caused by a number of issues. You should create a new forum post in the Questions and Help section and include a log.

I did a few days before... and the log is in there.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8595

Is there an updated guide to how to stream with OBS?
I can't seem to start with this guide at least, and Xsplit makes this easy to do, which is quite, different.
I have the stream name in key field, put the =60 in advanced, but can't seem to get my stream showing other than the Starting Soon text.

If you mean you entered your keyframe interval in advanced and changed it to 60. Then that is probably your mistake.
You can use the optimize button in the broadcast settings (assuming you selected youtube in the dropdown) to change it to the correct value of "2". As described the interval in OBS is already the seconds value, but you entered the fps value which x264 will later use (60 if you use 30fps).
Apart of that, you are free to write a newer more updated guide on youtube streaming if you spot any mistakes. The guide itself is over a year old and of course not up to date with things like the Optimize button for your broadcast settings.

nice

You need to update your guide. You do not need to be a partner to stream to youtube. You even get free transcoding. In fact, I am live right now, and have only 2 subscribers.

You are writing in the Archive section, as the name states, these guides might be old and outdated, hence we just keep them in our Archive :)
This often, not always, means the guide wont be updated anymore. Shirin seems to have last been online in 2014. So I wouldnt expect any updates.

Hey guys 'n gals, first time here and a new user...

First, thanks a ton to the author of this guide!

I seem to be having trouble using this to stream to a Youtube Live event.

I keep getting the error: Could not connect to server...the connection times out...try a different server or check that the connection is not being blocked by a firewall or other security software (10060).

In Settings (streaming service), I've tried using both the Youtube drop down AND the custom version entering in the required data in the associated fields (stream key for the Youtube option, and both the stream key and primary FMS server URL under the Custom option)...

In either case, when I click Start streaming, there is no activity (no frames or kb/s data)...and it just keeps timing out with this error message.

I am stumped. I have also temporarily disabled my Norton Firewall just to be sure.

Any help or insight here would be super fantastic...I'm thinking it might be (or hope that it is) something extremely easy, simple and just plain overlooked!

Thanks in advance for any help in the matter!