OBS Studio

This guide shows how to set up OBS Studio to stream to Piczel.tv. OBS Studio is a free, open source streaming program that is one of the best on the market.

First, download and install the latest OBS Studio from the project’s website.

Next we will create a new OBS profile to use with Piczel.tv. OBS supports multiple profiles with different settings, that you can easily switch between in the “Profiles” drop down.

Click “Profiles”, and then click “New”

Enter a name for this profile and click Ok, and the profile will be created and selected. To change profiles, simply select the profile you wish to use from the “Profiles” drop down.

Next we configure the selected OBS profile’s performance settings and to stream to Piczel.tv

Click “Settings”

Select “Output” on the left of the settings menu, and copy the settings as shown. Note you will need to change the output mode to “Advanced”.

You can adjust the Max Bitrate setting to increase or decrease the quality of your stream, for performance reasons, but 500 is a safe first guess. Unless you have a good reason, you should not set the Max Bitrate less than 200 or over 1500.

Note that we have also changed the “Rate Control” option from CBR, to VBR. CBR stands for Constant Bit Rate – in other words, OBS will try as hard as it can to upload at exactly the Max Bitrate you have set. Most of the time though, you don’t actually need to upload that much data constantly, so changing it to VBR, or Variable Bit Rate, is more bandwidth efficient for both you, your viewers, and our servers.

To more accurately determine the maximum bitrate your internet can handle, run a speed test (Piczel.tv recommends testmy.net - they are fully html5) and set your max bitrate to 70% of the upload speed you measure. Since most speed tests report in Mbps (Megabits per second) be sure to multiply your result by 1000. For example, if your speed test returns .5 Mbps, set your Max Bitrate to .5*1000*.7 = 350 kbps.

Next, enter your Piczel.tv stream info, which you can get here.

In the OBS settings menu, click “Stream” and change “Stream Type” to “Custom Streaming Server”

Then enter your RTMP URL and stream key as shown, and click OK.

Lastly you must set up OBS to actually capture the window or monitor you would like to stream.

To do so, right click the empty “Sources” box, hover over “add” and click “Display Capture”

This is the easiest way to start streaming, but be aware it will just stream your entire screen, not just one program. To stream a specific program, instead select “Window Capture” and select the appropriate window to stream.

Finally, you can click “Start Streaming” and you should be live on Piczel.tv!

Note that if OBS reports any dropped frames or encoding overloaded, which appear along the bottom of the main window, your viewers may have trouble viewing your stream smoothly. If those appear, please check our troubleshooting guide.

If you are having trouble or would like help, please do not hesitate to message twots in our webchat, or email support@piczel.tv , we are happy to help.