It takes the live footage you’re filming, mixes in other relevant sources, such as your in-game action or on-screen graphics and optimizes the resulting output for internet transmission.īoth OBS Studio and Streamlabs OBS have one advantage over many of the alternatives. Whether you use OBS Studio, Streamlabs OBS, or some alternative software solution, you’re doing it to live stream your videos. What do You Use OBS Studio and Streamlabs For? OBS Studio can be complex, so many streamers prefer Streamlabs OBS as it arguably has a more user-friendly interface and less of a learning curve. However, you will find many other OBS and Streamlabs alternatives available, at a range of price points, including free. The two most used examples of streaming software, particularly for gaming streamers, are Streamlabs Desktop and OBS Studio.

Streaming via an encoder lets you do more with your live stream, including sharing your screen, broadcasting your gameplay, using external audio and video hardware, and managing advanced production techniques. However, you will achieve substantially better results if you download dedicated video streaming software, generally some form of encoder. We’ve described how to do so in How to Stream on YouTube, and the processes are very similar on most of the other platforms.

While you can livestream to these platforms without special software, the results are very basic and underwhelming. Before long there was a demand for live streaming, and new specialist platforms, such as Twitch popped up, and again existing social apps, like YouTube and Facebook, added live streaming. As bandwidth improved and viewer expectations heightened other video platforms were invented, for example, TikTok and Vimeo, and existing social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram added video to their capabilities. However, initially, all YouTube videos were recorded and uploaded for later playback. Anybody could make a video and share their creation with the world. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Our reviews are based on years of experience and countless hours of research.

This may influence which products or services we review (also where and how those products appear on the site), this in no way affects our recommendations or the advice we offer.

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