transcript
Speaker 1:
Hello everyone. Welcome to another BlueStacks Streamer Academy video, and today’s video is on the best streaming gear. Where do we begin?
First things first. Let’s talk about the computer. With your computer, you’re going to be building a custom PC that you can either buy from one of many websites or your local Micro Center. There should be local hobby and computer shops, too, that you can buy computers from. This is by far the best way to do it. Get a custom build. They’re going to be able to help you save money on the parts and pieces. You might know how to build it yourself. If you don’t, they usually have an option for around $100 to $150 to be able to piece it together for you.
You also have the option of buying a laptop. Gamer laptops are very expensive. You’re looking at probably around at least $1,500, and even then it’s kind of sketchy. For $1,500, you could easily get a really strong desktop PC custom built for that same price, and it’s going to be way more powerful.
Make sure you’re going to get a mouse that’s comfortable that you can also use. You’re going to be having your hand on this a lot, especially if you’re a PC gamer, or just going to be using it for your OBS if you’re a console gamer and going to be using your PC to capture it. Also, I recommend getting a mouse pad that has the wrist pad there. That way, if your hand is there for a prolonged period of time, it’s not going to get sore. They also make these for keyboards.
This leads me into the next piece. For your keyboards, I would suggest a mechanical keyboard. Those usually last a little bit longer. They don’t get sticky keys as often, but I would make sure to get a mechanical keyboard that’s a little bit quieter, like the Cherry Keys from Corsair. That way you’re still getting the mechanical keyboard style, but it’s not as loud. It doesn’t have that clicky noise that your microphone will pick up. That might be annoying for your audience.
What’s next? Chair. The one I’m sitting in. You need a good chair. If you’re going to be streaming for six hours straight, what you’re sitting in … I think we’ve all had those streams where we sat in the most uncomfortable thing imaginable. Make sure you do get yourself a little bit something to sit in so you’re comfortable, and you’re not going to give yourself back issues, because if you’re starting to create strain on your body, you’re not going to want to work. If you can’t work, you can’t stream. If you can’t stream, you’re never going to reach the goals that you might want.
Definitely try and sit in the chairs that you’re going to be buying first before you do buy it, just so you can see how it feels. But I know that sometimes you can’t do this, especially if you’re trying to buy a DXRacer chair. My first DXRacer chair was actually given to me by DXRacer when they had learned that I served with the Air Force, and they had this limited edition USA chair to commemorate that. I was very grateful for the chair that they had sent me. However, it was actually the wrong size. It was built for someone that was a lot larger than me. If you’re going to buy a DXRacer chair, they usually are at all the conventions in the U.S., like the PAX conventions, but they also have a sizing chart based on your weight and size. Be sure to use that when you’re picking out the right chair for you.
Now let’s talk about the heart of everything, not the PC, not the green screen, not the game you’re playing, no. It’s your internet. Your internet is so key with everything that you’re doing. You can’t stream without it, so make sure you do some research on your ISPs in your area. You might have to try a couple for them to be able to get the speeds that you need. You might have to upgrade your existing connection to give you enough download and upload.
It’s all about consistency when it comes to streaming. You only about a three to four down, and really it’s the upload speed that really kills it for a lot of ISPs. A lot of ISPs don’t have fast upload speeds. I would recommend at least three megabytes up or more, and then if it’s consistent, that should be good enough for you to maintain a consistent internet connection. Use speedtest.com to test your up and down and to see if you have good enough speeds.
Microphones. Make sure you have a standalone microphone if this is the route you’re going to be going. Or you’ll need to get a headset that has everything built into it, like the microphone and the headphones. Either way, it’s up to you. You’re going to get a better bang for your buck if you do buy a standalone microphone. Audio-Technica and Blue Yeti are by far probably the easiest, cheapest, but provide the best quality. Takes you five minutes to unbox it, install it, and get it working. If you do go with one of those, make sure you buy some headphones. You could use your iOS headphones. You could also go up, and you do anything up to the DT 770 Pros, which are probably among some of the best headphones that you could use. You’re going to need them, so make sure you have something like that lined up.
Also, let me grab this. It’s just kind of sitting on my desk. I’ve got all this nice stuff here for you guys for the stream gear. Webcam. Logitech, hands down, gotta be the only ones in the industry right now offering us webcams that we can use for these YouTube videos, and TWiT streams, at least that are easy. The Logitech C920 has been number one in the industry for a long time. You can find them on sale for less than $80. They do have the new 9C22, which is a little bit better, if you have poor lighting. If you have good lighting, though, the C920 will work for you just fine.
On that topic, make sure you have good lighting in the room you’re in. You’d be surprised if you look at a stream, you’re like, “Wow, what webcam is that guy using? Like the webcam I’m using right now, the picture quality looks so good.” Mine actually looked really bad, and I’m using the same webcam that I was using, and it wasn’t until I realized that I needed better lighting. Make sure you have lights for your webcam, so it doesn’t have to work as hard. It’s actually going to save you a lot of CPU power, too, if you don’t have a good enough computer. That way, if you have your OBS going, your game going, and your computer has to work super hard, because you don’t have enough light, this will help you reduce your CPU usage by having enough lighting.
On the topic of lighting, all this is happening behind me. There’s nothing behind me.
He’s in the blue open space. It’s a green screen. Buying your first green screen can be very overwhelming, because it’s just like an all-in-one package, and you buy them off Amazon. It’s just this huge green sheet, and you don’t really know what you’re doing. But if you do decide to pick one up that’s not too overwhelming, just follow the guide, put it together, and you’d be surprised the kind of results that you can get. You’ll need some extra space though, so be sure you have a room that has enough area for you to be able to set that up. Then you can do some pretty fun things with a green screen, both for your TWiT streams, as well as other opportunities that you might get involved with.
Also, consider getting a second monitor, if you only have monitor. When you have OBS, and you have other games that you’re playing, it’s near impossible to have enough space with one monitor to be able to see everything that you want to do, especially with other Twitch Alert software, or Twitch Chat in general, or browsers, your music source, all of these things. Pretty much, you need a minimum of two monitors, but once I upgraded to three, I don’t even know how I would do what I do now with two. Make sure you do consider that in your options when you’re putting together your setup.
Your graphics card, when you do decide to buy a graphics card, make sure that it does have the right adapters, depending on how many monitors you’re going to be using.
Did we cover everything? I think we did. This was just a general overview of everything that you might need for streaming gear. One thing to not be too stressed out about is don’t worry about getting everything at once. When you first start streaming, have the basics, get it going, and make it your goal to make an improvement to your setup every day, just if it’s something small. Maybe not every day, but every week, try to make an improvement to your entire production, whether that’s a new follower alert, maybe a special image that you do on your UI, maybe new panels on your Twitch panel information. Maybe do like a cool new Twitter overlay, or you’re maybe doing a new equipment upgrade, that kind of thing. Take it in bits and pieces. Do small things. When you do too many things at once, it can be very overwhelming, especially when it comes to equipment, software, hardware, whatever it might be. If you do too many things at once, and something goes wrong, it becomes very hard to troubleshoot, so make small upgrades.
Where I’m at right now, it’s taken over two and a half years. When we first started out, it was very simple. The quality was very poor. The UI was done in Microsoft Paint. I had no idea what I was doing, and that’s fine.
Use BlueStack Streamer Academy to help you along your way with everything that you might have questions about and everything that we talked about in this video. We have specific videos created that go in more depth to give you a general idea of what you need to do, or what you would like to do, and there’s also going to be advanced guides. If you have everything already, you know everything that there is to know about TWiT streaming, but you want to take it to that next level, we’ve got those gads, too.
I’ll see you in the next video, guys. Thanks for watching another BlueStacks Streamer Academy tutorial.