Setting up the stream using XSplit









Once you've registered for an XSplit account , downloaded the software, and installed it, we first want to start capturing our screen. Locate the Add button at the bottom of the interface and select "Add screen region..." from the dropdown menu. Drag a box across your screen, then resize the image of your desktop that appears in the XSplit preview window so that it fills the whole area.Don't worry about framerate or resolution just yet; we'll get to that in a minute. Right now we need to link our Twitch.tv account to our XSplit account and tweak some settings. Navigate to Tools, then select General Settings from the dropdown menu. In the window that appears, select the Channels tab and hit "Add..." to add a new channel. Select Justin.tv/Twitch from the menu that appears and enter your Twitch.tv username and password into the correct boxes.Above is one example of the window you should be looking at. Now that you've entered your account information, it's time to set up the stream. First off, select the server location that has the lowest ping to you (ping is shown under the Last column in the dropdown menu).The settings that follow are highly reliant on your computer hardware and internet connection. Head over to SpeedTest for a ballpark figure on your upload bandwidth (we're sending data, not receiving it, so upload speed is what we need to be worried about but don't take that number as gospel; there is no guarantee that you can maintain that kind of upload speed to Twitch.tv's servers. It is, however, a good place to start.Your upload speed is going to dictate the bandwidth you can stream at, and to a certain extent, the resolution and quality of your stream. There are ways to get around that requirement, but we'll get to that later. For starters, set your video bitrate to an acceptable value. If you have excellent upload speeds, 2000kbps is a good place to start. If you aren't quite so lucky, leave yourself a 200kbps buffer between your upload speed and your bitrate. Whatever you settle on, I recommend setting your buffer (the box to the right of bitrate) equal to twice your stream bitrate. This somewhat prevents blurriness when rapid camera movement occurs. Once you have everything set up, hit "Test bandwidth" and let it run.What XSplit's bandwidth tester does is attempt to stream data to your selected Twitch.tv server at the bitrate you specified in your settings. Your connection to Twitch may not be as consistent as your connection to the SpeedTest servers, and this test lets you know if your settings are going to work. If you get a green light, congrats! You can almost certainly stream that bitrate consistently, and you might even be able to bump it up a little bit and try again. If you get yellow or red lights, it's time to drop that bitrate until you find a value that gives you green lights consistently. It's a delicate balance, and it may take some time to get exactly right.A few things to keep in mind about bitrate. First of all, your audio has a separate bitrate, which you can see at the bottom of the window. For the purposes of this guide I've elected to ignore it, but it's important to understand that it gets added on top of your video bitrate. Secondly, be sure to give yourself a large enough buffer between your bitrate and your upload bandwidth in order to allow for unexpected spikes in traffic and game data transfer. XSplit encodes video using a variable bitrate, which means the bitrate you give it is only a recommended maximum value; sometimes you'll be sending more data, sometimes less. Finally, keep your viewers in mind when deciding on a bitrate. Sure, you might be able to handle streaming at 10000kbps, and sure, the stream will probably look amazing, but there aren't many people who will be able to watch your stream because they won't be able to download all that data quickly enough to keep up.Now that we have our connection details in order, we have to decide on quality settings. These are influenced primarily by your CPU, and instead of presenting a step-by-step guide, I'm going to encourage you to experiment with different combinations until you find something that works well for you.There are four settings we need to worry about when it comes to stream quality: resolution, framerate, encoder preset, and quality. The latter two are present in the Video Encoding section of the channel settings window.The Quality dropdown menu presents a numeric scale of values corresponding to general stream quality; depending on your CPU, you're going to want this set anywhere from 4 to 10. Try a few until you find a setting that balances performance and appearance well for your machine.The Preset option is next, and it's one of the most important as far as optimizing your stream is concerned. For most people, the standard XSplit Default preset should work just fine. However, if you have a powerful CPU but a poor upload speed, switching the preset to something slower could improve quality drastically. Alternatively, you can set a faster preset if you have a weaker CPU but more upload bandwidth to spare. For reference purposes, the XSplit Default preset is essentially equivalent to Very Fast. Slower presets introduce greater compression, which means you are able to squeeze more data through the same connection. This can improve the quality of your stream at the cost of taxing your CPU a little bit more.Resolution and framerate are the final two items to consider when optimizing your stream for quality and performance. In order to change these settings, we're going to jump out of the channel settings window and use the View dropdown.If you don't see the resolution you are looking for in the existing options, adding custom resolutions is a fairly painless process. Just open the Resolutions tab in General Settings and add your own.Keep in mind your bitrate and your CPU power when selecting these options; for 1080p (1920x1080), I recommend at least 2000-2500kbps bitrate. For 720p (1280x720), 1500-2000kbps is ideal. However, as you can see from my settings window above, it is absolutely possible to squeeze higher resolutions into lower bitrates. As a rule of thumb, maintain your monitor's aspect ratio when selecting a resolution, and lower your framerate to increase performance if you're struggling with choppy gameplay. Ultimately, tinker with these settings until you find a combination that works for you.As you can see, setting up a stream is not a cut-and-dry procedure. In fact, it involves a great deal of trial and error, and is a constantly evolving process. Ask around and see what others are doing. Read other guides. You have my settings above to build off as a base, but I don't pretend to possess the most effective way of doing things, and I encourage you to seek out alternatives and post your observations in the comments below.