Best OBS Settings for STREAMING in 2026 (Complete Guide)

[00:00] Today I'm going to be quickly showing

[00:01] you guys how you can take the video

[00:02] quality of your live streams from

[00:04] looking blurry, blotchy, and choppy to

[00:07] crystal clear, thus improving the

[00:09] viewing experience for your audience.

[00:11] And to do this, we're going to be using

[00:12] OBS Studio to implement these best

[00:15] practice settings. So, the first thing

[00:16] we're going to want to do is head over

[00:17] to the right hand side and access our

[00:19] settings. Go to the video tab. And

[00:22] within here, you're going to want to set

[00:24] the base and output canvas resolutions.

[00:26] The standard quality that you'll

[00:28] typically see on platforms such as

[00:29] YouTube and Twitch is going to be 1080p

[00:32] 60. So, right now, my base canvas is

[00:34] 1920x 1080, but our output is at 720p,

[00:38] and we want to adjust this to be at

[00:39] 1080p quality. As for the common FPS

[00:42] value, the standard is 60 fps. So, we're

[00:45] going to want to change that from 30 to

[00:47] 60. Once that's good to go, let's select

[00:50] apply and okay. And then the next thing

[00:52] we're going to want to do is add our

[00:53] gameplay source. So I'm going to do that

[00:55] within my sources by going to the plus

[00:57] button here, then adding a video capture

[00:59] device source. I'm just going to call it

[01:01] capture card. Select okay. And within

[01:04] here, we're going to select the device

[01:05] dropdown and choose the capture card

[01:07] connected to our computer. For me, I'm

[01:09] using the Aver Media Live Gamer 4K 2.1.

[01:12] Since I have everything connected

[01:14] correctly, it just popped right up. And

[01:15] then the next thing we're going to want

[01:16] to do is head over down here to the

[01:18] resolution FPS type. Let's select this

[01:21] dropdown and instead of using the device

[01:23] default, let's change that to custom.

[01:25] And then under that you're going to see

[01:26] the resolution dropdown. So we're going

[01:28] to choose that as well. Now if you

[01:30] happen to be playing your game in 4K

[01:32] quality and you are passing that through

[01:34] your capture card, I would go ahead and

[01:36] select the 4K option here. And the

[01:39] reason for this is because you'll get a

[01:40] better image quality if you set it to 4K

[01:43] rather than 1080p. But let's say your

[01:45] computer can't handle processing 4K,

[01:48] then instead I would just knock it down

[01:50] to 1920 by 1080, which will still look

[01:52] great. After that, you're going to want

[01:54] to set your FPS value to 60. OBS, why is

[01:58] this showing up over here? What?

[01:59] Whatever. Video format, you can keep at

[02:02] any color space, you can do Rex 709. And

[02:06] then color range, you want to have that

[02:08] to be full. Once that's done, go ahead

[02:10] and select okay. And now the next thing

[02:12] we're going to want to do is modify our

[02:14] actual stream settings. So to do that,

[02:16] we're going to want to go back over to

[02:17] our settings, then go to the output tab.

[02:21] And from here, instead of being in the

[02:22] simple output mode, we're going to want

[02:24] to select that drop down and choose the

[02:26] advanced option. Now, staying within the

[02:30] streaming tab here, audio track, you can

[02:32] keep that as is. Audio encoder is fine.

[02:35] VOD track is fine. The video encoder is

[02:38] one of the most important parts you're

[02:40] going to want to pay attention to. So,

[02:41] right now, mine is set to x264, which

[02:44] means it's leveraging the CPU or also

[02:47] known as the processor on my computer.

[02:50] You'll want to keep this option selected

[02:52] if you don't have a dedicated graphics

[02:54] card such as one from Nvidia or AMD. In

[02:57] my case, I do have an Nvidia RTX 5070

[03:01] series graphics card. So, in my case,

[03:04] I'm going to want to select the Nvidia

[03:05] Invect H.264 for my video encoder. For

[03:09] those of you guys that are using an M1,

[03:11] M2, M3, M4 silicon base chip Mac, then

[03:14] you're going to want to select the Apple

[03:16] VT hardware encoder. From there, we can

[03:18] head over down to our encoder settings.

[03:21] The rate control, we're going to want to

[03:22] have that at CBR or constant bit rate.

[03:25] The bit rate itself, you're going to

[03:27] want to set that to 6,000 if you're on

[03:29] Twitch. But if you're streaming to a

[03:31] platform like YouTube that doesn't have

[03:33] a cap on how much bit rate you can push

[03:36] out, then I would put this up to 10,000

[03:38] kilobits per second as your video

[03:40] quality will look much nicer compared to

[03:42] using a lower bit rate. As for the key

[03:44] frame interval, you're going to want to

[03:45] set this to two so that your viewers

[03:46] have a better playback experience.

[03:48] Presets, you can keep those as is with

[03:51] the exception of the multipass mode drop

[03:53] down. I would set that to full

[03:55] resolution. Profile can remain high.

[03:58] Look ahead and adaptive quantization

[04:00] should be checked off and B frame should

[04:02] be too. Once you have that complete, go

[04:04] ahead and select apply and okay. Go

[04:07] ahead and launch your stream with your

[04:09] new updated settings and let me know in

[04:11] the comment section below how your

[04:12] quality is looking. Now, as a bonus tip,

[04:15] if you are running to any network issues

[04:17] with your stream, then go back to your

[04:18] bit rate setting and keep reducing it by

[04:21] intervals of 500 until your issue is

[04:24] gone. It would even help to do a

[04:26] internet speed test to see where you're

[04:28] coming in at that will help you to

[04:29] adjust this number more precisely. All

[04:31] right, that's it. Told you it was going

[04:33] to be a quick one. Peace.