Best OBS Studio Settings for STREAMING in 2026 (For Beginners)

[00:00] every streamer wants their stream to

[00:01] look Crystal Clear without any lag the

[00:03] only problem is the settings are super

[00:05] complicated and hard to understand for

[00:07] normal people so that's why in this

[00:09] video I'm going to reveal to you the

[00:11] best stream settings to use an OBS

[00:13] Studio that turned my stream from being

[00:15] a laggy PowerPoint presentation that had

[00:17] me looking like a Minecraft character to

[00:19] a nice smooth Crystal Clear professional

[00:21] stream and the reason why most people

[00:23] don't get their streams to look this

[00:24] nice is because they don't know the

[00:25] exact settings to use so whether this is

[00:27] your first time in OBS Studio or you've

[00:29] been streaming for a while these

[00:31] settings will apply to anyone who wants

[00:32] the best video quality for their streams

[00:34] first thing we need to do is open up OBS

[00:36] Studio duh it's in the title if you're

[00:38] wondering where I got this dope starting

[00:39] soon graphic it's actually in my

[00:40] streamer starter pack which is in the

[00:42] description below but we want to go to

[00:43] the settings in the bottom right corner

[00:45] so click on settings and then we're

[00:46] going to actually skip General in

[00:47] appearance cuz it Doesn't Really Matter

[00:49] we're going to go straight to stream

[00:50] then from here we're going to connect

[00:52] our Twitch account or whatever thing

[00:54] you're using here so in this case I have

[00:56] my Twitch account connected with this

[00:57] button and a cool thing about connecting

[00:59] your Twitch Channel this way is that if

[01:00] you hit okay go to the doc Tab and now

[01:03] you can add your Twitch chat your stream

[01:04] info your Twitch stats and your activity

[01:06] feed all in the dock here so if you

[01:07] click on Twitch chat it'll automatically

[01:09] pop it here so you can automatically

[01:10] just see it in OBS Studio Isn't that

[01:12] cool but let's go back to the settings

[01:13] in the bottom right corner click

[01:15] settings then we'll go back to stream

[01:16] and then we're want to uncheck enable

[01:18] enhanced broadcasting because it's going

[01:20] to allow us to change more settings then

[01:22] once you've done that make sure to check

[01:23] ignore streaming service setting

[01:25] recommendations because that way it'll

[01:27] use what we tell it to instead of what

[01:29] this tells it to instead which will make

[01:31] more sense in just a second so then hit

[01:32] apply and then we're going to move to

[01:34] the scariest part which is the output

[01:35] tab but don't freak out I got you guys

[01:37] go to the top where it says output mode

[01:39] and change it from simple to Advanced

[01:41] which I know is counterproductive to

[01:42] people wanting to keep it simple but

[01:44] trust me then we'll make sure we're on

[01:45] the streaming Tab and then we'll make

[01:47] sure that the audio track is on one and

[01:49] so any audio that we say is on track one

[01:52] will be sent to our stream then for our

[01:54] audio encoder keep it at fmm the twitch

[01:56] VOD track is actually a very useful

[01:58] setting which will allow you to play

[01:59] copyrighted music on your Twitch streams

[02:01] without getting the little warnings or

[02:02] your vodes muted after but I'm going to

[02:04] touch on this setting at the very end of

[02:06] the video so make sure to stick around

[02:07] for it because you don't want your

[02:08] channel getting in trouble for the video

[02:09] encoder if you're using a Nvidia

[02:11] graphics card you're want to use Nvidia

[02:13] enve h264 and if you don't have this

[02:16] you're using AMD you're going to want to

[02:17] use whatever the AMD equivalent is and

[02:19] if you don't have either of those then

[02:20] you're going to want to use x264 but

[02:22] that's going to use a lot of resources

[02:24] on your computer which might run into

[02:26] issues the next important setting is

[02:27] we'll go to the encoder settings we're

[02:29] going to change rate control to CBR and

[02:31] we're going to change the bit rate to

[02:32] 8,000 we used to have it on 6,000 which

[02:35] is also very good bit rate but sometimes

[02:37] when you're streaming if there's extra

[02:39] resources available it will boost it up

[02:41] to 8,000 which will give you even better

[02:42] quality if you're a regular twitch

[02:44] streamer or a twitch affiliate however

[02:45] if your partner then you'll almost

[02:47] always get the 8,000 kilobits per second

[02:49] quality but don't put it any higher than

[02:50] 8,000 because then you will actually

[02:52] nuke your stream so don't do that next

[02:54] we're going to change the key frame

[02:55] interval to two others like to have it

[02:57] on zero either is really fine but I

[02:58] prefer two the pre set you want to have

[03:00] anywhere between P5 and p7 I'm just

[03:03] going to have it on P6 if you have a

[03:05] really good computer put it at p7 if you

[03:07] have a not so great computer do P5

[03:09] somewhere in between P6 then we're going

[03:10] to do high quality two passes High

[03:13] enable psycho visual tuning GPU 0 and

[03:16] Max B frames 2 which is pretty standard

[03:18] then we're going to click on the audio

[03:19] portion a little two tabs in we're going

[03:22] to change all of these audio bit rates

[03:23] to 320 to give us the best audio quality

[03:26] as well so now after doing these

[03:27] specific settings this is going to give

[03:29] you a good quality but we still need to

[03:31] do a couple more things to make sure

[03:33] it's the best quality so we're going to

[03:34] go to the audio Tab and make sure that

[03:36] you have your correct desktop audio

[03:38] selected this is going to be wherever

[03:40] your computer speakers are so in this

[03:41] case I'm using the yaha zg1 which is

[03:43] holding all of my computer audio so we

[03:45] have that and then for your mic simply

[03:46] pick your microphone from the list I'm

[03:48] using the road pod mic USB love this bad

[03:50] boy also linked in the description below

[03:52] then we'll hit apply and then we'll move

[03:53] to the video tab now this part's a

[03:55] little complicated so pay attention for

[03:57] the base canvas resolution you're going

[03:58] to want to pick whatever you're gaming

[04:00] at I'm gaming at 1080P and I'm also on a

[04:02] 1080p monitor so I'm going to choose the

[04:04] 1080p option now I'm also wanting to

[04:07] stream at 1080p 60 frames per second so

[04:09] that means my output resolution is also

[04:11] going to be 1080 if these are different

[04:13] it's going to make you pick a downscale

[04:15] filter in which you're going to want to

[04:17] pick L Cod cuz it give you the best

[04:18] quality but since these are the same I

[04:20] don't need one then since we want to

[04:21] stream at 1080p 60 frames per second

[04:24] we're going to change our common FPS

[04:25] value to 60 so that way we have 1080p 60

[04:28] frames per second makes sense right then

[04:30] obviously hit apply and if this has been

[04:31] helpful so far drop a quick like on the

[04:33] video because it's going to help other

[04:34] people find more of these videos and

[04:36] then we can skip hot keys and

[04:37] accessibility because they're just going

[04:38] to waste your time really and we jump

[04:40] straight to Advanced where the only

[04:42] thing that you really need to consider

[04:44] here is the automatically reconnect make

[04:46] sure this is enabled because if your

[04:47] stream disconnects you'll retry a couple

[04:49] times to keep the stream going and then

[04:51] this is an optional setting but can be

[04:52] really useful so right under Network

[04:54] there's an option that says dynamically

[04:56] change bit rate to manage congestion

[04:58] essentially if you have other people on

[04:59] your network like your Wi-Fi and they're

[05:01] like streaming at 4K and just like the

[05:04] amount of internet kind of goes up and

[05:05] down you might want to enable this

[05:07] because if you are streaming at high

[05:09] quality and you don't have enough

[05:10] resources from your internet cuz other

[05:11] people are hogging it all up this will

[05:13] lower the quality of your stream instead

[05:15] of making you buffer and stutter like

[05:17] this so if you want you can do that but

[05:19] if that's not a problem to you you can

[05:20] leave it off so it's up to you then you

[05:21] can hit apply okay and now you got a

[05:23] crystal clear stream but if you're

[05:25] streaming on Twitch you're definitely

[05:26] going to want to take advantage of this

[05:27] twitch VOD track feature right here and

[05:29] you're going to want to watch this video

[05:30] to the side of me where I explain it all

[05:32] in full detail so give that video a

[05:34] watch my name's Cody and I'll see you in

[05:36] the next one