Low-Light is a term used to describe a situation that isn’t ideal for recording or streaming content. For example, streaming in a dark room with nothing but your monitor to light your face on stream. As you go about your content creation process, this results in significant jumps and dips in brightness, which is a …
Lights are a staple of media and content creation. They help create interesting focal points, improve the quality of your webcam or DSLR, and are essential for streamers to ensure consistent lighting. This is especially true for high-action gameplay, where the monitor light can very quickly become an ugly flashing light show if there isn’t …
Phantom power is a method used to power audio equipment over an XLR Cable. The standard used is 48 volts, which is required for condenser-style microphones for them to operate.
Twitch is a popular, gaming-focused live streaming platform. It is one of the most well-known streamer-first platforms out there and has millions of active streamers and viewers.
Glim Fam is a term that Glimesh streamers use to inspire camaraderie among fellow Glimesh streamers and viewers.
A follower is a viewer who saves a streaming channel to a list. That list will notify viewers who follow them when they go live, encouraging repeat viewers.
Bits are a virtual good that viewers and streamers can buy on Twitch. They can be redeemed for money at a rate of 1 bit = 1 cent. They cost more than 1 cent to buy, as that is one way that Twitch makes money.
A dynamic microphone is a type of microphone that converts sound into an electrical signal using an electromagnetically suspended diaphragm. There are two types of dynamic microphones – moving coil and ribbon microphones. Moving coil dynamic microphones have a permanent magnet surrounding the magnetically suspended coil that acts as the microphone diaphragm. Ribbon dynamic microphones …
A condenser microphone is a type of microphone characterized by an electrolyzed ultra-thin fixed plate. This type of microphone excels at capturing very quiet or delicate audio and has the widest frequency response curve of any microphone type. They vary in cost from $30 to over $10,000. They can be either USB or XLR, and …
XLR stands for External Line Return. It is a balanced connector for studio-grade audio equipment that is nearly immune to electromagnetic interference. It is most commonly used for condenser and dynamic microphones, audio interfaces, and audio mixers.
The Nvenc encoder is a hardware encoding chip onboard Nvidia graphics cards. While Nvenc performs slightly worse than X264 at lower bitrate values, it makes up for this by having a near-zero performance impact. This is possible because the encoding chip on the cards is dedicated silicon separate from the rendering cores. It is also …
X264 is an encoder that uses your CPU to encode media content. It does a decent job of this at a low bitrate value, but has a high CPU overhead cost. This overhead results in a loss of performance in games that are heavy on CPU usage.
A source is a media element that is part of a scene. In OBS Studio, there are many different source types that capture many different things.
A scene is a collection of sources in OBS Studio. It is what viewers will see when you are broadcasting.
The Keyframe interval, also known as the I-frame interval, is a setting within the encoder options that determines how often an entire frame is transmitted. For Twitch – The keyframe interval should be 2. For YouTube – The keyframe interval should be 2. For Glimesh – The keyframe interval should be 1 or 2. For …
Lossless is a Rate Control setting that will give the encoder as much bitrate as necessary to record or broadcast content at its original quality level. This results in astronomically large file sizes, so use this setting with caution.
Rate control is a setting within an encoder that determines how the encoder will function. There are four modes of rate control:
An encoder is a tool that processes a computer screen, webcam, or camera and, in the case of broadcasting, transmits it to an ingest server. Alternatively, it will convert the processed image and audio data into a filetype for recording.
Hosting was a feature on Twitch until October 3rd, 2022. It was when a Twitch channel would mirror another Twitch channel while the broadcaster was not online. Some other platforms still support a hosting feature.
Raiding is the tool you use that will transfer all of your viewers to a streamer of your choice. When you are a part of a raid, you are considered part of the raiding party.
X-split is a freemium broadcasting software. The free version has every tool you need to start a broadcast but includes a watermark, and some advanced features are behind a subscription. A lifetime license also exists.
A viewer is a person who watches live-streaming content.
OBS stands for Open Broadcaster Software. It is a powerful free broadcasting software with many features that make broadcasting very easy.
A streamer is somebody who engages in the activity of live streaming.
Bitrate is the rate at which data is sent to the encoder in your broadcasting program. The maximum bitrate you are capable of is calculated by multiplying your internet upload speed in Mbps by 1000.
CQP stands for constant quality profile. It is a rate control method used to determine how a broadcast or recording is encoded. The advantage of CQP is that the encoder will allow as much bitrate as necessary to meet the defined quality settings, ensuring consistent video quality throughout the entire recording. This rate control method …
VBR stands for variable bitrate. It is a rate control method used to determine how a broadcast or recording is encoded. The advantage of VBR is that the encoder will conform to the bitrate needs of the video within the defined minimum and maximum bitrate values. This rate control method is best used for recording …
CBR stands for constant bitrate. It is a rate control method used to determine how a broadcast or recording is encoded. The advantage of CBR is that the encoder will conform to the limit you set. This makes CBR the best rate control method for live streaming, which operates on a strict bitrate limit.
