How do I determine the best OBS bitrate and resolution for 1080p 60fps streaming?

For 1080p 60fps, Twitch recommends up to 6,000 kbps, Kick allows around 8,000 kbps, and YouTube Live supports 9–12 Mbps. Use CBR rate control, a 2-second keyframe interval, and keep your total bitrate under 75% of your stable wired upload speed. The Streamer Companion bitrate calculator applies these platform caps automatically from your resolution and upload speed.

How do I configure stream audio sample rates and bitrates for clean broadcast audio?

Set a 48 kHz sample rate, the broadcast standard, and an audio bitrate of 160–320 kbps depending on your platform cap — Twitch allows 160 kbps and YouTube Live up to 320 kbps. Higher sample rates add no benefit and can cause audio sync drift, while too-low bitrate makes your mic sound compressed. Match the audio bitrate to your platform cap and prioritize clean mic processing over raw bitrate.

How do bandwidth and upload speeds impact stream stability and frame drops?

Dropped frames almost always mean your bitrate exceeds what your connection can sustain. Add your video and audio bitrates for total throughput, keep it under 75% of your wired upload speed, use CBR with a 2-second keyframe interval, and pick the ingest server with the lowest ping. A wired Ethernet connection is essential — Wi-Fi causes fluctuating throughput and dropped frames. Persistent drops below 1% are normal; anything higher needs attention.

How do I set up stream companion overlays and alert widgets for live streaming?

Add overlay widgets as Browser Sources in OBS Studio or Streamlabs — paste the widget URL, set the resolution to 1920x1080, and replace the default Custom CSS body background with body { background: transparent !important; } so the widget composites transparently. For Streamer Companion prompt cards, toggle OBS Overlay Mode on first, position and resize alerts on your canvas, and uncheck Shutdown source when not visible so widgets persist between scene switches.

What are the best practices for multi-platform streaming to Twitch, YouTube, and Kick?

Each destination consumes its own bandwidth unless you use a restreaming service like Restream or Castr, which takes one feed and redistributes it. Always test on a wired Ethernet connection, tailor your bitrate to each platform's cap (Twitch 6 Mbps, Kick 8 Mbps, YouTube 9–12 Mbps), use a 2-second keyframe interval, and use a hardware encoder like NVIDIA NVENC to offload encoding. Streamer Companion's tools and overlays work across all three platforms from a single browser source.

Guide · OBS & Encoding

7 Common OBS Overlay Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Most stream quality problems come down to a handful of repeatable mistakes. This guide walks through the seven most common OBS overlay and encoding errors, why they happen, and exactly how to fix each one. Whether you are setting up your first browser source or tuning an existing stream, these fixes will make your broadcast look and sound professional.

1. Leaving a solid background on your browser source

The most common overlay mistake is forgetting to make the browser source background transparent. When you add a Browser Source in OBS, the default Custom CSS includes a solid body background that covers your gameplay. Replace it with body { background: transparent !important; } so only the prompt card or widget composites over your scene. Without this fix, your overlay appears as an opaque rectangle.

2. Setting the wrong resolution on the browser source

OBS Browser Sources default to 800×600. If your overlay was designed for 1920×1080, rendering it at the wrong resolution causes scaling artifacts, blurry text, and misaligned elements. Always set the browser source width and height to match your canvas resolution — 1920×1080 for standard HD streams — so the overlay renders at native resolution.

3. Pushing your bitrate above your upload ceiling

Encoding above what your connection can sustain causes dropped frames and stutter, which kills viewer retention. Run a wired speed test and keep your total video and audio bitrate under 75% of your stable upload speed. The Stream Utility calculator on the home page does this math for you — enter your upload speed and it returns a safe bitrate clamped to your platform's cap.

4. Using the wrong keyframe interval

Most platforms expect a keyframe every 2 seconds. Setting it to 0 (auto) or a different value causes transcoding issues and degraded quality for viewers on slower connections. Set your keyframe interval to 2s explicitly in OBS output settings unless your platform specifies otherwise.

5. Ignoring audio levels

Viewers tolerate soft video far longer than they tolerate harsh or peaking audio. Set your microphone with a noise gate and compressor, keep your voice consistently between -12 and -6 dB, and make sure your game audio does not drown out your speech. A quiet or distorted stream is an abandoned stream.

6. Choosing x264 when you have a GPU encoder available

Many streamers default to x264 (CPU encoding) without realizing their NVIDIA or AMD GPU can handle encoding with less impact on gameplay. Modern NVENC rivals mid-range x264 presets in quality while freeing your CPU for the game. Unless you have a dedicated streaming PC, prefer your GPU encoder.

7. Not testing before going live

The single biggest mistake is going live without a test. Record a short test or stream to an unlisted channel and check the OBS stats dock for dropped frames, audio levels, and overlay alignment. Five minutes of testing catches problems that would otherwise cost you viewers in the first ten minutes of a real stream.

Putting it all together

Fix these seven issues and your stream will look cleaner, sound better, and retain more viewers. For a full walkthrough of optimal settings, see the OBS Setup Guide, and use the bitrate calculator on the home page to get exact values for your setup.