Using OBS with your Livestream

Using OBS for your video and audio feed on Whatnot

As a live seller, you can use OBS (Open Broadcast Software) to stream connected video and audio devices from a computer to your live show. Our newly released method for streaming from OBS is similar to other platforms that use stream keys and RTMP encoding, with some minor differences. 

For all information and setup instructions, please follow the steps in this instructional video: 

Troubleshooting Tips & Tricks:

• The websocket connection from the Show Tools page has two functions:

1. 1. To automatically apply our required output settings during first time setup. On other platforms, you would have to set all of these manually. The websocket connection takes care of this with a few clicks!
   2. To automatically start the show on Whatnot, apply your bearer token (stream key) within OBS, then start the stream in OBS. Since the bearer token changes with every scheduled Whatnot show, and is not a static stream key, this is necessary for properly starting shows on Whatnot and keeps you from having to manually copy over a new bearer token for each show. 

• After connecting the websocket and clicking the “Update Profile (First Time Setup Only)” button for the first time, you MUST close out of OBS, re-open it, then re-connect to the websocket from the Show Tools page before attempting to start a show for the first time. OBS often does not recognize that a change has been made to the video and canvas resolutions until it is closed and re-opened. It may appear to have changed your resolution, but it won’t be properly detected until closing and re-opening OBS.
  
  If you don’t do this, you will be greeted by a pop up error on the Show Tools page called “Health Check”. At the top of the Health Check window, you’ll see what your detected canvas resolution is. If it’s detecting 1920x1080, that’s incorrect and you should close and re-open OBS and check what your canvas resolution is. If it’s set to 1080x1920, you’re good to try again.

• You should NOT be starting your OBS shows from the livestream page itself (ex: whatnot.com/live/2a020acf-a4e3-44e3-b329-a28fc883efvj). Your OBS shows should be started from the Show Tools page by connecting to the websocket, then pressing “Start Show” next to the show you want to start from that page. 

• If the websocket connection fails, any of the following may be the cause and fix the issue:
  • Your password was typed incorrectly
  • Your web browser is not Google Chrome; Google Chrome is the only supported browser
  • You have a Chrome extension that interacts poorly with websocket connections; try connecting to the websocket on an incognito Chrome browser window (incognito windows don’t have any extensions)
  • You didn’t enable the websocket server or enable authentication within the OBS websocket server settings

• If you can connect to the websocket, but can’t successfully start a show, or you get an output error in OBS:
  • You may have an active firewall on your computer or internet connection that blocks the WHIP server; some networks block streaming activity like this by default, most notably corporate networks with standard firewalls. Please disable all firewalls. 
  • The OBS websocket profile update may not have updated all of your settings correctly. Go through and double check by clicking the "View Required Settings" button on this page and make sure all of those match properly within your OBS settings. This error is usually caused by your OBS "Stream" tab settings being incorrect. Make sure your Stream Service is set to "WHIP". The Server and Bearer Token section is automatically updated when you go live from the OBS Tools webpage. 
  • You may have a poor network connection without realizing it. The WHIP streaming protocol expects a very consistent and strong network connection. If you are using WiFi to stream, we highly recommend that you change to using a wired ethernet connection. You will need to take your networking setup seriously if you plan on utilizing OBS on your Whatnot shows. We advise that you consult with a networking professional if needed, or take the necessary steps to learn how to run a proper network environment for high-bandwidth live streaming.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do I fix error "Failed to set show to playing"?

• You should only connect to the OBS websocket on the Show Tools page immediately before starting your show. Leaving the Show Tools page open and connected to the OBS websocket for long periods of time will cause errors starting your show. If your show does not start, or you get the error "failed to set show to playing: Updated to playing but the state is not playing", refresh the Show Tools page, reconnect to the OBS websocket, then click Start Show again.

How do I fix error "Starting the output failed. Please check the log for details"?

• The OBS websocket profile update may not have updated all of your settings correctly. Go through and double check by clicking the "View Required Settings" button on this page and make sure all of those match properly within your OBS settings.This error is usually caused by your OBS "Stream" tab settings being incorrect. Make sure your Stream Service is set to "WHIP". The Server and Bearer Token section is automatically updated when you go live from the OBS Tools webpage.

How do I fix error "Failed to connect"?

• This error is usually due to your network connection. The WHIP streaming protocol expects a very consistent and strong network connection. If you are using WiFi to stream, we highly recommend that you change to using a wired ethernet connection. You will need to take your networking setup seriously if you plan on utilizing OBS on your Whatnot shows. We advise that you consult with a networking professional if needed, or take the necessary steps to learn how to run a proper network environment for high-bandwidth live streaming.

My stream is delayed by more than 2 seconds, what can I do?

• Your network connection or computer hardware are not strong enough to encode live video quickly. If you’re on hardware that is less than ideal for live streaming, try changing your CPU Usage Preset in the OBS Output settings to a faster one; superfast or ultrafast. Make sure your internet connection is not only fast, but reliable. Ethernet is best and you should be checking your packet loss even if your connection is fast, as it may not be reliable. 
• On capable hardware and a reliable internet connection, you can get your latency to the viewer down to a few hundred milliseconds. 2 seconds is also great for live stream latency, as that’s the bottom end for what any other platform provides. This does not indicate lag or sync delay, your viewers are just receiving your live video 2 seconds later than your real life actions and is very normal for live streamed video to have latency. There’s even latency when streaming from the Whatnot app on your phone, you just don’t notice it as you’re looking at a camera preview and not your actual live streamed video that your viewers see. 
• If the latency has any affect on your ability to stream, you shouldn’t be watching your live stream window on Whatnot for a stream preview; you can simply use your OBS window as a stream preview!

Why is the OBS Tools webpage failing to connect to the OBS Websocket?

• You must enter your own custom password in the OBS Websocket password field. Do not use an auto-generated password. After entering your own password there, make sure you click "Apply" in the bottom left.

I'm moving over from an old 1920x1080 OBS scene that I have used previously on Whatnot; how can I easily make it fit the new 1080x1920 9:16 vertical resolution canvas?

• Create a new "Group" source within your scene in OBS. Put all of your existing sources into that new Group source by holding "Shift" and selecting all of your sources, then dragging them into the group. Then click on the Group source. You can now scale up and move all of your sources at once to fit your new 1080x1920 9:16 vertical canvas.

Need more help?

For additional support please join the Whatnot Hosts Discord server. After joining and authenticating your Whatnot account within the Discord server, head to the #obs-help forums channel for support.