How to Live Stream Direct to YouTube or Twitch Channel via your iPhone

In my last article, we showed you how to setup and make your own live streaming rig using only $20 worths of affordable gear that you can get from any photography shop. Check out our article on How to Setup Your Own Live Streaming Home Studio.

Ready-to-go streaming apps such as Periscope and Facebook Live is all you need, to broadcast immediately with minimal of effort. It’s usually our preferred choice when it comes to live streaming broadcasts. However, subscribers on your YouTube and Twitch channels will be neglected … so what do you do?

In this article, we will show you how to live stream direct to YouTube or Twitch Channel via your iPhone using myCaster App. It’s super simple to setup and only requires you to enter a couple of settings.

The myCaster App

Go to your Apps store and download the myCaster App. It’s a free download and you can start streaming right away but your limited to 480p and a video bitrate of 1.4Mb. A fully paid version, which costs only $4.39 will give you full HD and a video bitrate of upto 10Mb. The paid version will also give you adaptive bitrate streaming, video stabilization and option to save the video onto your device. For only $4.39, it’s really worth it.

Part A – Video Quality

Once you’ve downloaded and installed myCaster App, the first thing you need to do is to set your streaming preferences. For best results, I usually select a video bitrate of 7.2Mbps, any higher will require a fast internet connection. We recommend not to stream over 3G/4G cellular, but use wifi instead.

With the paid version, you have the option to select full HD at a resolution of 1080p. Always choose full HD for best results 😉

For frames per second, you can leave this option at default at 30. For fast moving objects, or if you’re streaming some fast action sequences, you can choose 60 frames per second. Bear in mind, your video will be pretty large, plus you’ll need a fast internet connection.

Again, I leave this at the key frame interval at default settings of 1 second.

Part B – Live Broadcast

Now for the streaming services which you need to add. If you already have a YouTube channel (or personal page), just sign in to your YouTube account as shown below. There are no other settings to input … it’s that SIMPLE! No need to manually input your YouTube stream key.

In you like to add other streaming services such as Twitch, see below.

For this, you’ll need a Twitch account. Go here to register. Once you have your twitch account up and running, go to your dashboard (see below) and copy your stream key (keep it secret).

Next you’ll need to find a RTMP streaming server closest to you. Go here to find out more. In our example, we chose HKG. So the URL for the above would be live-hkg.twitch.tv/app/[your_ full_twitch_stream_key]

Live Stream in action

Now that you’ve entered all the necessary settings … just go back to the frontend of the main App and select the blue camera icon. You have the option to stream via portrait mode if you hold your iPhone vertically.

Notice the right hand side showing the current video resolution of 1080p with the video bitrate of 7.209Mbps. This is taken from the settings you entered in the options earlier.

And if you hold the iPhone horizontally, you naturally get the landscape mode. I prefer landscape mode for all my streamed videos.

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Related topics:

• How to Live Stream and Broadcast on Twitch using OBS Studio
• How to Setup Your Own Live Streaming Home Studio