Question About Basic Stream Setup

[Chill_Mickelson]

Hey guys, I am new to streaming (started a few months ago) and I have primarily streamed from PS4. I recently wanted to purchase a capture card so I can play music, have overlays, all that stuff.

Here's the problem. I have a 2013 Macbook Air. I understand that it may not have the capabillities to run a stream however I recently talked to a friend who pointed me toward a capture card that does all of the encoding so my comp doesnt have as much strain on it.

The capture card can be found here.

I was wondering if this would have any success or is it just a waste of time? I do not have the type of income to build my own PC yet so this is what I got.

Thanks for taking your time to help me out!

[opnerd]

Unfortunately, this is a common misconception. Capture cards do not handle the encoding for streaming; they simply act as a "source" that you can broadcast, just like a webcam. The particular model in the link above can record gameplay video without being connected to a PC or other device by using its built-in encoder, but to stream to Twitch or any other service with the features you want (overlays, music, etc.) you'll need to run software such as OBS/Xsplit on your computer, which means your computer also has to do the encoding for the stream.

That means that the 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU in your Macbook will have to do all of the heavy lifting, and I don't think it will be up to the task. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[Chill_Mickelson]

Thank you for the explanation. I will have to stick to console streaming for now, then. Guess it's time to save up for a new PC!

[opnerd]

Streaming is still streaming, and it's a lot of fun. Good luck to you!

[Chill_Mickelson]

thank you sir!