How to Make Facebook Live From Your Computer

You want to stream Facebook Live from your PC?
... or you want to have better video quality or crystal clear sound?
... or you want to make a webinar or live presentation and to show your desktop using Facebook Live? (YES IT IS POSSIBLE!!!)
If the answer of some of these question is YES, keep on reading!

Maybe, what you don’t know is that you can make Facebook Live not only from you mobile app but also from your PC.

Check the Benefits!

• The video is widescreen - 16:9 format
• You can use better camera for higher resolution
• You can show slides, yes you can
• You can add captions or watermark, or your logo, or your contacts, or something else
• You can show offline video or an introductive video, for example
• You can use external mic(s) as well as other sound sources
• You can avoid video freezing, caused by poor Internet connection or a weak CPU
• Your video is not limited by battery life
• The app unlikely to crash so often during the streaming

Is Facebook Live available for You?

First of all you have to check whether Facebook Live is available for you. It was recently rolled out and some of the accounts still don’t have it. For my account it is only available for the Facebook Pages.

It is possible that some of your friends have already Facebook Live and use it. They need this information right now. Share it on Facebook.

In this manual I will show you how to make a Facebook Live from your PC in 7 easy steps for less than 10 minutes!

Click HERE to go to the OBS download page.

Important!!! Download OBS Studio, not OBS Classic.

The installation is easy and no registration or e-mail are required.

After the installation is done, launch the program.

1) Find the + button under the Scenes list and click it.

2) A dialogue window, which prompts for the scene name, will open. I named my scene “Camera Video”. You can use any name you want. Confirm by clicking OK.

3) The scene will be added in the Scenes list.

1) Find and click the + button under the Sources list.

2) In the drop-down menu choose Video Capture Device.

3) In the dialog window add a name for the Source and confirm with OK.

In case you plan to use several cameras you can create a source for each and name them Camera 1, Camera 2, ...

4) In the pop-up choose the camera you want to associate with the source you are creating. Use the Device drop down menu.

5) You have to make some additional settings for the camera.

• Set Resolution/FPS Type to Custom
• For Resolution choose the maximum 1920 х 1080 (depends on the camera)
• Set the FPS (Frames per Second) to 30

Each page will generate a unique key, called Stream Key.

WARNING! Do not share this key! Anybody who has it is able to make a live stream from your page.

1) Go to the page you want to stream from and click Publishing Tools.

2) Select Videos and click the +Live button. A pop-up widow will open.

3) In the window there will be a field that contains a random generated string. This is your Stream Key. Select it and copy it.

Click the Preview button. A new window will open with an "OFFLINE" sign. This means that you are still not streaming.

You can fill the title, the description and the tags for your video.

For making a Live Streaming session you have to add the Stream Key in OBS Studio.

1) Go to the settings window by File -> Settings -> Stream or by clicking directly the Settings button, which is in the lower right corner.

2) Choose Streams from the left menu. In the new window you will see 2 drop-downs. Choose Streaming Services for Stream Type and Facebook Live for Service.

3) After selecting Facebook Live, paste the Stream Key you already copied from the Facebook page.

Note: In the Service drop-down you will see other services like YouTube which means you can use OBS Studio for creating YouTube Live as well.

Facebook Live is a service that requires a lot of resources and is free at the same time.

In this case Facebook systems have their right to change the resolution, compression amount or the frames per second dynamically, according to the their load or your Internet connection quality.

Note: There can be some limitations between different Facebook profiles and locations. You should make tests with your account to check what is possible and what is not.

If the video is not smooth you have to make a compromise with the frames per second or the resolution.

Personally, I prefer to keep the FPS and decrease the resolution since I don’t like blurry movements in the video. It depends on your goal.

Why it is OK to do it?

People usually watch Facebook videos from mobile. Not everybody has an HD phone. Even if they have one, such videos are rarely watched in full screen mode.

I do recommend 960 х 540р resolution at 30 fps. This is in case of good Internet connection, which means good upload speed.

1) The output resolution can be set by Settings -> Video -> Output (Scaled) Resolution.

Other tricky thing is that when an PC application is used instead of mobile, sometimes there is an offset between the video and the voice. Usually, the video lags behind the sound.

The solution is to delay the sound with the same amount of time. Fortunately, OBS Studio has this option implemented.

How to do that?

2) There is a icon-like button Settings close to Mixer. After you click it there is a pop-up window in which you can add the delay in milliseconds for each of the audio sources.

By trial and error I found the delay for my system configuration is about 600 ms.

You can measure this delay easily by starting the Preview in Facebook and clapping once with your hands.

If you hear the clap sound before you see your hands touching, you have to increase the audio offset time.

Several seconds after you click Start Streaming button from OBS Studio, in the Facebook window (where you took your Stream Key from) you will see the preview of your streaming.

Have in mind that the preview will be delayed with 10-15 seconds because of the buffering.

Remember, you are still not LIVE. In the moment you feel ready to go LIVE, and you checked everything twice, you can click the “Go Live” button which should be active (not grayed).

ATTENTION! Don’t ffac for your video before that. It is important for your audience.

Bonus Advice

1) Use additional monitor
Having second monitor will make it easy if you want to share your desktop, show slides or showing some other stuff.

2) Find someone to help you

Invite a friend who can take the job of the “the cameraman” and help you with your first Facebook Live. It will be much easier for you.

In addition to this you will look more natural in front of the camera if behind it there is an actual human being you talk to. For me talking to the camera only is quite hard and I look unnatural.

3) Make e test page

Make a zero fan Facebook page for performing some tests before doing the planned live session. This helps a lot.

4) Make 10-15 minutes preview before going live

Make all needed settings and start the preview for several minutes before the planned time for going live. Ensure that everything is OK and check whether there are some of the down mentioned issues.

5) Invest in high quality web camera

It is possible that the camera built in your laptop is not good enough.

This should not stop you, but if you want your video to look more professional, you have to invest in a better camera.

By investing in a better camera you will achieve:

• Reduction of the motion blur - by increasing the fps from 15 to 30.
• Higher definition and edge - caused by the higher resolution.
• Possible to shoot in smaller room - because of the wider view angle

6) Invest in video lights

To get the maximum from your camera you have to invest in lightning. It is not necessary to buy expensive lightening.

The investment can be just going to the right spot and shoot on natural light. If you plan to stream in the evenings I strongly recommend you to use extra lightning.

7) You can do recording instead of Facebook Live

If your goal is to make an offline video you can use OBS Studio for recording on your hard drive.

In this case you have to click Start Recording button instead of Start Streaming. In this case you can use Full HD resolution 1920 х 1080p @ 30 fps (if the PC can handle it).

Common Issues

1) You hear the sound before the video
The problem is that the video is lagging behind.

This issue can be solved like it is described in Step 6 only if the offset is constant during the whole live stream session. If the offset time varies it is almost impossible to fix it and you have to try by lowering the resolution.

2) The video is freezing sometimes

This can be caused by many reasons. The most common is the weak computer configuration.

I don’t use very powerful laptop and I also have this issue. To make things better, close all applications you won’t use during the streaming and/or lower the resolution.

3) There is no Preview

If you started and stopped the streaming from the OBS Studio several times, Facebook may decide that you are a „hacker“.

This activity is considered fraudulent and will cause regeneration of the Stream Key, no matter it should last for 24 hours interval due to their notes. Then you have to close the Facebook window and open it again to get the new key. You also have to update it in the OBS Studio.