Elgato Stream Deck review: A streamer’s best friend - gutierrezineir1940

In favor of-grade equipment at a bargain price. That's the report Elgato earned as first YouTube videos and past Squeeze flowing took over picture games. Straddling a trace 'tween hobbyist and professional-grade—a line that's hard to walk ably, I might add—Elgato's trance cards have become a mainstay of streamers the least bit levels.

The Stream Deck, Elgato's up-to-the-minute piece of hardware, is something altogether different: A video switcher (or social), not a capture card. Just aside from some early-days software program issues, IT's poised to be just as important a part of kit out for a certain tier of creatives.

King at your fingertips

Video switchers are a fairly standard (and boring) part of multi-camera broadcasts. If you've ever watched a diversion event Oregon another hold ou broadcast, chances are a whipper was engaged—it allows a producer to switch 'tween multiple camera feeds on the fly, rather than sticking a camera connected a tripod and calling information technology a day. Commonly it's a big gray rectangle full of dials, levers, and color-coded buttons.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Elgato has expropriated that concept—the ease of hitting a push button and switching camera angles or what have you—and applied it to each aspects of the streaming experience. In essence, the things any streamer does in software right now? The Stream Deck lets you do them in hardware.

Oh, and the whole unit is more or less the size of a carry of index cards. The Stream Deck consists of 15 buttons, arranged in 3 rows of 5. They could be tiresome ol' buttons like any other telecasting switcher, but no. Instead, each is a miniature OLED showing.

With software tie-ins to Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), Twitch, Twitter, and more, you can manage an entire stream without ever so AL-Tabbing or pull focus by from a game. Want to set up OBS? Program a button to launch OBS. Want to originate streaming? Hit another and send a stream direct to Twitch. Hell, have some other button denote to your Twitter followers that a stream is starting. And if you take to close a game mid-stream and want to full-screen your webcam or do any former rhetorical tantrum-switch? Yeah, you can program buttons for that too.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

An example setup.

It's easy. Setting up the Rain cats and dogs Deck can be a trifle of a hassle, probably requiring 45 proceedings or an hour to dig through all the options and configure IT just so. Hyperkinetic syndrome more time if you deficiency to customize the art—Elgato has a web portal where you can create custom 72 x 72-picture element icons for to each one push button, if you (for instance) lack to make a collage of Nicolas Cage's prizewinning faces or something.

But at the ending you're leftish with an incredibly effectual switcher, or at least an incredibly elegant unitary. I've long envied consoles for how impressible they've made the streaming process—mechanical press a clitoris and you'Re done. PCs are more powerful, but also more complicated, setting up various scenes and trying to manage them on the fly from the same machine you're already using to stream.

The Flow Bedeck brings the PC pretty close to console simplicity, though. For certain, you nonetheless need to set up your Swarm Deck to make information technology combined-button easy, but Elgato's software is pretty unfailing and fairly promiscuous to navigate.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

And it can be even more almighty, if you really put time into IT. Over and to a higher place the built-in hooks Elgato includes to OBS, Twitter, etcetera, you can also program buttons to recognize certain global hotkeys. These are essentially glorified macro keys, but it means those World Health Organization use other streaming software aren't necessarily out of luck. Nvidia's Shadowplay, for exemplify? Alt-F8 is the globose hotkey to begin broadcasting. Set a Stream Deck button to Alt-F8, afford it a nice Nvidia-related icon, and you're fix to run low.

This isn't new technology. OLED-equipped buttons have been around for a decade now, but never really found their place. The Optimus keyboard is the most notorious example, where each central was replaced with a isolated programmable LCD screen. There was even a smaller 3 x 5-inch version titled the Optimus Aux (though who knows how many were actually sold-out).

Razer then adapted the idea to the Flick knife, shrinkage lowered the idea for a handheld gaming device (that ne'er came to market). This was then promote adapted into ten programmable OLED keys connected the Blade In favou from 2011 to 2016.

Razer

The 2014 Blade Affirmative with its Switchblade UI.

Unfortunately the Optimus was ludicrously valuable, slow, and also not a great typing experience compared to a normal keyboard. And Switchblade? Not all that serviceable. Razer cast a wide net for apps, only ultimately the estimation was hampered by its gewgaw factor. It mostly let mortal use the Blade Favoring's combination trackpad/second blind to browse Twitter, watch a Twitch stream, or other inconsequential activities.

The Stream Deck is smarter. It narrows the focus. IT has a understanding to exist. It solves a problem. It takes streaming indefinite more step towards accessibility.

With a few caveats.

First among them: The Stream Bedight's design. Viz., its cable. The Flow Deck's definitive configuration is flat, laid out connected a desk. Elgato includes a fill in the box though, allowing you to provoke the Stream Dump to face you—a apparatus I greatly prefer, were it not for the fact that the cable then sticks straight out of the top.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Just look at that telegraph. Catastrophe waiting to happen.

The Stream Deck's USB transmission line is neither detachable nor peculiarly sturdy, and for whatsoever reasonableness putt it in the stand leaves the cable television service hanging in the air above, a delicate little thing that I'm sure bequeath barge in an instant. IT hasn't yet, but the design is terrible and I can't believe something so pandurate wasn't caught before product. A cablegram sticking out the side would make way more sense, as would optional cable routing on the prat of the unit (like you picture on well-planned keyboards).

And and so there's the software. I spoke above at how I love the Stream Coldcock software, and I do. As far as usability goes, it's beautiful goofproof. You drag and drop everything, keeping an item over an point creates a sub-folder, and dragging in any old JPEG gives you custom icons. Easy.

IDG / Hayden Dingman

Now I can gaze at my workfellow Brad Chacos all day.

Except IT crashes wholly the time. While recording the video above, we had the Stream Embellish software crash at to the lowest degree four or five times, and in home use it's been just equally frequent. Crashes are rarer when I haven't newly reconfigured the gimmick, but sometimes I only hit a button to set in motion a course of study or whatever and the Stream Deck software program just dies.

That's no big wad for me—I'm just a hobbyist. For a professional, though? That level of unbalance is untenable, and it's the biggest hurdle in the path of a wholehearted passport. The Stream Deck takes much of the busywork tabu of streaming, which is wonderful, just in ordinate for that to materialise it of necessity to sour, and work reliably. Maybe non 100 percent of the time, only at least 95 percent. I'm seeing more like 75 or 80 percent in my own testing.

Underside job

The solid news show? Temperamental software is fixable. Information technology's early days for the Stream Deck, which right released a few months ago. I be after to keep an eye on it—mainly by way of victimization information technology at home—and see if the situation improves over the next few months. That would easily add another half0star or symmetrical a full star to our rating.

I want IT to be fixed. The Well out Grace is an first-class piece of hardware—attractive, simple to employ, and makes streaming (operating room even recording game video) much little arduous. Whether a hobbyist or a mid-grade professional, I recollect information technology could be a valuable tool in anyone's streaming kit.

Only I need to know I prat matter on it.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/407162/elgato-stream-deck-review.html

Posted by: gutierrezineir1940.blogspot.com

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