Use an external drive to reduce lag while streaming and more tips
Matt Binder from Mashable recently wrote an article going over all the ways to help reduce lag when going live with video. The part I found the most interesting was his section on storage solutions.
Use an External Drive
Many people have begun using external drives to run programs, apps, or process video from to help speed issues on your computer. Personally, I use a LaCie Rugged SSD to bring in footage to OBS when streaming. But that's for smaller end productions.
If you're really on a tight budget, there is also the portable SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD which offers a transfer speed up to 550MB/s.
However, for a more robust solution, we'd recommend G-Technology's G-Drive USB-C external drive. Mostly these are used for video production because of their fast transfer speeds and as reliable backup solutions.
Matt Binder did his test with running everything off of one of these G-Drives. However, here at Videoguys highly recommend using these to bring in footage, edit off of, and save your video files too. Why? Because it frees up not just computer space, but also its usage. Now it's the drive running the footage not the computer.
"In a test run, I switched it up. I ran the livestream off the internal drive and other apps I use while streaming, like Google Chrome, off the G-Drive. Chrome is notorious for hogging disk space. With the external drive taking a load off my MacBook, I noticed the hum of the internal fan, which can get pretty loud during a video stream, was much quieter. Saving my livestream recordings to the external drive also helped free up disk space and deal with a sometimes noticeable slowdown on my MacBook Pro when live," wrote Binder.
Something macs do have over PCs in this sort of workflow is that the app can be run directly off a drive. There's no need to install it on your OS system. Meaning all you need to do is drag the program onto your desktop and as long as the drive is plugged in.
Here is a webinar Gary did going over all the SSD solutions Videoguys has available to best suit your storage or streaming needs!
Binder also goes into good computer builds, software, and more possible solutions focusing on Mac users! You can check out his recommendations here!
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