M2 MacBook Air for Streaming: Elgato and OBS Performance!

[@MidnightMan]

Do you think the M2 chip has the most powerful integrated graphics of all time? Check out the full test stream I did here ➤ kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnWYZ2CEa9mChaM

[@iitrey2k824]

Does own3d work for Mac?

[@RegalRey]

So I have a gaming channel and I have the 14” MacBook Pro M1 chip with 16gb ram and 1tb of storage with the hd60s+ and I’ve had so many issues with streaming lately. I used to never have issues with dropped frames or pixelation. I’ve tried so many settings and options I’ve even followed your videos and I have 200 down and 20 up as the speeds from my isp. I’m getting more frustrated than anything else. Although your video did help with recording it captured my ps5 beautifully with no dropped frames or pixelation. Any ideas on what else to try and I use streamlabs. I appreciate your videos too.

[@NurseRedBeard]

Which encoder are you using?

[@LeoSypniewski]

Thanks for making this! Been looking for a solution for when playing more demanding games and doing a single PC setup struggles a bit. I may have to give my work laptop a go for streaming those games, as it seems like the M2 is going to do much better than a GPU that's trying to play and stream at the same time. Great job on the video as well, this was short enough to keep people's attention but didn't miss any talking points.

[@jonschaub7574]

oh my... gosh... I don't even know where to start. What an incredibly well-made video. I've been contemplating content creation for some time and you have such an incredible depth to a sub-10 minute video. Your video quality is impecable, your audio is exceptional, and - I learned something. Keep up the great work

[@MidnightMan]

Much appreciated ❤️ and thank you for the great feedback

That's insane! I did get this Air M2 (same color) this week and seems like I FOUND GOLD, thanks :D

[@MidnightMan]

Factssss 👀

[@badlama1878]

Thank bro, I couldn’t find anything online but your video explained it all perfectly, think I’ll definitely be purchasing this

[@joacomesa22]

These vids are the best!

[@Jessica_Rose131]

I love you and hate you at the same time. Not in a bad way, but now you are pushing me toward that nice MacBook Air M2. After I decided on a MacBook Pro M1 pro chip. Now I don’t know what to do.

[@MidnightMan]

You’re chilling with the pro honestly, if you really want M2 better to wait for M2 pro imo

[@Jessica_Rose131]

@@MidnightMan M1 pro might be my go to if they don’t bring it out next month. Plus I’m getting the IMac with the M1, unless they do M2 on that. Then I’ll get a iMac with the M2.

[@Amalia-uz7gk]

i always look forward to your videos, they’re enlightening!

[@Cameron_Gaming]

Midnightman midnightman, does what ever a midnightman can, he swing from a web, no he can’t he’s a man. Watch out here comes midnightman!

[@MidnightMan]

Someone needs to turn this phrase into an animation, can picture it in my head lol

[@Cameron_Gaming]

@@MidnightMan that would be awesome XD for an intro or ending screeen lol

[@CJKnowsTECH]

I can't wait for that next OBS version w/ Apple Silicon support. Man I had a bad experience with OBS but I think I have a bad install and I need to do a clean install of OBS

[@MidnightMan]

Ah man! Yeah that could be the problem, might be worth checking out that new beta for OBS 28 and see how it runs with native support as well

[@digitaldazzle5836]

Great video bro!

[@rphntw1n]

Thanks for this video dude! Much appreciated.

[@rphntw1n]

I just watched this again thinking I hadn't and saw my comment. Whats wrong with my brain.

[@xxNeosxx]

Your video really help me! thank you very much!

[@crlm.editz17]

Thank you

[@pauldjdundas]

Thanks bro

[@stephenrex]

Thank you this is very informative 👍🏻

[@DocDamn]

Let’s go new video!!!

[@MidnightMan]

Oh yeahh!!! You know it!

[@importkustomz]

Thanks for the info 👍 😀

[@justingoddard]

God bless you for this video brotha ❤

[@GiancaTech]

Great video!!!… thks!!!!

[@Frapucheno]

This is the goated video of all videos You covered everything now all you need is to do m3 because I’m waiting

[@koenignero]

Thank you. Macs are THE Streaming Beasts

[@FrancisHerrero-r7x]

Too bad it won't work with the M2 Pro. Any idea why it won't? I followed the steps you showed, but my M2 Pro can't see HD60x.

[@Besteddygamerjelly]

I love all of your videos and yours sooo funny keep it up❤️ And this video is fire…

[@MidnightMan]

Thank you Eddy!

[@Indictment00]

Im proud of you , I remember i found yo channel & you only had like 13k

[@MidnightMan]

We’ve come a long way 💪🏽

[@Kizovibes]

THIS COMMENT IS GOLD

[@germancatan]

Awesome

[@NirajMahajan]

I had encoder overloaded error 😭 even when I lowered down video output settings. Really disappointing!

[@collcatillwill]

Thanks for the info on the Virtual mixer. 👍🏾

[@MidnightMan]

You bet!

[@ecs2sy501]

Midnight. You’re going to try this video again. OBS do have the 28 beta 1 that is native for M1. It’s pretty good and OBS uses about 57%Cpu in Activity monitor

[@MidnightMan]

I definitely will be!

[@That.Channel593]

How long were you streaming for that the performance stayed solid? I think that's the only question i have about your video is that you didn't mention the timelines that you were streaming for since people are saying the heat increase within the computer seems to be a thing. Great video and thank you.

[@MidnightMan]

I was streaming for well over an hour across multiple sessions

[@jaydendirksz5534]

i see your working on your room setup for the background

[@MidnightMan]

Small tweaks here and there haha

[@ethanchavez3458]

This video is amazing and I love how in depth you go, I did run into a problem though. I have the same exact set up as you do, MacBook Air M2 with a HD60X capture card, but whenever I add the capture card as a source it does not want to display my ps5 gameplay. All it says to me is “INVALID OUTPUT RESOLUTION SELECTED” and I don’t know what to do, if you have any tips that can help me out it would be much appreciated. I have tried everything.

[@kg7hd322]

same here did you find a solution

[@ethanchavez3458]

@@kg7hd322 my chords weren’t strong enough. I replaced my usb c and hdmi with stronger and faster ones, worked just fine.

[@xlivingdeadcrew5540]

Man of Midnight 🕛🌚

[@MidnightMan]

my new alias

[@DXNVSTY]

it is really crazy if you can streaming and recording at the same time with M2 😱

[@lashuT-333]

omg you're amazing

[@reyesortega408]

I legit love this video so much so question do you need an audio mixer or just the program

[@MidnightMan]

You will do fine with just OBS or streamlabs

[@reyesortega408]

@@MidnightMan thank you so much I will try this tonight for my dual pc set up

[@nick-zq4bm]

What specs are that MacBook Air that you are using?

[@kingcav23]

Awesome video! Been looking into upgrading my old 2013 MacBook Pro and potentially use it as a portable streaming setup when I’m away from home. Based on this, seems like a MacBook Pro with M2 or M3 chip would do a good enough job. Thanks for the video!

[@MrReclusee]

Can you do a Mac book pro m3 streaming setup pleaseeeeee 🙏🏽

[@Mikeystaxx]

MIDNIGHT I HIT 1K MAN!!!!! All thanks to your setup vids 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@MidnightMan]

AYEEE love to hear it!! Keep it going broo!! 🥳

[@Besteddygamerjelly]

Keep it up

[@CraytonTv]

Awesome video bro, this was fire and great explanation of this video, also love the intro when you transition to the mac from closed to open that was clean, but glad to see this running smooth and clean the quality was fire I’m jealous now bout to take my MacBook back to Apple tell them give me the M1 max or ultra 16” so I can get have a solid MacBook lol 😂 haha naw I’m waiting for the new one but great detailed video and explaining this I definitely need Elgato HD60 X now time for a upgrade lol.. and now you can control your audio with ground control never heard of it until now I knew you was Midnightman for a reason holding out all the secrets haha God Bless bro fire video definitely sharing this video around Mac users be ready and pay attention to every detail he mentioned.

[@MidnightMan]

Thank you man! I think I’m going to wait out for M2 Pro for my next upgrade before moving on from my 2017 MacBook Pro. Get that 2TB storage, then later when I have more room add the gaming PC and be set with everything I need haha. Ginger Caster is awesome, it’s just like the wave software from elgato but you can use any mic you want!

[@CraytonTv]

@@MidnightMan oh yeah definitely downloading it today and yeah the next MacBook Pro M2 Max or ultra I’m getting and yes 2TB cause I can’t take it with this 512GB lol I knew I messed up when I got it and looked at my PlayStation saying 1TB I was like smh smart but that Ginger caster I’ll be using no more iShowU Audio or BlackHole

[@FalcritGod]

5:37 i think 5k bitrate is not enough for 1080p60 but anyway looks good, it could be look better with 8k

[@peanut_butter_falcon]

Thank you for this great review! I usually run KZbin and Twitch at the same time (sometimes a couple of each) along with some other basic web browser pages (news, sports etc). I also play Football Manager and watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky Go. I assume this laptop (base model) will be fine for that without overheating? I currently have a £1,000 HP laptop but am considering returning it as the battery is so poor (3-4 hours with very basic use) and it has a touch screen I don't use. Although it's very nice it's not as sleek or sexy as this M2 Macbook Air (I also love this Midnight Blue colour and it will match my iPhone 13 mini nicely).

[@2trillgaming101]

is that the m2?

[@livingwithalex]

Can you try the Mac mini

[@Useful.Idi0t]

Really nice vid man ! Did you use a Thunderbolt 4 cable because the capture card comes only with a USB-C to USB-A one ^^

[@MidnightMan]

Usb c to usb c cable super speed, goes directly into thunderbolt port

[@Useful.Idi0t]

Thx man that’s very kind of you. I’ll get a 3.0 to be sure, even if the Air M2 has a 4.0 ^^

[@6Kharma]

But the question is will it be good over time??

[@BANDERAAAAAA]

this video is 100% for me )

[@JTTVee]

So glad I found this because I was just trying to figure out if I can use my m2 MacBook or my m1 iMac

[@HWDxGAMING]

so does the m2 mack book run fine ?

[@altodgaming]

Thank you for this video! How about iMac m3? You think it's good for streaming?

[@MidnightMan]

it works!

[@PammuF82]

@Midnightman how is your MacBook air not heat even without a fan?

[@armandoceballos6533]

Does Caster also record the PS5 game audio?

[@leithouriste]

But if you use the MacBook to stream for a long time, does the MacBook manage to keep a smooth stream despite the heat that accumulates in the processor?

[@theepicpotatoe6073]

do you need the elgato device to stream? i thought obs was all you needed

[@MidnightMan]

Having the Elgato is to pull in console gameplay like off Xbox and PS5

[@Chonnfn]

Can this be done with the elgato 4k60 pro?

[@ghost5oh_]

So how do we get party audio in the stream?

[@Scope0nBrush]

How’s your guys day

[@MidnightMan]

Doing well! How are you?

[@Scope0nBrush]

Good I’m now starting to play oculus so that’s cool

[@Besteddygamerjelly]

@@Scope0nBrush same lol 😂

[@tysive5248]

You should try this with the M3 air!!!

[@MarkysCloudGaming]

Did you see any video with this? I want to know how it will be before purchase

[@tysive5248]

@@MarkysCloudGaming I bought a m3 macbook air and I will say that it is incredible for this. Ive done some streaming and it as worked great, the quality legit looks like a good stream. If your in the market for a laptop get it, its awesome. If you are upgrading from m2 there is no need.

[@MarkysCloudGaming]

@@tysive5248 did u try to make a streaming to KZbin playing GeForce now for example?

[@jayheha0053]

@@tysive5248can I ask some questions? I plan on getting M4, 16gb ram, 256 ssd

[@NathanSifuGaming]

I hope somebody will see this, I'm trying to do this exact thing, but OBS just WON'T detect the elgato, which is REALLY weird because if I use the actual "Game Capture HD" software, it CAN detect the elgato! So I dunno why...

[@seanfrmsom]

Currently going through this same problem I don’t know what to do

[@Im_veryrarePROD]

Can u try m2 Mac mini

[@KennyLamTravel]

Hi, Thanks for the video, did you try to connect your Macbook air to a 27" external monitor with everything else running?

[@platinumplaythroughs9097]

How you plugging all these in with just 2 type-c ports?

[@fishyin3d]

Hi midnightman!! My next video will be my 50th video ALREADY!

[@DocDamn]

Nice

[@MidnightMan]

Let's go! Once you get into a flow then you focus more on making the quality even higher!

[@felisekat3]

I just brought this computer for school *cough* went for the 16g unified Mel and the 1tb storage…will be playing games on it too 😆

[@bapackgimang]

hi i just found this video! one thing u didn't mention tho as i'm basically just started to stream, how do you connect your windows to macbook to stream? since i will be playing on my windows laptop but want to use my macbook air m2 to stream.

[@mightystocks]

GREAT VIDEO! what type c to type c cable are you using? Because the one elgato brings is type c to usb type A right?

[@MidnightMan]

I’m using the godspin super speed cable here amzn.to/3EcWX0M

[@bylobtw]

Obs is Apple silicon compatible now

[@MidnightMan]

Yes so things work even better now

[@HWDxGAMING]

what’s your thoughts on the macbook pro m2 chip ?

[@HWDxGAMING]

think it would run better then the air ?

[@MidnightMan]

It should, by a little. Optimization is probably pretty close, I'll be testing at some point

[@HWDxGAMING]

@@MidnightMan i’m following your advice on the evga xr1. the cannon m50. the elgato wave 3. the stream deck. the dt 990 chat link cable if u think needed.

[@HWDxGAMING]

@@MidnightMan i went with the m2 for newer but do i think imma run into probs. i’m running p5 and series x

[@thehoopinggamer9166]

Will hd60x go back to using el gato software?

[@roseofnights]

I have an m1 mac and its so laggy dont know what to do even with filters like asynchron

[@Megabeans]

I see, so 8Gb of ram really isn't enough, no wonder it starts dropping frames like crazy when you're recording/streaming at the same time. Glad they made all macbook 16Gb by default, can't wait to buy an m3 mac for general work.

[@jayheha0053]

I plan on getting M4 16gb, 256 ssd, is that good for stream & record? Or should I get 24gb ram? Or 512ssd? Or is base model good?

[@jayheha0053]

I think I might get the 24gb ram. I want to stream, vertical and horizontal record😅

[@iitrey2k824]

Does own3d work for Mac?

[@MidnightMan]

Yep! As you saw in the video the overlays I got off OWN3D TV can be thrown right into your OBS on Mac!

[@yahboiacee4026]

Can you run 120fps with this

[@omig1993]

So I’m getting the M3 Max MacBook, so do you think you would have enough power for this?

[@jayheha0053]

Definitely

[@firsttry2]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm not going to resell my mac air, it's powerful and beautiful but the compatibility problems are annoying.

[@josephelibert2464]

i just purchased a macbook air M1 base model. I ran OBS through it, laptop got hot pretty quickly....is that normal? Having a pro already....wanted to try out the air.

[@InTrevWeTrust]

Would I be okay with a M1 chip?

[@MidnightMan]

Yes you would

[@tacosmcnooge]

I know this video is a bit dated, but I recently tried using my M2 Mac to run everything, including breaking out the audio. And I found that recording and live streaming at the same time to drops tons of frames in OBS while having more than just discord open. Any thoughts on how to solve that?

[@MidnightMan]

I would try dropping your bitrate and/or encoding speed until you can run everything you need at the same recording/streaming.

[@Crazyreyn]

Has anyone tried 4K recording (not streaming) with Elgato and a Macbook Air, especially the 8GB model?

[@MarkysCloudGaming]

I want to know! Did you find an answer?

[@jayheha0053]

@@MarkysCloudGaminghe said it works fine for him, 4k 60fps. Above in the other replies

[@Astro.98]

Can you please help bro, I went from streaming on an old MacBook Air (dual core) and Xbox series S with a budget video capture card now I went to a M2 MacBook Air but it won't show my capture card in Streamlabs. It shows up with the old MacBook but not the M2?

[@StacheMelgar]

Awesome video 🙏🏽 if I’m using a PS5 and a MacBook Pro 14” w/M1Pro, how can I get the game audio to work for a livestream since I can’t change the analog setting because I’m using a chat link pro?

[@GearBros]

Did it end up letting you stream in 60fps? You said something about it only letting you do 30. Also what are the other specs of this macbook? Ram and SSD size?

[@MidnightMan]

8 gigs of RAM, 256 gig SSD. I wouldn’t push 60fps for my streams for some reason even though I had it set. I’ll be looking for this feature in the native silicon version

[@MRCM311]

obs 29 is out now and allows apple prores encoder. how would you be set up now to capture highest quality ?

[@wyatt2414]

How did you connect your headset? Was it through your game console, or through the Mac? Wired or wireless? I’m wanting to set up a streaming system with the M1 iMac and my M1 iPad Pro with my Xbox Series S and my Switch and want to know how you connected your headset

[@MidnightMan]

I listened to my audio from the Mac with wired headphones

[@mrwicked820]

I want to stream Photoshop + FullHD Camera. What MacBook should I get? I need not expensive one

[@zhigenz]

love the videos, can you help me im new on all these, i got a ps5, mac and elgato x. can you help me how to setup an easy way to stream on streamlabs with audio ??

[@MidnightMan]

Feel free to DM I can help

[@TaffsX]

My mb air m1 can't handle 1080p 60fps. I have lots of frame drops due to render lag :(

[@Le_Coulissime]

Hey man 😁👋 ! First off i gotta say thank you so much for your very well made video !! Super well explained, fun and entertaining to watch 🔥🔥🔥 I wanted to ask if you got news for obs working natively on apple silicon in 2023 or if streamlabs is a better option still... as i'm soon getting a 16 inch macbook Pro M2 Pro and streaming on twitch will be one of the main focus and purpose of this next computer. Or maybe should i download the arm version of Windows from parallels to run these softwares better than on MacOS 🤷‍♂️ Hope you stay blessed and can't wait to see your new videos as well 🙏

[@MidnightMan]

Hey, it’s been officially native for some months now actually if you update to OBS 28 or later! It runs really well! Streamlabs desktop is still waiting on the native support update. So technically OBS is the better way to go

[@Le_Coulissime]

@@MidnightMan Thank you so much for your very quick awnser and advices 🙏🙏 I do have a lot of questions to myself and i would be very grateful if you if you think you could help me decide or reconsider anything because all that stuff can get very pricey and i don't want to mess it up first try 😅 I'm planning to get an HD60 X for streaming my PS5 via an apple silicon mac... I'd like my streaming mic and webcam to be the mac but i also want people in game chats to hear me from my PS5 headset (while their voice audio i hear can be heard on stream too)... Do you think i would also need a chat-link cable for example ? I mean... if i have this kind of microphone situation but i also want to have music from something like the spotify mac app to my ears and stream audio at the same time ? Also do you know if that this specific capture card work better within obs or streamlabs software for this kind of mac i'm also very new to these options as i'm starting to transition from a no computer/console only setup and online overlay services to one of these two (obs/streamlabs) and i really want to use my previous custom overlays, some new alerts and better image quality for my streams Anyways thank you so much for your time and effort, i know it takes a lot to be a great streamer and i'll make sure to give you a follow on your socials as i really enjoy your content 💙

[@MidnightMan]

If you want to hear all audio including Spotify you’ll want to listen from the computer. You can’t just feed that into your headset using chat link. Also you can even use chat link cable with HD60X on a Silicon Mac, it has no software to change to analog for it to use the chat link cable. The avermedia LGX3 or evga a XR1 pro can use the analog connection on Mac silicon automatically. I recommend watching my capture video here to help you kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXmse2eFqdqJodU And this video to help with OBS kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5SnlIeAiLichtU

[@Le_Coulissime]

@@MidnightMan Thank you so much ! Oh i forgot one last thing before about the audio part... My headset (Corsair Virtuoso XT) supports up to three connections at the same time, being via usb (plugged into PS5), Bluetooth for maybe my phone or computer, and the jack 3.5mm which i could directly plug in to the computer as well So do you think that would solve the "problem" if i were to let's say use my headset bluetooth or jack 3.5mm on the mac for it's own audio (instead of using the capture card itself) ? You are awesome 🙈🔥 and thank you again for sending your help for us to get better at streaming 🥹 I'm sending you lots of appreciation and love for the work and effort you put in for your community 💙💙💙

[@MidnightMan]

Yeah it should work pulling the audio in from a separate device, and use capture card just for the video.

[@yobiebryxn]

Ik this so late to ask but what if I got the 8-gpu one

[@PokeFX_Tube]

Bro I don't understand... I had the MacBook Air M2, 16gb ram, 512gb SSD and 500mb/500mb. Using 2 webcams to record and the video was AWFUL. I just bought the M4 Pro Max to check if I can finally record and/or stream. I tried with less hz, less bit rate, less everything and it still sucked. I'm not sure if maybe the issue was that 1 camera is a 2k camera and the other one is a 4k camera. By the way, the computer was a 108 Celsius, so it was just crap. I will try with the M4 Pro Max and let you know how it goes!

[@ruuguuin]

hey what are you doing exactly are you playing games and streaming at the same time on m2 air or are you running games on another computer and simply using m2 air for the streaming ? reason I'm asking this is because I want to buy this laptop and i want fanless, no background noise but I'm afraid it's going to thermal throttle after long gaming

[@MidnightMan]

I was gaming on my PS5 and streaming and recording the content. I didn’t test gaming directly on the device while recording at the same time

[@ruuguuin]

@@MidnightMan that's very interesting if it can handle games like Albion online, league of legends while streaming at the same time and will it thermal throttle

[@bhushan9066]

​@@MidnightMantry playing on Mac Air M2 and also streaming simultaneously. If there's a video already made, let me know.

[@prorazzo334]

it isn't showing up for me. I even downloaded the version your using and I still can't get my capture card to show up. Any advice???? M1 Mac on Monterey

[@rontheedonn]

So Does the audio situation with the hd60x change with the ground control?

[@MidnightMan]

Not with using chat link, this will still require it be pulled over hdmi.

[@rontheedonn]

@@MidnightMan ok thanks iv had the hd60x for a while but that’s why i haven’t used it

[@EastAtlantaSanta17]

Does this still work?

[@MidnightMan]

yeah works well

[@Hassaanmian40]

Hi bro, loved the video. Needed your help and opinion. I'm planning on buying m1 mac but confused between mac mini m1 or Macbook air m1 both with either 8GB or 16GB RAM. I'm going to use it for streaming and recording videos on OBS, pulling my sony camera feed and mic through capture devices, plus display capturing powerpoint slides and also using Zoom simultaneously to teach from OBS virtual cam all at the same time. Any suggestions that if I do ALL these multi-core processes which machine should I be going for?

[@hectorhdz]

Yo, I have the same laptop except bigger ssd and more ram, however, my stream looks laggy idk if you’d mind seeing some of my stuff to see what I’m doing wrong.

[@MidnightMan]

I would try following the exact settings I showed in this video. Make sure you’re using hardware encoder.

[@hectorhdz]

@@MidnightMan got it working, turns out the usb c cable I had was NOT SS, weird since I bought it thinking it was. Anyway, thanks for the settings!

[@TsKROBB21688]

This video was 🔥🔥 I’d love to see a M2 Mac Mini version of this 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 #PLEASE

[@TsKROBB21688]

I honestly didn’t think that I was going to get a response to my comment. I appreciate your recognition. I made the comment because I’ve been console streaming for the past 4 years and I’m looking to purchasing a set up. I prefer the Apple silicone products because they are extremely efficient in power management and they are quiet. I’m looking to purchase a M2 Mac Mini in the near future. That’s the reasoning for my comment. The only downside I heard you speak of was the 30fps stream instead of 60fps, which I hope they fix soon. Much love to you and your channel. Your quality and delivery is 🔥 🫡.

[@benxytokyo118]

I have a M1 Pro, I want to stream and record but I'm afraid I'm gonna break it :/

[@Beayia]

i just bought the x and have two m1 devices but i've got no idea about how the settings work on obs like all the things you were editing and testing out and which will be fine and which is asking for too much. i'm not exaclty sure how to see like a rundown of what each setting actually does either

[@MidnightMan]

I would recommend watching this video of mine to know how to use OBS at a basic level kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5SnlIeAiLichtU

[@reyzor56]

So I’m using this kind of setup. Curious why I can’t achieve 1080p 60fps He at 2:27 shows it at 60 fps, I tried that. Super choppy because of encoding lag . Later in the video shows him streaming at 30 fps at 6:34 😢 guess it can’t achieve that

[@MidnightMan]

Today it's all good, you can stream in 60 no problem at 4K