How To Set Up Streaming On Two PCs Without A Capture Card

It's surprisingly easy to set up streaming on two PCs without a capture card using OBS NDI. The performance is excellent and does not require any additional purchases. OBS NDI will use your network to send content from your gaming PC to your streaming PC.

This guide will walk you through all the steps needed to start using OBS NDI and give you some information on its performance. Be sure to read each step carefully so that you can configure everything correctly.

Does OBS NDI work? Is it better than a capture card?

Before we start, let's talk about NDI's performance. I've used it for streaming and recording myself and my experience has been outstanding. 

As long as you're connected to your router with Ethernet cables, you'll get smooth, crisp performance. The quality is indistinguishable from streaming on a single PC setup.

Plus, you're not limited by frame rate or resolution – some capture cards, like Elgato HD60S, require you to game and stream at 1080p 60fps – it only has HDMI. 

But since you'll be using your network to send everything to your streaming PC, you can stick to your display port and get higher images and resolutions.

How to configure OBS NDI on both PCs

• First, you need to download and install OBS on both PCs. We'll start with our gaming PC. We'll come back to our streaming PC later.

• On your gaming PC, close OBS. Visit this page to download the OBS NDI plugin. Click Download, scroll down and click obs-ndi-4.6.1-Windows-Installer.exe.

• Follow the installation process. Once the installation process is complete, you will be asked to restart your gaming PC. Once your gaming PC is back on, open OBS again. In OBS, click Tools, then click NDI Output Settings.

• A new window will appear. Click to check Main Output and give it a name. You will need to find this name later on your streaming PC.

You have now completed the necessary steps on your gaming PC. Later, you can add your own scenes, capture devices, and adjust your audio and video. First, let's take a look at the necessary steps to perform on your streaming PC.

• On your streaming PC, open OBS and click the + button at the bottom left in the scenes area to add a new scene.

• Give it a name and click OK. Next, in the sources area, click the + button and click Source NDI.

• Click the Source name box and select your PC – you should find the name you set here before in brackets. Make sure Bandwidth is set to Highest. You can keep all other default settings. Click OK.

You will now see that everything on your streaming PC's OBS will mirror what is displayed on your gaming PC's OBS. This gives you control to edit and make adjustments live without touching your streaming PC.

Preparing to get started with OBS NDI

You are now ready for your first stream, but there are a few things you need to consider before you begin.

• First, you will need to enter your stream key into the streaming PC. You also need to click the Start Streaming and/or Start Recording buttons on your streaming PC.

• You only need the one active OBS NDI source and scene on your streaming PC – all other scenes and sources can be switched, edited, and modified from your gaming PC.

• If you notice any difficulties, make sure your video settings are the same on each copy of OBS. For example, if on your gaming PC you record at 1920×1080 but scale your streaming output to 1280×720, do the same on the streaming PC.

• Finally, both PCs must have OBS open at all times for the stream to run.

Summary

This is my guide to streaming with OBS NDI. It's surprisingly simple to set up, requires no hardware tweaking, and you can stream in your native resolution and frame rate.

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