Summary: In Elgato’s Game Capture HD for Mac, even after configuring your account, streaming to YouTube spins the “stream” button icon and doesn’t actually stream. Elgato won’t tell you how to fix it. Here’s how.
Background: Elgato’s Game Capture HD software for Mac is both useful and maddening at times. Useful because it’s quite easy to use, maddening because some areas that appear to work, or work well once, frequently do not appear to work at all.
Once you authenticate Game Capture to your YouTube/Gmail account and return to Game Capture, starting the streaming doesn’t turn the icon green and appears to just spin.
The Problem: The shortcut that Game Capture HD for Mac creates from the Live Streaming section, under the Account drop-down, doesn’t include the necessary information YouTube needs to receive the stream from your Mac so it is essentially lost in transit, ignored by YouTube.
The Solution: RTMP! Game Capture includes a basic “RTMP” link at the bottom of the Live Streaming “Account” drop-down that allows you to edit the URL and key needed to stream to YouTube or other RTMP-compatible provider.
Step 1: At YouTube Studio (https://studio.youtube.com/), select the “Create” button at the top right of the screen, just next to your account’s icon. Select “Go Live” from the drop-down.
This will take you to the Live Streaming area of your YouTube Studio account. Select the “Stream” icon from the left sidebar menu (if it isn’t selected for you).
In the main settings area, under the “Stream Settings” tab, you’ll see the following:
Use the “Copy” buttons to copy and paste the Stream Key and Stream URL values. Store them in your text editor for the time being, but be sure to label which setting is which because you’ll need them in a moment.
Step 2: Return to Game Capture HD. Under “Live Streaming”, to the right of the “Account” drop down, select the ” + ” button to add a streaming account and select “rtmp://” from the bottom of the list.
A window will appear with the settings for Account Name, RTMP URL and Stream Key. Name the account something you’ll remember is associated with YouTube. Then enter the URL and Stream key in the appropriate fields that you copied from YouTube in the previous step.
Click “Add” to save and close the settings window.
Step 3: Test. In Game Capture HD, select the “Stream” button in the Stream Command section. The icon will spin for a moment and turn green if your settings are correct.
Confirm your stream is being received at YouTube by returning to the Live Streaming tab of your browser (from Step 1). Within a minute or so of starting your stream, it should appear in the preview window.
Drop me an email if you find this doesn’t work.