Using the ElGato HD60 for 1080p broadcasts on PC

I wanted to relay my recent learning process with the ElGato HD60, which for entry level broadcasting is said to be the highest quality for the lowest cost. I'll let you google the advantages. But after a week of experimentation I've hit some walls and some successes. If this post can assist some of you, you can avoid some of the frustration.

PC stats:
Nvidea GTX 970 Video
AMD FC-6300 6core Processor
16gig RAM

of note:

• the HD60 costs about $160. you can find slightly better deals and sales online
• the HD60 takes HDMI in directly, then the output goes into your monitor, i used an hdmi -> DVI adapter until i can get an upgraded monitor
• Audio is complicated because the ElGato needs to take in audio directly from the HDMI

Audio:

• Several YouTube Videos tell you to get a monitor with HDMI in and a 1/8th jack out that can go out into your speakers.
• voicemeeter is a free, handy input tool: http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Voicemeeter/index.htm
• See settings i use below
• you select input A1 and A2 as your two outputs
• 

Output:

1. ElGato Gamecenter

• Game center is highly customize-able but the "dial" system it uses is not ideal
• You can send to YT/Twitch/custom directly from the client
• I've found this software does not work well for streaming
• for full 1080p 60fps, it's recording software is high quality(though takes a long time to render after)

2. OBS

• OBS, while the most commonly used and easily customized streaming software does NOT work well with ElGato in my experience
• you can use the ElGato with OBS, but it's not officially supported

3. Xsplit

• Xsplit has given me the best results
• It is official supported by elgato. You can take the el gato in directly.
• This is how I've set it up:
• In the START menu, select Elgato Game Capture(HDMI with analog audio)
• 
  
• I'm going to play without the analog audio. Will update with that later
• in Settings, drop down the stream option and change it from Automatic to Custom
• 
• Click the Cog next to the custom stream settings
• select the settings you like, these are mine
• 
  
• i'm going to try 60FPS and report

If you guys get any better results with other systems, let me know.

 

As a note, since the writing of this post, i've found that Xsplit works the best, and you don't have to mess around with all the audio problems.

OBS32 bit works as well but hits my processor hard sometimes.