Streaming Gear

Check out my audio guide here regarding the microphones I use for streaming.

Here is a list of some of my streaming gear that I use:

Sennheiser HD280PRO Headphone — These headphones are the best over-the-ear headphones that will isolate outside noise. If you work in a busy office or simply want amazing sound quality enclosing your ears, these are for you. They are also VR friendly with a slot for cables in the middle section of the headband.

Fellowes Ergonomic Keyboard — If you experience wrist pain while lifting and while using the computer, check your form and posture for both lifting and using the computer. Chances are, both need improvement. One quick fix for the keyboard is to use an ergonomic keyboard. Rotating our wrists to a fully pronated position (palms flat down) can put a lot of strain on the wrists. If you use the keyboard all day and have wrist pain, consider upgrading to one of these keyboards. I use this one at work and it’s a wrist saver.

Lumbar Support Pillow by MedX | Cushion For Office Chairs Recliners and Cars | Therapeutic Grade Memory Foam — If you suffer from lower back pain, you have a rounded lower back, AND you are sitting down most of the day, then consider using this lumbar support pillow. To properly use it, first sit your butt back as deep into the chair as you can. THEN wedge the pillow into your low back. Then lean back. The pillow should feel comfortable and relaxing to your low back.

WEBCAMS

I use multiple webcams for my home gym streams. Below are some of the webcams I have purchased. However, if you are using a Windows machine, you should avoid purchasing multiple webcams of the same model number. If you have two of the same webcam, Windows and OBS will struggle to differentiate the two. This will impact your webcam settings with weird bugs that are frustrating to deal with. If you go with multiple webcams, then purchase all unique webcams.

If you are using OBS to stream, consider adding a LUT filter to your webcam. Creating a LUT filter is a low hanging fruit that can make webcams look MUCH better, especially in poor lighting. I followed this YouTube guide and it made my webcams look a lot better. Blacks were blacker and the colors were more vibrant. It took me only 30 minutes start to finish to add a high quality LUT.

Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam — The C922x is a step above the C920. If you’re going to go for a higher tier webcam then I suggest using this one. I find this one to be brighter and sharper than the normal C920. One benefit of this webcam is that it is threaded for a tripod screw. You can insert a mini tripod into the bottom of this webcam. It has come in handy for meal prep streams.

Logitech C920 Webcam —  This webcam is very popular among streamers, but I think it is being phased out by the C922x. For the price, it is decent. I think it’s better to go for the higher tier C922x or just go bottom tier with the bargain C615. This webcam also has a tripod mount.

Logitech C615 HD Webcam — This is my favorite webcam for the price by far. Currently I use this webcam for the power rack when squatting and benching. This webcam is a reasonable price, it has a high quality camera, and it swivels in many directions. The only negative to this camera is that it is not threaded for a tripod screw.

Logitech C270 Webcam — This is a very low quality webcam. The resolution, viewing angles, and overall quality is bad. I barely recommend this even as a secondary webcam. If you need an extra webcam for a small resolution and your lighting is already naturally good, this webcam will work.

USB Extension Cables — I have multiple webcams routed around my gym with USB extension cables routed along the ceiling. Wireless is not a good solution for many reasons. Stick to wired USB solutions. These USB extension cables also come in handy for my meal prep streams when I route webcams all over my kitchen.

4K TV MONITORS

While streaming, I find myself constantly needing more resolution real estate to monitor all my streaming related windows. A cheap 4K TV is a great way to have a gigantic PC screen with a lot of resolution. A 49″ 4K TV is about the same resolution and physical size as 4 x 23″ 1080P monitors arranged as a 2×2 array. The 4K TV is a cheaper and more reasonable solution.

To use a 4K TV as a PC monitor, you should look for these attributes for the TV and your PC:

• TV, video card, and your cables must use at least HDMI 2.0 or Display port 1.2
• 4K Resolution 4:4:4 @ 60Hz

60Hz is the bare minimum to use a PC and play games without feeling the lag of the refresh rate. Some hard core gamers might find 60Hz to be too low. You can quickly test this on your PC by manually setting your existing monitors to 60Hz to see if you even notice a difference. Most streaming applications will never use above 60FPS. Most high end PCs cannot even stream 4K games at a high FPS anyway. Therefore, the 60Hz part of the 4K TV will likely not bottleneck you.

Chroma subsampling 4:4:4 refers to the color quality and clarity for each pixel. Sadly, the cheaper 4K TV’s do not perfectly pass the 4:4:4 test. They will often pseudo pass it and fool the Nvidia control panel into thinking it passes perfectly. Pseudo passing it simply means some small black letters will appear with a blueish color and some small images will not appear as clear.

You can find an in-depth chroma subsampling article and test here.

Many amazon reviews knock down these TVs for bad audio. If you are using the TV as a PC monitor, you will likely have nice speakers or headphones already, so the audio should not be a concern.

Sceptre 4K Ultra HD TV 49″ inch — I personally own this TV. Despite the reviews, I love mine. I did have an issue about 10 months in and I had to leverage the warranty, but it is fine now. For the price, it cannot be beaten.

It does not perfectly pass the 4:4:4 test. The NVIDIA control panel claims it is passing 4:4:4 @60Hz, however it doesn’t pass the visual test perfectly. Some small black fonts have a slight blueish color to it. I barely notice the 4:4:4 issue and often forget it is even there.

TCL 4K 49″ TV — I do not own this TV, but it is a highly rated and reasonably priced TV. It supposedly passes the 4:4:4 @60Hz, but I cannot confirm.