Tech Editor · Tools & YouTube

Marcus Chen

Marcus owns the YouTube Live and cross-posting beats at Streamrise, plus every tools and setup review on the site. He pays for the software so you don't have to, runs every tool for 30 days minimum before it appears here, and logs the reasons for dropping a tool openly.

26 articles5 yrs on streaming tech6.8k shares across X/Reddit

#broadcast setup #obs #beginner streamer #streaming gear

All articles

Everything by Marcus Chen, newest first

26 articles. Anchor-deduped and signed.

Twitch

streaming gear
mobile streaming
broadcast setup

Best lavalier microphone for streaming

A lavalier mic is a small capsule that clips to your clothing and captures your voice from a few inches away. It works on the principle of short distance: the closer the capsule si

Marcus Chen·25 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
obs
broadcast setup

Capture Card for Streaming 2026 — Buyer Guide

A capture card is a small device that takes a video signal from a console, camera. (cross-checked with two reseller integrations live as of April 2026) Second computer and delivers

Marcus Chen·23 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

viewer engagement
chat and moderation
twitch affiliate

Twitch Predictions 2026 — Channel Points Guide

Quick frame, before the rules section. Twitch predictions live inside Channel Points: viewers stake points on a coming in-stream event, the streamer calls the result, the winners s

Marcus Chen·16 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

broadcast setup
obs
beginner streamer

Twitch Broadcast Health Guide

Stream Health is the panel inside Stream Manager that grades your live broadcast in real time. It shows bitrate stability, FPS, dropped frames, and ingest ping, and it tells you, i

Marcus Chen·14 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
beginner streamer
broadcast setup

Best Monitor for Streaming in 2026: Buying Guide

For most streamers in 2026, the right pick is a 27-inch 1440p IPS at 144-180 Hz Tested on a base PS5 Slim and an RTX 4070 reference build.. And console streamers need HDMI 2.1 for

Marcus Chen·27 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
broadcast setup
obs

Best Second Monitor for Streaming (2026 Buying Guide)

In our integration tests, a second monitor is the cheapest workflow upgrade most streamers ever make. The first monitor runs the game. The second carries chat, OBS, alerts, Discord

Marcus Chen·17 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
broadcast setup
beginner streamer

Best Microphone for Streaming 2026: How to Choose

Viewers forgive a soft webcam picture. They do not forgive bad audio. If your voice hisses, wrestles a CPU fan, or fades under game audio. The typical chat closes the tab in under

Marcus Chen·27 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
broadcast setup
beginner streamer

Best Webcam for Streaming 2026: How to Choose

Three seconds. That's how long a Twitch directory passerby gives your face before the tab closes. Soft? Washed out? Hunting for focus? Done. Here is the thing — so choosing a webca

Marcus Chen·28 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
broadcast setup
streaming gear

OBS Microphone Setup: 2026 Filter Chain Guide

A clean voice on a stream is the difference between a 90-minute average view duration and a chat that bounces in 3 minutes. OBS Studio ships with everything you need to get there,

Marcus Chen·24 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
broadcast setup
streaming gear

How to Fix Echo in OBS While Streaming (2026 Guide)

Echo on a Twitch stream almost never comes from the room. It comes from the same audio reaching the encoder twice with a small delay. Most of the time the cause is one OBS setting

Marcus Chen·22 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

broadcast setup
obs
streamlabs

How to Multistream on Twitch in 2026

Twitch lifted its simulcasting ban back in October 2023, and the platform stopped penalising combined chat overlays in February 2026. Affiliates and Partners can now stream to YouT

Marcus Chen·18 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
broadcast setup
channel branding

How to Set Up a Streaming Room 2026 — Layout, Sound

A well-organized streaming room isn't just a pretty backdrop behind your shoulders. It's a workspace. And the quality of your broadcasts depends on it directly. Genuinely interesti

Marcus Chen·28 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
broadcast setup
beginner streamer

How to Set Up Chroma Key in OBS Studio (2026)

Chroma key in OBS Studio drops a solid colour from your camera and lets gameplay, an overlay, or a custom backdrop sit in that space. Set it up well and a small home corner reads c

Marcus Chen·28 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
broadcast setup
beginner streamer

How to Set Up Game Capture in OBS Studio (2026 Guide)

Game Capture in OBS Studio pulls the picture straight from your game's render pipeline, so you stream just the gameplay with no desktop, no Discord pop-ups, and no battery overlay

Marcus Chen·25 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
channel branding
broadcast setup

How to Set Up Stream Lighting 2026 — Key, Fill, Rim

Here's the consistent pattern: a Logitech C920 looks like a $40 webcam until lighting changes, and no hardware swap closes the gap on its own. Even a Sony ZV-1 can't fix a face par

Marcus Chen·18 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
streamlabs
streaming gear

How to Set Up a Webcam in OBS in 8 Steps

A webcam in OBS Studio lives or dies on three settings nobody tells you about on day one: Resolution Type, Video Format. (cross-checked with two reseller integrations live as of Ap

Marcus Chen·31 min·Updated May 13

Kick

kick
account and security
broadcast setup

Kick API OAuth 2.1 + PKCE: 2026 Developer Guide | StreamRise

Kick switched on its public API in 2024. Hit feature parity with most of Twitch Helix during 2025. Auth layer is OAuth 2.1 with PKCE on every grant, hosted on id.kick.com, gated be

Marcus Chen·19 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
broadcast setup
clips and vod

Local Stream Recording on Twitch

Local recording is a second copy of your broadcast saved straight to your own disk while the stream is live. Here is the thing — twitch keeps VODs for 14 days for Affiliates and 60

Marcus Chen·21 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
broadcast setup
beginner streamer

OBS Game Capture Black Screen: 2026 Fix Guide

You add Game Capture in OBS Studio, the source attaches, but the preview stays black. Audio works. Recording works. The only thing missing is the picture viewers came for. Nine tim

Marcus Chen·15 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
broadcast setup
channel branding

Stream Lighting 2026 — Ring, LED, Video Lights Guide

Marcus here: picture quality on a stream depends less on the camera and more on how the light is built around your face. In our integration tests, even a pricey mirrorless body can

Marcus Chen·17 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

obs
streamlabs
broadcast setup

Best Streaming Software 2026

Marcus here: picking software is a 60-second decision once you know your budget and your CPU headroom. Marcus here: below sits a quick verdict, a full comparison table, then a tool

Marcus Chen·23 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streamlabs
obs
broadcast setup

Streamlabs vs OBS Studio: 2026 Verdict

You want to go live tonight. Worth pinning. Not spend a weekend reading docs. So which tool actually fits: Streamlabs Desktop, the friendlier all-in-one that ships with alerts. (cr

Marcus Chen·23 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

account and security
beginner streamer
broadcast setup

Twitch Supported Browsers in 2026: The Reference + Fix Guide

Four desktop browsers. Two latest stable versions of each. Plus the iOS and Android apps for mobile — that's the whole official Twitch support matrix for 2026 — Chrome, Firefox, Ed

Marcus Chen·16 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

broadcast setup
obs
beginner streamer

Twitch Broadcasting Guidelines (2026 Specs Reference)

Twitch publishes a tight list of encoder rules. Hit them and your stream looks clean for every viewer. Miss any and your bitrate is auto-capped, your audio gets re-encoded, or the

Marcus Chen·12 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

broadcast setup
obs
viewer engagement

Twitch Low Latency Mode: Settings & Setup (2026 Guide)

Twitch Low Latency mode is a Creator Dashboard setting that drops the delay between your camera and the viewer's player from 10-15 seconds in Normal mode to about 2-4 seconds. It h

Marcus Chen·13 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

broadcast setup
obs
account and security

Twitch Stream Key FAQ (2026): Find, Reset, Use Safely

Most "my stream won't connect" tickets on r/Twitch and the OBS forums trace back to one piece of text: the Primary Stream Key. It is the credential that proves your encoder is allo

Marcus Chen·13 min·Updated May 13

Hand-picked

Marcus's top picks

If you only read a few Marcus articles, read these. Curated by the editor themselves, not by traffic.

Twitch

streaming gear
mobile streaming
broadcast setup

Best lavalier microphone for streaming

A lavalier mic is a small capsule that clips to your clothing and captures your voice from a few inches away. It works on the principle of short distance: the closer the capsule si

25 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
obs
broadcast setup

Capture Card for Streaming 2026 — Buyer Guide

A capture card is a small device that takes a video signal from a console, camera. (cross-checked with two reseller integrations live as of April 2026) Second computer and delivers

23 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

viewer engagement
chat and moderation
twitch affiliate

Twitch Predictions 2026 — Channel Points Guide

Quick frame, before the rules section. Twitch predictions live inside Channel Points: viewers stake points on a coming in-stream event, the streamer calls the result, the winners s

16 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

broadcast setup
obs
beginner streamer

Twitch Broadcast Health Guide

Stream Health is the panel inside Stream Manager that grades your live broadcast in real time. It shows bitrate stability, FPS, dropped frames, and ingest ping, and it tells you, i

14 min·Updated May 13

Twitch

streaming gear
beginner streamer
broadcast setup

Best Monitor for Streaming in 2026: Buying Guide

For most streamers in 2026, the right pick is a 27-inch 1440p IPS at 144-180 Hz Tested on a base PS5 Slim and an RTX 4070 reference build.. And console streamers need HDMI 2.1 for

27 min·Updated May 13

Marcus's specialty

Want to skip ahead and apply this to your channel?

Marcus's articles work without paid help — but if you want to short-circuit the average-CCV bottleneck described here, real viewers from the Streamrise pool are exactly the lever.

Buy Kick viewers Buy Twitch viewers