Fix Twitch Streaming Problems with the PlayStation 5

We are influencers and brand affiliates.  This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.

So when I first started my test stream from the PlayStation 5 I immediately noticed when trying to Stream Astro’s Playroom that all the viewers see on Twitch was the PlayStation 5 pause screen and can hear my microphone.  A few rounds of troubleshooting and I was back up and working in on time so I will take you through the list of things to try in order to fix the PlayStation 5 won’t show game on your Twitch Stream.

Disable PlayStation 5 HDCP

The first and most obvious is the HDCP, yes the PlayStation 5 has DHCP and much like the PlayStation 4 you have to disable it or it can cause your streams to be blocked.  To disable HDCP on your PlayStation 5 go into your Settings – > System -> HDMI and select Disable HDCP so that it is off.

 

Reboot your PlayStation 5 and see if the issue is now resolved, 90% of the times when the PlayStation 5 cannot show your game on Twitch and you get mic only with a pause screen this is the culprit.

2-FA Required for Twitch

Was reading that PlayStation network requires that your Twitch account have 2-FA enabled to be able to stream to Twitch from the PlayStation 5.  I have had 2-FA for a long time since it is required to be a Twitch affiliate so just calling this out that this is something I have read and would likely be a cause of a Twitch account sync issue rather than the viewers seeing a PS5 pause screen.

DNS and DHCP

If you are plagued by Broadcast Stopped issues, I found much like the PlayStation 4 there appears to be issues periodically when using your default ISP DNS servers when it comes to name resolution not happening fast enough at times.  To solve this you edit your network settings and can define specific DNS servers under network advanced settings. My recommendation is to put 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 (Cloudflare for primary and secondary DNS as they are shown to be the fastest responding), but using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 which are Google DNS servers and they should do a fine job too. Alternatively by having your PlayStation 5 on DHCP where it has to renew it’s IP address can cause interrupts and issues, it is better to enter a static IP address on your private network that your PlayStation 5 will always have and not have to do the DHCP calls to refresh/renew it’s IP on periodic basis.

Streaming Quality Issues

If your Twitch stream quality from PlayStation 5 is bad you can try adjusting different streaming resolutions based on your Internet connection speed at home.  If you have under 10MBPS down and 5MBPS up then I would not select higher than 720p for streaming resolution, if you want to stream in the highest quality which it is recommended you have higher tier broadband I would do 1080p60 since Twitch itself can’t support live 4k streaming, the best a viewer is going to see is 1080p anyway but the 60 frames per second will make the stream more smooth and will cause the PlayStation 5 to use a higher bitrate when streaming so that there is less visual artifacts on stream especially with movement.  I don’t know why that the PS5 doesn’t let you manually set bitrates, I found that even at 1080p60 the PS5 tends to hover in the 3200-3600 bitrate, it really should support variable bitrate as well.  I would have liked to seen the 1080p60 push 5500-6000 bitrate for the best possible stream quality to Twitch but it doesn’t seem to even get close to 5000 bitrate from my initial tests.

Microphone Issues / Party Chat

The PlayStation 5 has 2 stream options where you can enable microphone while streaming and you can choose to enable Party Chat while streaming.  Even when using the microphone if you are using your controller or headset remember that the PS5 controller has a built in microphone now and a mic mute button directly on the PS5 controller.  Disable Party chat if you don’t want your stream audience to hear the members of your chat party but only hear your microphone. Reports are that when choosing mic mute on the PS5 Stream menu the mic won’t mute on the PS5 and you still have to press the mic mute button on the PS5 to mute the mic properly so beware that you can still be heard even when you go out of a game into the PlayStation 5 main menu, that your mic is still live and hot unless you press the mic mute button on the PS5 controller.

Webcam and Chat Overlay

The PlayStation 5 offers more overlay options with the Twitch chat than the PlayStation 4, gone is that ugly sidebar with chat that forces you to watch and play on a smaller game window, now the actual Twitch chat will overlay on top of your game while it is being played which is much cleaner and you can choose the location that your Twitch Chat appears.  This is a very welcome feature indeed, however there is a big problem with Webcam overlay in the fact that it shows the webcam overlay not only on the stream but back to yourself while playing the game which is obtrusive.  On one hand it is nice to see exactly what the streamers see, on the other hand this means your own webcam overlay my black game elements and features making it harder to play the game.  They should have had the ability to enable/disable showing your own overlay to yourself while playing the game.

Streaming PlayStation 5 to My PC

Overall the overlay limitations from PS5 native interface and make it preferable and more professional if you stream your PlayStation 5 from your PC and use a capture card and software like Streamlabs OBS, OBS Studio or Stream Elements to stream your PlayStation 5 game capture input.

Recommended AVerMedia and Elgato Capture Cards

Internal Cards (Desktop PC)

External Devices

How to Show my PS5 Controller While Streaming

Say you want to have an overlay where your PlayStation 5 gamepad is on screen for viewers and they can see what buttons you press and when you are moving the analog thumb sticks.  Then you will need to capture your PlayStation 5 to your PC and stream from your PC with a capture card.  We highly recommend a good capture card from AVerMedia or Elgato to get the job done, you want a capture card that can capture 4k streaming (preferred) especially if you want to take screen/shots and clips on your PC of your PS5 stream but a 1080p60 one will do since that is max Twitch resolution anyway.

You will then need to leverage Gamepad Viewer and you can find an awesome PlayStation 5 controller overlay from Jayraydee | Home with instructions on how to set it all up in the ZIP file of the controller overlay.

Switching PS5 Games Ends Stream

One peeve that carried over from the Playstation 4 is that the PlayStation 5 will still end and stop your stream when you switch games, it won’t just simply pause and let you resume your stream when you change games.  This is rather annoying and there is no technical or hardware reason for this, they need to update their control center to where you can keep a stream alive in a pause screen while switching games.  They also need to add a be right back or pause option while in game that indicates you had to step away, or the stream is paused.  It would be nice if they let you store a pre-made image on the PS5 that they can display when stream is paused.

Hopefully these tips help you get your PlayStation 5 streams up and working and give you ideas and improvement options.  If you have any questions or feedback leave it in the comments below.

We are influencers and brand affiliates.  This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.