Last week, I wrote an article entitled "My Thoughts On Ustream", and gave my thoughts about Ustream and the good and the bad about it. Now in this article, I will be talking about another live streaming website, Twitch! So Let's get into it shall we!


Now unlike Ustream, where you could live stream anything, you can only stream gaming stuff on Twitch. Now this isn't that bad, because most people (including myself) stream gaming stuff anyway, so it has no fault when it comes to that. Now Twitch has most of the things that Ustream has. It got a chat to the side of the stream video, where you can chat to each other. But with this chat, you have to have an account to chat, unlike Ustream, where you could make it so the public could chat. But this is also another good thing I say, because then you can actually know who is chatting. Also with the chat, the broadcaster can make other chat members moderators. Now I have yet to done this, so I don't know how it exactly works, but if you make someone a chat moderator, then they can get rid of spam messages and links on the chat, while you, the broadcaster, dose not have to worry about it. Also your allowed at add emoticons to the chat, like smiley faces and many other ones (some of them are secret.)  Now I don't think you were able to do this with Ustream, so Twitch has a better chat set up then Ustream. Also you can get more options with the chat, like change the username color, have time stamped, have the chat pop out, and you can also see the people viewing it. So overall there chat is top notch.

So now the thing with Twitch. You can't just plug in a microphone and a webcam, and have a picture come up in the dashboard. To be able to stream, you'll have to get a live stream program like Xsplit on your computer, and then broadcast it from that program onto Twitch. I already downloaded Xsplit so It wasn't a problem for me. But this could be a drawback to other users. They might not want a streaming program on their computer, and just want to have it easy, but this is not the case. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing either. You can get way better quality using a program and can add multiple cams and text and much much more! So I say if you just want to go the fast and easy way, Ustream is the place for you. I gotta say the Ustream is easy when it comes to streaming. Now since you have to have a program to stream with Twitch, then there are far less problems then Ustream has. When it comes to the stream itself, Twitch's streams almost never lag too bad. Sure there may be some lag and freezing at some parts, but not the whole time. And that could just be your computer also. While on the other hand, Ustream's streaming always lags and freezes. It does it constantly and it's really annoying to try to watch. Like I mention in the article about Ustream, that is a huge fault it has. It can make people give up. Twitch is the better stream when it comes to lagging. You can follow other channels, just like Ustream, and once you do follow someone, it informs you by email that the person is streaming, so both websites are identical when it comes to that.

You have also many options with Twitch. You can have your username, your email, a short bio, a long bio and a profile picture. There are many settings when it comes to your channel. You can add a background to it, add these "info" boxes down below the video stream, where you can give info about the channel and what not, you can change the chat settings, changing if the people are allowed to add links or not. The only downfall is that you can't create an event. With Ustream you can. 
Once you have live stream, a few hours later, you can make a highlight and then you can cut out parts of the stream and only get the important parts. These highlights will show up in the "Highlights" section of your profile. Also the stream record aromatically, unlike Ustream, where you have to click "record Broadcast". That is a really good thing in my opinion since you can't forget to click on it. Also it records the whole stream as well, and there isn't no memory space that I'm aware of.

So overall I say that Twitch is way better than Ustream. It has way better things, like quality, chat, live streaming itself, etc... The only drawbacks to Twitch is that you need a program and you cannot create events, but if you don't want to download a program, than Ustream is the place for you anyway. Twitch is one of the top live streaming websites, and now I know why. If you are willing to get a program, like Xsplit, than you definitively want to go to Twitch over Ustream.  Also if your a gamer streamer, then Twitch is also the place for you. So what are your thoughts on Twitch? Do you like the streaming there or not? Do you prefer Ustream over Twitch? Be sure to tell me your thoughts in the comments.