The ULTIMATE Macro Pad? - Elgato Stream Deck Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,306 words · ~6 min read
0:00
back in march of 2017 elgato released the stream deck an utterly unique 15 key
0:05
keypad with screens on each key designed for live streaming it's got integration
0:10
with obs twitch twitter Windows elgatos
0:14
and products and in august 2017 they added xsplit allowing for us to finally
0:19
use the stream deck for our weekly podcast the WAN Show but i rarely stream
0:25
so why is my twitter feed full of requests to review this thing i'll tell
0:29
you why because they know i don't care what anything was designed to do
0:35
i care about what it can do and so as the king of macros i'll be looking at
0:40
this product from two angles its intended use and how i use it
0:53
tunnelbear makes really simple privacy apps so people can enjoy a more open
0:57
internet to try tunnelbear free go to tunnelbear.com LTT
1:01
opening up the stream deck software for the first time you'll be greeted by a
1:04
bunch of actions on the right just drag them onto the buttons on the left try
1:09
them out in real life and they all pretty much work exactly as you might
1:12
expect you can control your twitch chat post pre-written messages on twitter
1:17
change scenes sources and mics in obs and xsplit take screenshots record your
1:22
screen and even record the last x minutes retroactively if you also have
1:27
an elgato capture card sweet and there's a whole lot more but you might be
1:32
thinking wait taryn can't we already do all that stuff using keyboard shortcuts
1:36
well no not all of it for one thing keyboard shortcuts aren't always easy to
1:41
remember and depending on your game they can end up conflicting with other
1:45
commands furthermore because of the magic of API integrations it can even do
1:49
things like toggling slow mode in twitch chat
1:52
without you having to manually alt tab to the chat window and position your
1:57
cursor and then alt tab back to where you were so the stream deck just makes
2:02
it a lot easier to execute these commands when you're live streaming a
2:06
game or whatever else and i was also pretty impressed by the ease of the
2:10
setup and configuration process but let's go deeper what if 15 actions isn't
2:15
enough for you fear not you can put actions in folders to fit up to
2:21
actions onto a single stream deck wait did i say 210 i mean unlimited a recent
2:28
update allows you to nest folders inside of other folders
2:32
dog anyway what's the stream deck like to use while streaming not sure what to
2:37
tell you without sounding repetitive assuming you've set everything up
2:40
correctly it works exactly as you'd expect also the automatic dimming of
2:45
inactive scenes and sources makes it really easy to tell what's going on just
2:49
by glancing at the stream deck it just works
2:53
so for serious streamers the value is pretty clear and that's been thoroughly
2:57
covered by people who are a lot more into that scene with that said it
3:02
wouldn't be a taran video without a list of complaints and suggestions so here we
3:06
go the current gui doesn't make it obvious that you can right-click here to
3:09
get more options the web-based image creator is cool but it requires you to
3:13
save an image onto your computer before you can put it onto the stream deck
3:17
which adds an extra step the integrated cord is too short the concave keycaps
3:21
can cause reflections making the screens hard to read there's significant
3:25
parallax on the keys which combined with the stand's limited adjustability means
3:30
that finding a good viewing angle can be quite difficult
3:33
the stand flops around when you pick it up and it also doesn't really work in
3:37
portrait mode which is also not supported in the software one of my
3:40
units suffered from image retention which elgato insists is rare having
3:45
never been a hardware issue but i still wish there was an automatic sleep mode i
3:50
wish we had options for font size color and position and simple background
3:54
colors on the keys i wish i could dynamically change a key's image and
3:58
function based upon say an ini file
4:02
somewhere as controlled by a script of my own making i wish that multiple
4:06
stream decks per computer were supported and i wish that gifs were supported even
4:10
though it would mostly just be used for fun but despite all this i still really
4:15
like the stream deck and i've been using it daily at work for several months now
4:19
but not for twitch streaming i use it for video editing and folder navigation
4:24
you may have seen my diy 87 macro keyboard video a while ago there have
4:29
been several developments since then and i have more macro keys on my desk than
4:34
ever before so the stream deck fits in perfectly it's Windows integration means
4:40
that you can assign websites hotkeys and even the direct opening of programs
4:44
scripts or files an extremely powerful feature in the right hands
4:49
and these are the right hands wink so after painstakingly
4:54
restructuring all of my autohotkey scripts to work in such a way that
4:58
individual functions with parameters could be launched directly from single
5:03
keys on the stream deck i was able to consolidate my peripherals from this
5:08
to this and all of the code for that is on my github linked below by the way i
5:13
only did it that way because i literally ran out of key combinations but you can
5:17
probably just use the hotkey command and have that trigger a script that's a lot
5:21
more simple now if 150 dollars sounds
5:24
too expensive and you don't think you need all these features you certainly
5:29
could create a poor man's stream deck by binding some
5:33
keyboard shortcuts onto a decent numpad like this one and you could use auto
5:38
hotkey for application directing and or detection you could also add lua macros
5:43
or interception to make it independent from the normal numpad
5:47
and then you could print out little images onto envelope stamps cut them out
5:52
and paste them onto the keys you'd end up with something that looks like this
5:57
and for only 17 but it's a real pain to get all of that
6:02
working so while it is more expensive i'd definitely consider the stream deck
6:07
worthwhile for productivity freaks you guys know who you are and serious
6:11
streamers alike i still wish it supported gifs though
6:16
but you know what else doesn't support gifs the massdrop exclusive sennheiser
6:20
hd 6x headphones currently available for
6:24
only 200 with free shipping to the usa these are based on the sennheiser hd
6:29
650s which are still widely considered to be the best headphones under a
6:32
thousand dollars by the audiophile community they sound smooth and laid
6:36
back with balanced mid-range and a natural sounding bass
6:39
sorry i mean bass there have been no adjustments to the sound signature from
6:43
the hd 650 to the hd6xx the visual aesthetic has been updated to
6:47
a deep midnight blue with black name plates they've got soft ear pads with
6:52
elliptical ear cups that follow the ear and a detachable six foot cable so go
6:56
check them out on mass drop at the link below thanks for watching give the video a
7:01
like dislike get subscribed get belled or don't whatever you can buy the stream
7:06
deck on amazon if you want also check out our merch store and community forum
7:10
we have so many things let's see i think i have a macro for ending the