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OBS Studio

How to Prevent Audio Gaps Between Videos in a YouTube Loop Stream

Use OBS Media Source Loop for one file or VLC Video Loop Playlist for multiple files. Neither setting guarantees gapless audio, so monitor the actual transitions before going live.

By VGSources Team 4 min read
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To prevent audio gaps in a YouTube loop stream, configure the media source that feeds your encoder—not YouTube’s viewer-side Loop control. In OBS, enable Loop for one file in a Media Source, or Loop Playlist for a sequence in a VLC Video source. Those settings repeat playback, but OBS does not promise gapless audio, so test the actual transitions in your outgoing mix before going live.

First, identify which kind of YouTube loop you mean

YouTube’s Loop control is for a viewer repeating a video or playlist in the watch player. It does not change the media source in a creator’s live broadcast. For a broadcast, repetition is handled by the software or service feeding video and audio to YouTube. See YouTube’s instructions for looping videos or playlists.

If you are broadcasting prerecorded footage—such as a gameplay video or a playlist of clips—check the source in your encoder. The OBS options below cover one local file and a playlist.

Loop one file in OBS

  1. In OBS, add a Media Source to the scene that supplies the video and audio for your stream.
  2. Choose the media file you want to repeat and enable its Loop property.
  3. Play the file through its ending and back to its beginning while monitoring the outgoing audio mix. Listen for a pause, click, abrupt cut, or change in loudness at the boundary.

OBS describes the Media Source Loop property as restarting the file after playback completes. Its documentation lists supported media types including MP4, MOV, MKV, MP3, AAC, OGG, and WAV. It does not say that the end-to-start transition is gapless. See the OBS Media Sources documentation.

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Loop a playlist in OBS

  1. Install VLC if it is not already installed. OBS requires VLC for the VLC Video source type.
  2. Add a VLC Video source and put the intended media items in its playlist in the order you want them to play.
  3. Enable Loop Playlist.
  4. If the source appears or disappears as you change scenes, review its visibility behavior. OBS provides options that can stop playback when a source is not visible or restart it when it becomes visible.
  5. Listen through several item changes, including the last-to-first transition, while monitoring the outgoing mix.

OBS documents the VLC Video source’s playlist, loop, shuffle, network-caching, and visibility behavior, but does not guarantee seamless audio between playlist items. Choose this source for a sequence of files; use Media Source Loop for a single file. In either case, verify the transitions you will actually broadcast. See the OBS Media Sources documentation.

If there is still a gap

  • Confirm the correct loop setting. A single file needs Media Source Loop; a multi-file sequence needs VLC Video Loop Playlist.
  • Check playlist order and the boundary itself. Listen to each file change and the playlist’s final-to-first transition, not just a section in the middle of a clip.
  • Check whether scene visibility is changing playback. A VLC source configured to stop when hidden may not behave as intended when you switch scenes.
  • Separate source playback from delivery to YouTube. YouTube’s ingestion requirements do not establish that changing a stream’s delivery settings will repair a pause already present at a media loop boundary.

The cited OBS and YouTube documentation does not identify a universal cause or a guaranteed fix for a gap that remains. It supports configuring repeat and checking the playback boundary; diagnose the transition you can hear rather than assuming a viewer’s YouTube Loop control affects the live feed.

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Why YouTube’s HLS settings are a different issue

YouTube’s HLS guidance concerns how a live stream is delivered: it describes segmented video rather than a continuous stream like RTMP, notes HLS has higher latency, and specifies segment and audio requirements. It does not say that changing those requirements removes a pause at the source’s loop boundary. Consult YouTube’s HLS setup guidance if you are configuring HLS ingestion; do not treat it as a substitute for checking the media source.

Similarly, the YouTube embedded-player parameters describe looping a single video in an embedded player: set loop to 1 and set playlist to the same video ID. That is for an embedded player, not an OBS broadcast source. The details are in Google’s YouTube Embedded Players and Player Parameters documentation.

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