I usually aim to not buy many gadgets, but since I am so involved with technology - my scale for what constitutes 'a lot of gadgets' might not be the same as yours ;) ... At least I aim to make sure everything I buy is really useful and the Elgato Stream Deck is definitely that..
Since I use a lot of software apps, including music, video, photo, web design, coding, browsing, administration, some games, reporting and others... I have a lot of keyboard shortcuts that I could use and it's pretty tough for me to remember them all. I have a gaming keyboard with a few shortcut keys but these require me to remember what I have programmed to them, so it's not much better than just remembering the original shortcut key combos sometimes.
Enter the Elgato Stream Deck - A USB box with 15 buttons that all have mini screens in them to allow them to display any image you choose! So now not only do I have 15 shortcut keys but they are all totally customisable AND they change in realtime as I use different apps... So I can have one set of shortcuts for browsing the web:
And then they change if I bring up the media player:
And change again if I play a game:
It takes a while to input all of the shortcuts and choose icons for each button, but the results are definitely worth it. Games are easier to play, videos are more fun to watch and productivity for media creation is guaranteed to increase too.
It is possible to also create folders in the interface, so that sub screens can be brought up for each app - meaning that actually there is an unlimited number of shortcuts available for each app, providing you move through some different menu screens on the device.
There's a bunch of preset buttons included for common actions, specifically for video streaming - since that's what this was originally intended for. So users of OBS, XSplit, Youtube and others are going to find this really useful.
I haven't gotten round to setting this up for streaming video yet, but when I do - expect to see a level-up in my video production and ability to show interesting scenes & clips in realtime :)
The closest I've been able to find to this over the years is the Optimus Maximus keyboards that allow you to customise every single key on a standard type computer keyboard! They are very pricey though - so not an option for me or most people. The Stream Deck is a great way to get the features without the cost:
Overall, I highly recommend the stream deck to anyone who plays games, makes media or who just wants to make their computer more useable - which is pretty much everyone I think!
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
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