To show the currently playing episode on an always-on YouTube podcast stream, keep the public broadcast title stable and place the changing episode name in the video as a “Now playing” overlay. In OBS, you can use a text source that reads a file updated by your playlist process, or a browser source for a designed layout or remote data feed.
Changing the broadcast title is a separate operation: it edits YouTube’s listing, not the words drawn inside the video. Choose between these approaches based on where you want viewers to see the episode and whether a person or an automated process will update it.
Keep the broadcast identity stable
Think of the YouTube broadcast as the public event or video, and the live stream as the transmission settings associated with it. The broadcast has a title and description; the stream resource supplies settings for sending the video. YouTube’s documentation on broadcasts and streams describes how a broadcast can be associated with a stream resource, including reuse of stream settings.
For a continuous podcast channel, a title such as “The Evening Podcast — Live” can identify the overall channel experience for the whole broadcast. The episode currently playing changes more often than that identity, so show it in the video image instead. Viewers arriving at different times can then recognise the channel and see the current episode without treating every playlist change as a new public event.
There are exceptions. If each episode is meant to be a separately discoverable listing, with its own start and end, separate scheduled broadcasts may suit your publishing plan better. YouTube says a scheduled stream can appear as upcoming and can let viewers select “Notify me”; that is useful for an individual event, but it is not the same as a single continuous video. The choice depends on whether you are running a station with changing programmes or publishing distinct live events.
Before setting up the label, write down what your public title represents. If it names the channel or a continuing show, keep it steady while the episode label changes. If it names the current episode, viewers may expect the listing itself to change, but remember that an edit to metadata does not draw a label over the video.
Choose a visual Now Playing label
A visible label is part of the outgoing picture. A text-file source can display plain text such as “Now playing: Episode 18 — The old city market”; a browser source can add an episode number, artwork, colours or layout. In both cases the outgoing video has to contain the overlay. YouTube’s title and description remain a distinct layer of information around that video.
Keep the first version simple. Use a short episode title that fits on one or two lines, and position it where it will not obscure a guest’s face, captions or artwork that matters. If an episode title is unusually long, decide whether your automation will shorten it, wrap it, or use a subtitle field. Test real titles from your archive rather than judging the layout with a short placeholder.
Also decide how the label behaves between episodes. It might briefly say “Next episode” or show the programme name, but avoid leaving the previous episode visible after its audio has ended. That is a content workflow decision as much as a graphics decision: the process that starts the next media item should also update the text or data that feeds the overlay.
If your programme is scheduled as a sequence, the Marathi radio livestream guide with song schedules offers a related way to think about communicating what is playing. For a podcast sourced from audio, the guide to turning podcast audio into a YouTube live stream with a poster covers the broader presentation context. Here, the specific job is narrower: make the currently playing episode legible while the public broadcast stays recognisable.
Build an OBS text-file overlay
OBS Studio’s source system lets you combine media and graphics in a scene. Its sources guide documents text sources, their positioning and sizing, and the order in which sources appear. A text source can read from a text file, which gives another process a straightforward place to supply the changing words.
Start with the scene already used for your continuous broadcast. Add a text source for the label, enable its file-reading option, and choose a text file in a location that will remain available to OBS for the whole run. Put the source above the background artwork in the scene’s source order, then position and size it in the preview. Interface labels can vary by OBS version, so check the documentation and the installed version rather than relying on a button name from an old tutorial.
Make a small sample file first, with a title that is long enough to test wrapping. Confirm that OBS displays the contents, then edit the file while watching the preview. This isolates the basic path before you connect any playlist automation. If the preview does not change, check that the source is reading the same file you edited and that the file can be opened by the account running OBS.
Keep the file format plain and predictable. A title can include punctuation and non-Latin scripts, but your chosen font needs the relevant glyphs. Test Hindi, Marathi or other scripts you expect to use, along with punctuation and longer words. A missing glyph can appear as a box even though the text file itself contains the right characters.
Think through what happens if the update fails. A text source may continue showing the previous file contents, so the stale episode title can remain over new audio. A neutral fallback such as the show name is safer than a false episode label. Before launch, decide how a person can identify a stale label and replace it if the automation stops updating.
This approach suits a modest label and an existing OBS scene. It is easy to inspect because the data is plain text, but the text file has to be updated reliably and the computer running OBS must have access to it. If you run the stream from a remote or hosted setup rather than your own desktop, account for where the file lives and how updates reach the machine rendering OBS.
Update episode text with automation
The text-file source does not know which episode is playing. A playlist controller, media automation workflow or small local script needs to write the current title when playback advances. OBS then reads the file as a visual input. This is an implementation pattern built around OBS’s documented source capability; it does not imply that every playlist application has a tested integration or that updates are synchronised automatically.
Define the hand-off clearly: the playback process identifies the next episode, obtains the title you want viewers to see, and replaces the file contents. Prefer one complete write of the new title over a sequence that briefly leaves a half-written label. If the tool offers an event or callback when a new item starts, use that as the trigger and verify it with the actual playlist. If it does not, you may need a manual step or a different controller that exposes the current item.
Keep the title source of truth consistent. Episode names in filenames often contain technical details or inconsistent abbreviations, while the title shown to viewers may need cleaner punctuation. A small metadata list keyed by media file can map a filename to the display title. That is more work to maintain, but it avoids exposing an internal filename or an outdated working title.
Test ordinary transitions and awkward ones: a playlist skip, a missing file, a manual restart, and a reconnect. After a reconnect, check whether the current episode is still the one shown, or whether your automation has restarted the playlist from another point. A stream can resume video and audio while the label remains stale if these are driven by separate processes.
If the update path is a script, document who owns it and how to recover it. Keep a simple manual way to edit the text file, and include the location of that file in your operating notes. The goal is not to build a complicated automation stack; it is to make sure the words on screen follow the programme even when the playlist changes unexpectedly.
For some operators the harder problem is not the label but keeping the video process itself running through a source change or reconnect. The discussion of black screens when an MP4 changes in a 24/7 stream is relevant to that separate failure mode. A changing episode label cannot repair a playback transition, so test the picture, audio and text as three parts of the same hand-off.
Use a browser source for richer layouts
A browser source renders a web page as part of an OBS scene. The OBS browser-source guide explains that you can point it to a local file or URL and configure its viewport. This makes it suitable when plain text is not enough: a page can combine the episode title with artwork, a show mark, formatted text or other data that the page is designed to display.
Build or choose the overlay page separately from the broadcast scene. Set a viewport that matches the intended on-screen area, then add the browser source and place it in the scene like another visual source. If the page is local, the computer running OBS needs the file. If it is hosted, OBS needs to be able to load the URL while the stream is operating. OBS documents browser-source availability on Windows, macOS and Linux; confirm behaviour in your installed version and environment.
The episode data still needs a route into the page. That could be a local data file read by the page or a remote feed managed by your own workflow. Choose the simplest arrangement you can monitor. A remote page adds flexibility for changing designs without rebuilding a scene, but it also creates another dependency: if the page or feed cannot be reached, the overlay may not show the intended current title.
A browser source is useful when a label needs deliberate visual hierarchy. For example, the title might be prominent, with the series name smaller and cover artwork alongside it. It is also a better fit than a text file when the display requires multiple fields or richer formatting. The trade-off is that a web layout has more moving parts to inspect: the page, its data and its rendering inside OBS.
For a persistent loop with a browser-rendered graphic, see the guide to OBS browser-source settings for a persistent YouTube loop overlay. Use it for the source configuration questions, while treating episode selection and metadata as a separate workflow. Whether you choose text or a page, inspect the final scene at the same size viewers will see, not only in a close-up editor preview.
Keep broadcast metadata separate
YouTube Studio and the Live Streaming API let you change broadcast or video metadata such as title and description. The Live Streaming API reference documents broadcast resources, while YouTube’s broadcast lifecycle guide explains the lifecycle and notes that video metadata fields can be updated. These are listing-level changes; they do not place text inside the picture.
Use the metadata route when you intentionally want the YouTube listing itself to describe the current episode, or when correcting the overall title and description. You can edit settings in Studio, or use the API if your publishing workflow calls for programmatic metadata changes. YouTube also allows stream settings to be reused when creating another broadcast; review the copied details before using them, because the new broadcast can then be edited.
For a continuous station, changing the public title on every episode can make the listing less stable for someone who has saved or shared its link. It may still be the right choice for a format where each episode is the primary identity. In that case, explain to viewers what the title represents and decide who or what is responsible for keeping it current. Do not assume that updating metadata will also update an overlay, or that changing overlay text edits the public listing.
YouTube Help says tags have a minimal role in discovery, except where content is commonly misspelled. Tags therefore are not a substitute for a clear title or an on-screen episode label. Check the current YouTube live stream settings guidance before changing Studio settings, since the available controls and interface can change.
The two controls can coexist: a stable title and description can explain the channel, while an overlay identifies the episode playing now. If your editorial goal is a changing listing, update metadata deliberately and keep the visual label consistent with it. Treat those as separate publishing actions even if one automation process coordinates both.
Test episode changes on the live output
A correct OBS preview is necessary but not sufficient. View the actual YouTube output and check the point where one episode ends and the next begins. YouTube defines latency as the time between capture and viewer playback, and notes that lower latency can mean more buffering. The viewer may therefore see a title change later than the local preview; there is no universal refresh interval or guaranteed synchronisation between the audio transition and overlay update.
Start by testing a normal transition. Note what the playlist does, when the text file or page changes, and when the new label appears in the viewer’s output. Then test a skip and a reconnect. If you can, check from another device or browser so you are not relying on a single local view. The point is to observe how your own chain behaves, not to infer timing from the OBS preview alone.
OBS allows a browser source frame rate to be configured, but that setting is not a promise that a page’s data will arrive in step with audio. Keep refresh behaviour conservative and avoid polling or reloading more often than the page needs. For text-file updates, a complete write on an episode change is usually easier to reason about than continuous changes. Record any delay or stale-state behaviour you observe and address the cause in the hand-off.
If the picture freezes, audio drops, or the stream reconnects, test what happens to all three: playback, overlay and public metadata. The guide to YouTube stream latency problems on a 24/7 channel can help with a different but related viewer-facing issue. A metadata edit may appear in the listing while the outgoing image still shows the old episode, so verify both layers where relevant.
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FAQ
Does the YouTube title change automatically when the episode changes?
Do not rely on the public broadcast title changing with each playlist item. An overlay and YouTube metadata are different things: the overlay appears inside the video, while the title is part of the listing and must be changed through Studio or an API workflow if you want it to change.
Should I use an OBS text source or a browser source?
Use a text-file source for a straightforward label that another process can update. Choose a browser source when you need artwork, multiple fields, richer formatting or a remote data feed, and account for the extra page and data dependencies.
Will viewers see the label change at the same moment the audio changes?
Not necessarily. The OBS preview, outgoing stream and viewer playback are separate points in the chain, and latency can affect when a viewer sees the change. Test real episode transitions on the YouTube output, including skips and reconnects, rather than assuming an exact delay.
Can I keep a stable channel title and still identify each episode?
Yes. Keep the public title and description focused on the continuing show, then display the current episode in the video with an overlay. This keeps the broadcast identity stable while giving viewers a clear indication of what is playing.