To show the podcast episode currently playing inside your 24/7 YouTube video, add an OBS Text Source and enable Read from file. The text source reads a plain-text file containing the episode title, which you update whenever playback moves to another episode.
This on-video title is separate from the title of the YouTube live broadcast. OBS can display the current episode in the picture, but changing YouTube’s broadcast metadata does not change that overlay, and OBS’s playlist source does not by itself establish a connection that writes the active episode title into your text file.
Decide where the episode title should appear
Start with the viewer’s experience rather than the OBS controls. Someone may join halfway through an episode, watch on a phone, or listen while the video is partly hidden by another window. The title should be readable without covering the speaker, subtitles, artwork, or any important visual information.
A lower-third is usually the least disruptive choice. Place the title in a clear band near the bottom of the frame, with enough contrast between the letters and the video behind them. If the footage already contains busy backgrounds, use a backing panel or outline. A title card between episodes can work for a devotional or educational channel, but it is less useful when a viewer joins after the card has disappeared.
Keep the visible text short enough to read at the size at which your audience watches. For example, Episode 18 — Building a Morning Routine is more useful than a long filename such as podcast_final_mix_v3_morning_routine_1080p.mp4. The file can contain a subtitle or presenter name on a second line if that information genuinely helps, but decide the format before you prepare a large playlist.
In OBS, sources higher in the Sources list are rendered above sources below them. Put the Text Source above the video or artwork source, then position it in the preview. The OBS Sources guide explains this stacking arrangement and how sources are positioned within a scene.
If you run several scenes, add the title source to the scene that actually goes to the live output. A common mistake is to create the overlay in a preparation scene and then start the broadcast from a different scene. Check the programme scene in the OBS preview before you rely on it overnight.
Add a Text Source in OBS
Open the scene used for the podcast stream. In the Sources panel, select the add button and choose Text (GDI+) on Windows or the corresponding text source available in your OBS installation. Give it a descriptive name such as Current episode title, rather than leaving it as a generic source name.
The name matters when you later have several text elements, such as a station name, a presenter label, a notice about the next episode, and the current title. A clear source name also makes it easier to hand the setup to another operator.
Before enabling file reading, you can type a temporary title into the source’s text field. This lets you test the font, size, colour, outline, alignment and position without involving the playback system. Use a long example title during this step. A short title may look fine in the preview while a longer real title runs off the edge of the frame.
The text should remain readable against the actual video, not only against a paused or dark test frame. Watch a few seconds of the programme with the overlay enabled. If the background changes from pale artwork to a dark interview shot, test both. An outline or semi-transparent backing panel is often more dependable than choosing a single bright colour and hoping the background stays consistent.
The OBS Text Sources documentation describes the source’s custom text and file-reading options. Follow the labels in your installed version, as the layout of the properties window can vary between releases.
Enable “Read from file”
In the Text Source properties, select Read from file. Browse to a plain-text file containing the title you want to display. Keep that file in a stable folder with a simple name, such as current-episode.txt, rather than pointing to a file inside a temporary downloads folder.
Put the title in the file and save it. OBS should then use the file’s contents for the Text Source. The important arrangement is simple: the playback source produces the programme, while the Text Source reads the current label from the file. They are related by your operating procedure or by a separate integration, not by an automatic promise from the playlist itself.
Use a plain-text file and be consistent about its encoding. Titles containing Hindi, Bengali, Tamil or other non-Latin scripts should be tested in the chosen font before the stream begins. If the font does not contain the required characters, the file may be correct while the on-screen result shows missing glyphs or boxes. Choose a font that supports the languages you publish and test the exact title text.
Do not put the full path, internal notes or operator instructions in the file unless you want viewers to see them. A useful file might contain:
Episode 18 — Building a Morning Routine
If you want two lines, use a deliberate layout rather than allowing an uncontrolled wrap:
Episode 18
Building a Morning Routine
The second format gives you more control over the title block, but it also requires you to keep every update within the same visual pattern. Decide whether an empty file should produce a blank overlay or whether it should contain a fallback such as Podcast programme. Test that fallback before using it.
Update the title file when playback changes
The file must change when the programme changes. If a person operates the playlist, make updating the title part of the transition checklist: stop or reach the end of the current item, replace the contents of current-episode.txt, save it, confirm the new text in the OBS preview, and then allow the next item to begin.
The order can be adjusted to suit your player, but the operator needs a way to avoid a mismatch. If the next video starts before the file is changed, viewers may see the previous episode title over the new audio. If the file changes too early, the new title may appear while the old episode is still playing.
A safer manual routine is to prepare the next title in a separate note, wait for the transition point, update the file, and watch the preview for the change. Do not assume that the title shown in a file manager is the title OBS has visibly refreshed. Confirm the actual scene output.
For a small channel with a handful of long episodes, this manual method can be more transparent than adding an untested automation layer. It gives you a visible file that can be inspected after a restart and a straightforward recovery step if the title becomes wrong. Its weakness is equally clear: an unattended playlist cannot depend on a person who is not present.
If your stream changes regularly, document the procedure next to the control computer. Include the file location, the title format, the scene name, and what to display during an error or gap. This is particularly useful for a local news loop or a community channel where several people may take turns managing the broadcast.
For broader operational planning, the checklist in how to keep a YouTube podcast stream running while adding new episodes is relevant because adding media and updating its viewer-facing labelling are separate jobs.
Understand playlist playback and title synchronisation
OBS can play a local video playlist through its VLC Video Source. The OBS media sources guide documents playlist playback, including looping and shuffle controls, and notes the VLC requirement for that source. If episode order matters, leave shuffle off and verify the order from the actual playlist.
That playback function and the title file are two different mechanisms. The playlist decides which media item is played. The Text Source displays the contents of the selected file. The OBS documentation reviewed for this workflow does not establish that the VLC playlist automatically writes the active item’s title into an OBS Text Source file.
This distinction matters because a filename is not necessarily a published episode title. A file might be called ep18_final2.mp4, while the viewer-facing title should be Episode 18 — Building a Morning Routine. Even if an automation tool can read the filename, it may not know the clean title, language, episode number or spelling you want to show.
There are two practical approaches to updating the file:
| Approach | Strength | Trade-off and check |
|---|---|---|
| Operator updates the file at each transition | Simple, visible and based on OBS’s documented file-reading source | Requires a person or a dependable operating procedure, and it is easy to miss a transition |
| Automation writes playback metadata to the file | Can keep a long-running programme labelled without manual edits | Depends on the player, script or plugin, metadata quality, compatibility and recovery behaviour |
Community discussions mention tools such as TUNA for writing media details to a file. Treat that as a lead for investigation, not as a universal OBS feature or guarantee. Check that the tool reads the same playback source used by your stream, writes the expected text format, and continues working after the computer, player or OBS restarts.
Test the integration with the exact content you intend to broadcast. Include a title with accented characters, a title with Indian-language text, a long title, a missing title and a filename that does not match the published episode name. Also test what happens when a video ends, when the next item cannot be opened, and when the player starts from the beginning after a restart.
If you need a fully unattended stream but cannot verify the handoff, keep the overlay conservative. A stable programme label is less informative than the current episode, but it is preferable to displaying the wrong episode for hours. The choice depends on whether accurate episode identification or uninterrupted playback is the more important viewer need.
Separate overlay text from YouTube broadcast metadata
A visible episode title is part of the outgoing picture. OBS composites the Text Source into the scene, and the encoded stream carries those pixels to YouTube. A viewer can see the overlay even if they do not expand the video description or inspect the live page details.
The YouTube live title is different. The YouTube Live API reference represents a broadcast as a YouTube video resource and exposes its title as broadcast metadata. That title belongs to the live watch page and related YouTube surfaces; it is not a graphic placed over your video by YouTube.
You can therefore use both fields for different jobs. The broadcast title might say 24/7 Podcast Programme — New Episodes and Archive, giving a viewer arriving midstream a clear description of the channel. The overlay might say Episode 18 — Building a Morning Routine, telling the viewer what is playing at that moment.
Changing the YouTube broadcast title will not change the Text Source. Conversely, changing current-episode.txt will not update the title shown on the YouTube watch page. If you want both to change, treat them as two update tasks and test each one separately. The YouTube guide to the life of a broadcast is useful when you are deciding which broadcast details belong to the long-running live page.
A YouTube podcast playlist is another separate layer. YouTube describes a podcast show as a playlist whose episodes are videos, with guidance about full episodes, ordering and descriptive naming in its official podcast setup guidance. That playlist organisation does not document an automatic connection to the title overlay inside a separate 24/7 broadcast.
Keep the live page metadata useful to someone who arrives at any time. Do not put a title in the broadcast metadata that becomes misleading after the next episode starts. If the page needs to identify the current episode, update it through a separately tested process, and remember that this still does not replace the on-video Text Source.
Test the transition before leaving the stream unattended
A title overlay can look correct while the stream is stationary and still fail at the point that matters: the change between episodes. Test a complete transition using the same playlist, scene and file path that the live stream will use.
Watch for four things. First, does the next media item start when expected. Second, does the title file contain the intended text. Third, does OBS show that new text in the programme scene. Fourth, do the video and title change closely enough that a viewer would not reasonably associate the label with the wrong episode.
Test a restart as well. Close and reopen OBS, or use the recovery procedure you intend to use during an overnight problem. Confirm that the source still points to the same file, that the file still contains a sensible title, and that the correct scene is selected. A relative path or a file stored on a removable drive can cause a setup to behave differently after recovery.
Check the title at the actual viewing size. A label that is readable in the OBS preview may be too small in a phone-sized player. Look for clipping at the right edge, unexpected line breaks, unsupported characters and titles that cover faces or captions. If the title is longer than your design allows, decide whether to shorten it manually or permit a controlled second line.
Define a fallback for each failure. If the title file is empty, display a general programme name or hide the source. If an episode fails to load, do not leave the failed episode’s title on screen while another item plays. If the stream is repaired after a drop, verify both the current media item and the current title before walking away.
The reliability of the whole arrangement is limited by its least-tested handoff. A stable video loop does not prove that title updates work, and a correctly updated file does not prove that the right scene is being broadcast. Keep a short written test record so that a later operator can repeat the checks instead of relying on memory.
If the computer itself is the part you do not want operating overnight, a cloud-based workflow can remove the need to leave that machine running, but it does not remove the need to prepare and test your title workflow. StreamNeo is useful here when you want to upload the finished video, connect the YouTube stream key, and have the continuous broadcast run without installing software or keeping your own computer switched on; the episode title still needs to be part of the video or a separately managed overlay before you rely on it.
For a wider review of unattended operation, see how to set up automatic recovery for a YouTube stream running 24/7. If you are deciding whether the computer-based arrangement is practical in the first place, how much it costs to run a 24/7 YouTube stream in India covers the operating trade-offs without reducing them to the overlay alone.
Before committing, compare the operating options on the pricing page. When the file and channel are ready, start free — 24-hour trial, no card.
FAQ
Can OBS automatically show the current playlist item’s title?
Do not assume that it can. OBS documents VLC playlist playback and Text Sources that read a file, but those documents do not establish a native connection that writes the active playlist item into that file. Use a manual procedure or a separately tested integration for the exact player and content.
Will changing the YouTube live title change the text on the video?
No. The YouTube live title is page-level broadcast metadata, while the OBS Text Source is part of the video scene. Update the text file for the on-video label and update YouTube metadata separately if the watch-page information also needs to change.
Can I use the filename as the episode title?
You can, but it may not be suitable for viewers. Filenames often contain abbreviations, version notes or technical suffixes, so a maintained text file lets you show a cleaner title and consistent formatting.
What should I test before leaving a podcast stream running overnight?
Test a real episode transition, a long title, special characters, a missing title, a player restart and the recovery path for OBS. Confirm the title in the actual programme scene, not only in an editing or preparation scene, and make sure the visible label matches the media that is playing.