Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)

[Rodney]

I'm always on the lookout for useful software and this one has caught my attention.

For those with the time and interest I'm going to put OBS on my recommendation list... specifically the multiplatform release although the regular release works well also.

 

Background

While not everyone is into broadcasting live events I'd say everyone has a need for video capture and this software does that too. It actually might be overkill in that category in many ways.

 

Although the windows version of the multiplatform release is not considered stable I find it works just fine and in many ways better than the standard release.

 

For those interested in just the screen recording capability, the key is to set up the program to record/save to a specific folder rather than on online broadcasting service such as youtube, twitch, etc.

A second consideration is that the format saved in may initially be .flv or x264 video format. x264 videos will generally show black screens in programs like Quicktime Pro so will need to be converted. The files play well and convert easily in VLC media player and most other modern video players.

 

And don't forget to set up your recordings so they date/time stamp the filenames. I like that feature.

 

Here's a few words from their site:

What is OBS?

Open Broadcaster Software is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Supported features include:

• Encoding using H264 (x264) and AAC.
• Support for Intel Quick Sync Video (QSV) and NVENC.
• Unlimited number of scenes and sources.
• Live RTMP streaming to Twitch, YouTube, DailyMotion, Hitbox and more.
• File output to MP4 or FLV.
• GPU-based game capture for high performance game streaming.
• DirectShow capture device support (webcams, capture cards, etc).
• Windows 8 high speed monitor capture support.
• Bilinear or lanczos3 resampling.

And a few words on the multiplatform release:

OBS MultiPlatform is a complete rewrite of the original OBS from the ground up, with the main goals of course being multiplatform support, a more thorough feature set, and a much more powerful API. A very early and simple release is currently available for Mac.

OBS MultiPlatform will eventually support many of the advanced requested features not present in the original OBS, such as multiple stream outputs and scene previewing. It does not have these features in this release.

 

You can even automatically apply filters to recordings such as chromakey to remove parts of your recordings or masks to brand your videos, etc.

Check it out if you have the extra time and interest. You have to follow the link to their forum to download the current windows multiplatform release.

Link: http://obsproject.com

[Mechadelphia]

Thank you Rodney for posting this.

 

I had not heard of this software before you posted this so I downloaded it and tried it out. It is working well for me so far.

 

I have been using CamStudio to record my video tutorials but I am going to use this OBS for my next ones because it is outperforming the version of CamStudio that I use in just about every area that I use it for.

 

Thanks.

[Rodney]

I'm glad you can get some use out of it Mack

 

I'll add that the conversion process from a recording/capture session from .flv to .mp4 format is an easy one (at least with the multiplatform release... I doubt I'll be using the standard release as it doesn't have the bells and whistles present in multiplatform.

 

Similar to A:M's 'Save As Animation' conversion feature all you have to do is select 'Remux Recordings' from the main file menu, select a source recording, hit 'remux' and bam! Conversion done. The conversion is almost instantaneous (for recording sessions I've tested).

 

Me likey.

[Mechadelphia]

I am using the regular OBS rather than the multiplatform release (I did not notice that there were two different versions before I downloaded the regular version).

 

My tests yesterday were saved as .flv and, as you suggested, the regular release does not have a conversion option so yesterday I used Handbrake to do the conversion to mp4.

 

For some reason the files save as .flv by default but I learned today that you can change it so that it saves its files as .mp4. No conversion needed .

[Rodney]

I see that Open Broadcaster Software was recently updated (as of 23 Sep).

 

https://obsproject.com/

 

I downloaded and installed and it appears to work as good if not slightly better than the previous release.

One of the things that is nice about OBS is how programmable it is and the basic idea of 'scenes' is handy for when you want to invoke a specific type of recording or even switch back and forth between.

 

Disclaimer: As I primarily use Camtasia for screen recording I haven't delved very deeply into OBS and have only used the basic screen recording functions in order to determine how useful the program will be for those without a dedicated screen recording program.

[robcat2075]

I was looking for something like this when the Image Contest Awards video was mostly just going to be the scratching of the cards.

 

I was thinking it would be cool to do that "live" but I wanted some way to cut between a camera and maybe some title graphics and do it as a live stream to YouTube.

 

I guess this software would do that, although trying to do everything live in one session would be quite a handful.

[Rodney]

I'd love to investigate using OBS for live streaming but confess that it's beyond me at this moment.

I'm not sure if that is more for lack of interest or just because I'm lazy.

I suspect that latter because I do have some interest.