Recording & streaming using OBS

OBS Studio is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Currently Linux, Mac and Windows Builds are available.

excerpt from obsproject.com (opens new window)

Prerequisites

• An official OBS Studio build: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/releases
• A secondary display, such as another monitor or projector

Guide for all platforms

You don't need to set up Twitch to record locally.

Set up your OBS scene

1. Open OBS Studio
2. Find the Sources panel and click the "+" icon
3. Add Display Capture
4. Select your secondary display in the display drop-down menu and click OK
   • If you cannot see your display on Windows, please follow the steps in the first post of this forum thread: https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/solution-for-black-screen-display-capture-even-after-performing-the-steps-on-obs-forum.112109/ (opens new window)
5. If you see nothing, right-click Display Capture in the Sources panel, hover Transform and click Fit to screen

Configuring video settings

1. Open OBS' settings
2. Click Output
3. Set the Base (Canvas) Resolution to your secondary display's resolution
4. Set the Output (Scaled) Resolution to your stream's target resolution
   • If you want the highest quality, then set this to 1920x1080 as Twitch's max resolution is this
5. Set the Common FPS Values to your stream's target FPS
   • If you want the smoothest video, then set this to 60 as that is the maximum Twitch will display

Configuring streaming settings

1. Open OBS' settings
2. Click Output
3. In the Streaming section, check Enable Advanced Encoder Settings and uncheck Enforce streaming service bitrate limits
   • Twitch has a maximum video bitrate of 6000kbps. If your internet upload speed is good, try streaming at this maximum
   • Twitch has a maximum audio bitrate of 320kbps, despite what OBS tells you. This is why we uncheck the Enforce streaming service bitrate limits, otherwise our audio will sound bitcrushed
4. Encoder preset is up to you. We usually use Quality

Configuring recording settings

1. Open OBS' settings
2. Click Output
3. In the Recording section, ensure Recording Format is set to mkv
   • mkv files are recoverable if OBS crashes which is why we use the container format
4. Recording Quality will ideally be set to Indistinguishable Quality, Large File Size
   • this is to maximize the quality of the recorded modV session. Compression artefacts are more visible in the lower Recording Quality options
5. Encoder should ideally be set to NVENC, if you do not have this option try selecting anything which has a Hardware option
   • We suggest adapting this setting to your own computer's requirements. This article explains more on how to determin the encoder setting: https://blog.streamlabs.com/how-to-optimize-your-settings-for-streamlabs-obs-f65d3cfdf196 (opens new window)

Configuring Twitch

Follow this guide on how to connect OBS to Twitch: https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/us/how-to-stream-to-twitch,news-21077.html (opens new window)

Recording / Streaming

In the main OBS window, click "Start Recording" to record locally. If you want to stream, click "Start Streaming".