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I don't understand what problem OBS solves. It records video, but Windows and macOS already come with video recorders built in. So OBS is better somehow. How?

I don't understand what problem OBS solves. It records video, but Windows and macOS already come with video recorders built in. So OBS is better somehow. How? Why is OBS better than built-in OS recorders?

dbbk 6y ago
It does more than record video. The use case I have for it is applying green screen to a camera feed, and then being able to pipe that video into an app that doesn't natively support green screens (ie Google Meet)
- aloer 6y ago
  Is the project linked here what you use to add OBS output to a video call or is there another way? What would I do if I want the enhanced stream to be piped to screen share instead of webcam? Most video chat solutions will show webcam and shared screen differently
  - rzzzt 6y ago
    VirtualCam was already a thing, but only for Windows (not sure what is the backstory behind the more recent version being maintained by someone else; I think I'm using catxfish's version): https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-virtualcam.539/ https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-virtualcam.539/ OBS has full desktop as well as window capturing capabilities, so if you only want to show the contents of a single window, you would add a "window capture" item to your scene: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/wiki/Sources-Guide#window-capture https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/wiki/Sources-Guide#... ...then select "VirtualCam" from the Tools menu, and click "Start" to start sending images to the selected virtual camera. These virtual devices appear in eg. Zoom, so if you select it and enable video within the app, others will see 5 faces and Visual Studio Code having a conversation. (Of course you can add more sources to the scene, aligning them appropriately, so you can have your face in the corner alongside the captured window.)
mdszy 6y ago
OBS is primarily for streaming. It also has a lot of advanced features beyond simple recording of a video source or your screen. ALSO the name is literally "open broadcaster studio" Maybe take two seconds to investigate what you're talking about before making comments like this. Sheesh.
marcinzm 6y ago
OBS let's you edit video on the fly and the pipe the output somewhere else. For example, you can take the video of you playing a game, add a video of your face from your webcam to the corner, add text overlays of your channel name and then send the result to twitch.
wilsjacob 6y ago
OBS and SLOBS are internal capture++. They allow for more complex multi-scene/input (mic and video) setups and allow you to setup configured "scenes" that are comprised of multiple things. Think of them as the difference between either having a stream or a recording that is just you or your screen versus having a professional style multi-input shoot like a news channel with tickers and graphics included.
sosborn 6y ago
OBS is essentially a live video production studio. Multiple scenes, multiple sources, title cards, etc. can all be controlled with OBS on the fly as you stream.
- EricE 6y ago
  "OBS is essentially a live video production studio. Multiple scenes, multiple sources, title cards, etc. can all be controlled with OBS on the fly as you stream." This. And you can have multiple layouts (scenes) and quickly switch between them. It's a video switcher on steroids.
greggyb 6y ago
It's not about recording so much as managing a broadcast. You can configure many inputs which include external video (e.g. a webcam), media on the machine (recorded video or images), and screens on the device, and outputting this as a unified stream. This stream may be passed on as a virtual video device, which other programs can use, or to a stream host (e.g. Twitch), or be recorded. These various inputs can be arranged into "scenes" for easy management and switching among them. If all you need to do is record the raw video from a video device, you don't need OBS.
- duskwuff 6y ago
  Game streaming (like Twitch) is an extremely common use case for OBS, and it's a great demonstration of what's possible. A lot of streamers will broadcast a composite of their screen, their webcam (often with green-screen masking), a feed of their chat, and various other graphics. All of this is pretty straightforward to do with OBS, and would be a significant effort to build otherwise.
colecut 6y ago
OBS does much more than let you record with your webcam.. You can import a Window capture device, or a Display capture device, or set up a combination of different windows (Display capture with Webcam capture overlaid in the corner for example, like most modern tutorials) OBS is feature rich, the native video recorder is no comparison.

dbbk 6y ago

It does more than record video. The use case I have for it is applying green screen to a camera feed, and then being able to pipe that video into an app that doesn't natively support green screens (ie Google Meet)

aloer 6y ago
Is the project linked here what you use to add OBS output to a video call or is there another way? What would I do if I want the enhanced stream to be piped to screen share instead of webcam? Most video chat solutions will show webcam and shared screen differently
- rzzzt 6y ago
  VirtualCam was already a thing, but only for Windows (not sure what is the backstory behind the more recent version being maintained by someone else; I think I'm using catxfish's version): https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-virtualcam.539/ https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-virtualcam.539/ OBS has full desktop as well as window capturing capabilities, so if you only want to show the contents of a single window, you would add a "window capture" item to your scene: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/wiki/Sources-Guide#window-capture https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/wiki/Sources-Guide#... ...then select "VirtualCam" from the Tools menu, and click "Start" to start sending images to the selected virtual camera. These virtual devices appear in eg. Zoom, so if you select it and enable video within the app, others will see 5 faces and Visual Studio Code having a conversation. (Of course you can add more sources to the scene, aligning them appropriately, so you can have your face in the corner alongside the captured window.)

mdszy 6y ago

OBS is primarily for streaming. It also has a lot of advanced features beyond simple recording of a video source or your screen. ALSO the name is literally "open broadcaster studio" Maybe take two seconds to investigate what you're talking about before making comments like this. Sheesh.

marcinzm 6y ago

OBS let's you edit video on the fly and the pipe the output somewhere else. For example, you can take the video of you playing a game, add a video of your face from your webcam to the corner, add text overlays of your channel name and then send the result to twitch.

wilsjacob 6y ago

OBS and SLOBS are internal capture++. They allow for more complex multi-scene/input (mic and video) setups and allow you to setup configured "scenes" that are comprised of multiple things. Think of them as the difference between either having a stream or a recording that is just you or your screen versus having a professional style multi-input shoot like a news channel with tickers and graphics included.

sosborn 6y ago

OBS is essentially a live video production studio. Multiple scenes, multiple sources, title cards, etc. can all be controlled with OBS on the fly as you stream.

EricE 6y ago
"OBS is essentially a live video production studio. Multiple scenes, multiple sources, title cards, etc. can all be controlled with OBS on the fly as you stream." This. And you can have multiple layouts (scenes) and quickly switch between them. It's a video switcher on steroids.

greggyb 6y ago

It's not about recording so much as managing a broadcast. You can configure many inputs which include external video (e.g. a webcam), media on the machine (recorded video or images), and screens on the device, and outputting this as a unified stream. This stream may be passed on as a virtual video device, which other programs can use, or to a stream host (e.g. Twitch), or be recorded. These various inputs can be arranged into "scenes" for easy management and switching among them. If all you need to do is record the raw video from a video device, you don't need OBS.

duskwuff 6y ago
Game streaming (like Twitch) is an extremely common use case for OBS, and it's a great demonstration of what's possible. A lot of streamers will broadcast a composite of their screen, their webcam (often with green-screen masking), a feed of their chat, and various other graphics. All of this is pretty straightforward to do with OBS, and would be a significant effort to build otherwise.

colecut 6y ago

OBS does much more than let you record with your webcam.. You can import a Window capture device, or a Display capture device, or set up a combination of different windows (Display capture with Webcam capture overlaid in the corner for example, like most modern tutorials) OBS is feature rich, the native video recorder is no comparison.