Open Broadcaster Software

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a free and open-source cross-platform streaming and recording program built with Qt and maintained by the OBS Project. As of 2016, the software is now referred to as OBS Studio.[6] There are versions of OBS Studio available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions. OBS is funded on Open Collective.

Not to be confused with OpenBroadcaster.
Open Broadcaster Software
OBS Studio 24.0.0 running on Windows 10
Original author(s)Hugh "Jim" Bailey
Developer(s)Community
Initial releasev0.32a / 1 September 2012 (2012-09-01)[1]
Stable release
v25.0.8 / 26 April 2020 (2020-04-26)[2]
Repository
Written inC, C++[2]
Operating systemWindows 7 and later, macOS 10.11 and later, Linux[3]
PlatformIA-32 and x86-64
Available in55 languages[4]
List of languages
  • Arabic
  • Bulgarian
  • Bengali
  • Breton
  • Catalan
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • German
  • Greek
  • English
  • Spanish
  • Estonian
  • Basque
  • Finnish
  • French
  • Galician
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Croatian
  • Hungarian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Lithuanian
  • Norwegian
  • Bokmål
  • Dutch
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Slovak
  • Slovene
  • Serbian
  • Swedish
  • Tamil
  • Thai
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese
  • Chinese
TypeSoftware vision mixer, streaming media
LicenseGNU General Public License, version 2[5]
Websiteobsproject.com/ 

Overview

OBS Studio is a free and open-source software suite for recording and live streaming. Written in C, C++ and Qt, OBS provides real-time source and device capture, scene composition, encoding, recording, and broadcasting. Transmission of data is primarily done via the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) and can be sent to any RTMP supporting destination, including many presets for streaming websites such as YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and Facebook.[7]

For video encoding, OBS Studio is capable of using the x264 free software library,[8] Intel Quick Sync Video, Nvidia NVENC and the AMD Video Coding Engine to encode video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format and the H.265/HEVC format.[9] Multiple tracks of audio can be encoded using the AAC codec. Advanced users can choose to use any codecs and containers available in libavcodec / libavformat as well as output the stream to a custom ffmpeg URL.[10]

User interface

The main user interface is organized into five sections: scenes, sources, audio mixer, transitions, and controls. Scenes are groups of sources like live and recorded video, text and audio. The mixer panel lets the user mute the audio, and adjust the volume through virtual faders, and apply effects by pressing the cogwheel next to the mute button. The control panel has options for starting/stopping a stream or recording, a button to transform OBS to a more professional Studio Mode (see below), a button for opening the settings menu and a button to exit the program. The upper section has a live video preview, used to monitor and edit the current scene. The user interface can be switched to a variety of themes, including both dark and light themes, depending on what the user prefers.

When in Studio Mode, there are two canvas preview windows, the left one for modifying and preview of non-active scenes, while the right window is for preview of the live scene ("Preview" and "Program" respectively). In the middle there is a secondary transition button, allowing for transitioning to the non-active scene in the left window using user-defined "quick transitions".

There are some simple tutorials on the Internet that show how to use Open Broadcaster Software,[11][12][13] including more in-depth tutorials designed to cover every aspect of the application.[14]

History

Open Broadcaster Software started out as a small project created by Hugh "Jim" Bailey, but quickly grew with the help of many online collaborators working both to improve OBS and spread the knowledge about the program. In 2014,[15] development started on a rewritten version known as OBS Multiplatform (later renamed OBS Studio) for multi-platform support, a more thorough feature set, and a more powerful API.[16] In 2016, OBS "Classic" was no longer supported with OBS Studio becoming the primary version.[17]

Plug-ins

Open Broadcaster Software supports a variety of plug-ins[3] to extend its functionality. Plug-ins are loaded as native dynamic libraries,[18] although a wrapper plug-in[19] is available that allows hosting of plug-ins written in the .NET Framework.

See also

References
  1. "Open Broadcaster Software - Changelog". The OBS Project. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  2. "Open Broadcaster Software - Download". The OBS Project. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  3. "Open Broadcaster Software - Index". The OBS Project. August 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  4. "Locales". The OBS Project. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  5. "COPYING". obsproject/obs-studio. Retrieved 8 November 2018 – via GitHub.
  6. "OBS Classic is no longer supported - Here's how to easily switch to OBS Studio". The OBS Project. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  7. "How to stream games with Open Broadcaster: a fast, free livestreaming application - News - PC Gamer". Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  8. "x264 Home Page". VideoLan Organization. Retrieved 11 March 2011. In addition to being free to use under the GNU GPL, x264 is also available under a commercial license from x264 LLC and CoreCodec.
  9. "General Performance And Encoding Issues". obsproject.com.
  10. "Surround Sound Streaming And Recording | OBS". obsproject.com.
  11. "How To Use OBS For Streaming". Answerslave. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  12. "What is an OBS – How to Use it for Live Streaming". Broodle. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  13. "How to live Stream Any Video To Facebook Page Using OBS". techsite.io. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  14. EposVox (28 December 2017), The Most In-Depth OBS Studio Tutorial Course Ever Made | OBS STUDIO MASTER CLASS 2018, retrieved 12 May 2019
  15. "Releases". obsproject/obs-studio. Retrieved 25 February 2016 – via Github.
  16. "OBS Homepage". The OBS Project. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  17. "OBS Classic is no longer supported - Here's how to easily switch to OBS Studio". The OBS Project. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  18. "Plugins — OBS Studio 24.0.0 documentation". obsproject.com.
  19. Bradley, John R. (11 August 2013). "Creating a Plugin". CatchException. Archived from the original on 23 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016. ... All languages based on Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime (.NET) should be fine. This includes C#, C++/cli, Visual Basic and others. ...
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