Open Broadcaster Software

Main Window

• Preview

Scenes

• Edit Mode

Sources

• Which capture to use?
  • Window Capture
  • Monitor Capture
  • Game Capture
• Video Capture Device
• Image
• Image Slide Show
• Text

Features

• Global Sources
• Plugins
• Profiles
• Replay Buffer
• Scene Collection
• Sub-Regions

Basic Settings

• General
• Encoding
• Broadcast
• Video
• Audio
• Hotkeys
• Microphone Noise Gate

Advanced Settings

• Server authentication
• Shortcut options
• Technical Explanations
• Development

FAQ

Video Settings

Base Resolution

The base resolution is what the scene is internally rendered at. You can select the resolution of one of your monitors, or you can enter a custom resolution to render at. If using a capture card, it is recommended that you set the resolution to what your capture card is set to for a 1:1 pixel ratio.

Resolution Downscale

This will downscale your scene before encoding and sending. This is generally done so you can maintain higher and more consistent video quality at the cost of image size. Note that the scene is still rendered at the base resolution; this only affects the output. Using this can reduce CPU usage greatly as less data has to be transferred over the bus and less data has to be encoded.

To maximize rendering efficiency and reduce frame lag, downscaling is done on the video card, and only the selectable downscales are available for use. An option for software downscaling may become available in the future.

Filter

While downscaling is active you have 3 different Filters to choose from for a better looking downscale:

• Bilinear (fastest)
• Bicubic sharper (good detail, 16 samples)
• Lanczos (best detail, 36 samples)

FPS

This is your target output frames per second. Note that this will not affect bandwidth, but it can affect quality. Higher framerates require higher encoding bitrates to maintain quality. Higher FPS will also require more encoding and thus more CPU usage.

Disable Aero

This option disables aero on startup of OBS. This is highly recommended if you absolutely have to use monitor capture on Windows 7 or Vista. If you are not using monitor capture on Windows 7/Vista, you should leave this unchecked