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OBS Studio

OBS Studio

Overview

What is OBS Studio?

OBS Studio is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming, featuring real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Users can create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, and capture…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

OBS, or Open Broadcaster Software, has become a go-to streaming software for many users who have found other options too expensive or …
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Pricing

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What is OBS Studio?

OBS Studio is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming, featuring real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Users can create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, and capture cards.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is OBS Studio?

OBS Studio is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming, featuring real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Users can create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, and capture cards.

OBS Studio Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

OBS Studio is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming, featuring real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Users can create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, and capture cards.

OBS Studio starts at $0.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.

The most common users of OBS Studio are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(36)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

OBS, or Open Broadcaster Software, has become a go-to streaming software for many users who have found other options too expensive or lacking necessary features. With the ability to handle multiple inputs and files, OBS eliminates the need for a separate switcher and provides greater flexibility in audio management by easily routing separate audio inputs. Users appreciate the ease of use when adjusting stream size, bitrate, and other settings, resulting in great output quality. From big events with stakeholder pressure to simple webinar presentations, OBS has proven itself capable of meeting the needs of users who require single destination streaming. Although it may not be as robust as paid options, OBS offers a cost-effective solution for those looking to stream their content smoothly.

Another key use case for OBS is recording screencasts and lectures. Its cross-platform compatibility and robust screen capture capabilities make it an ideal choice for educators and trainers. Users value OBS for its customization options, allowing them to create professional and clean backgrounds that enhance their presentation solutions. In comparison to Google Hangouts, OBS provides more flexibility in element layout, graphics usage, and integration with Skype. This makes it a preferred choice for streaming audio/video performances on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, bridging the gap between musicians and listeners. Especially in the current pandemic situation, OBS enables performers to reach a broader audience and maintain effective communication effortlessly.

For multimedia teams working on video projects, OBS Studio is highly appreciated for its versatility. Whether it's video recording, editing, voice recording, or live streaming projects, OBS Studio delivers an easy-to-use experience without pesky watermarks or viruses. It has also found practical application in market research for video games - being utilized for streaming and recording video footage of meetings, focus groups, and gameplay. Moreover, OBS Studio serves as a valuable tool for screen recording educational tutorial material and conducting live training sessions by enhancing information delivery.

The cost-effectiveness of OBS Studio makes it widely popular among users looking to create and manage live streaming events on various platforms. It provides an affordable broadcasting solution that delivers high-quality content without breaking the bank. Additionally, OBS Studio has become integral in the transition to remote teaching, with faculty members relying on it to create asynchronous learning content. Its user-friendly interface allows educators to adapt quickly and effectively to the demands of online teaching.

In summary, OBS Studio has proven itself as a versatile and cost-effective streaming software that fulfills the needs of various users. Whether it's for streaming events, recording lectures, creating professional presentations, or bridging the gap between musicians and listeners, OBS Studio has become a trusted tool. Its ability to handle multiple inputs, customize backgrounds, and deliver high-quality output has made it a favorite among content creators and streamers. The current pandemic situation has further highlighted the importance of OBS, allowing performers to reach a broader audience and maintain effective communication.

For market research in the gaming industry, OBS Studio plays a crucial role in streaming and recording video footage of meetings, focus groups, and gameplay. Its versatility and ease of use make it an ideal choice for researchers looking to gather valuable insights. Similarly, OBS Studio is widely utilized for screen recording educational tutorial material and conducting live training sessions. The robust screen capture capabilities ensure that information delivery is seamless and engaging.

OBS Studio's affordability and wide range of features have also positioned it as a go-to solution for creating and managing live streaming events on various platforms. Content creators can easily customize their streams while maintaining cost-effective broadcasting solutions. Additionally, faculty members rely on OBS Studio for creating asynchronous learning content in the transition to remote teaching. The user-friendly interface allows educators to quickly adapt to online teaching demands without compromising on quality.

In conclusion, OBS Studio has become an indispensable tool for various users due to its versatility, cost-effectiveness, and user-friendly interface. Whether it's streaming events, recording lectures, conducting market research, or facilitating remote teaching, OBS Studio provides the necessary features and flexibility to meet the needs of its users effectively.

Users commonly recommend starting with OBS for broadcasting and recording live streams. They mention that there are many YouTube videos and articles available to help with setup, making it a good choice for new organizations. OBS is also praised as a great screen recorder and live streaming software with good video and sound quality. Users find OBS easy to use and it offers a good experience. They suggest changing the default output stream settings and using YouTube for additional help.

Another common recommendation is that OBS is the best software in the market right now for churches or ministries on a small budget. It is also considered a great tool for teaching online and combining different sources. Users suggest learning about the hardware specifications and codecs available for optimal usage. They highly recommend downloading and trying OBS for yourself as it is free and productive screen recording software.

Lastly, users recommend researching how to best use OBS and mention the availability of great information and tutorial videos online. They advise watching tutorials on YouTube, looking through the OBS forums, FAQ, and other users' examples for a better understanding of OBS's capabilities. Users also emphasize giving yourself time to set up the software and play around with it if you are new to streaming or sharing. OBS is widely known and adopted, particularly for live game streaming, but users acknowledge its many other uses and capabilities.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-10 of 10)
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Bobby Matheson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OBS for streaming audio/video performances online to websites such as Twitch and YouTube. It has helped to bridge the gap between musicians and listeners in a way I have been unable to previously. In the current pandemic atmosphere, OBS has allowed me to perform live for my audience and reach a broader swath of people easily and keep communication open with the viewers easily.
  • Easy to use overlays and on-screen elements.
  • Easily customizable.
  • Attractive layout with simple and intuitive navigation.
  • Easily switch between several pre-made “scenes”.
  • Old-school broadcast media options and functions for a trendy and modern medium.
  • I would really love the option to select and “preview” the next scene in queue before switching to it - much like an old-school Television switcher.
  • An option to have customizable colour schemes for the interface would be helpful.
  • The ability to use multiple scene transitions - hard cuts, fades, wipes, etc, and being able to use them freely between takes.
If you plan on streaming video/audio to a website like Twitch or YouTube, OBS is hands-down the best & most accessible option. Whether you are streaming music, video games, or performance art, OBS EXCELS in its field. It seems less suited for use in video conferencing situations (zoom, Skype, etc), and I feel that this is definitely a missed opportunity. Adding some functionality to send the output to zoom or other video chat interfaces could be a useful addition.
November 24, 2021

Free, Unlimited Recording

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OBS Studio is used for screen recording of educational tutorial material and for recording live training sessions. This allows us to get our information out to users in video format instead of relying on help desk tickets and human resources. It's easy to use and the quality of output is great.
  • Ease of Use
  • Video Quality
  • Live Uploads
  • Computer Mic Connection Ease of Use
OBS Studio is a great option if you want a screen recording platform with unlimited video length (some free programs cut you off after 5 minutes). It is easy to record with OBS and then overlay your own audio in a separate video editor so you don't have to talk and record your screen at the same time, but you can record your internal mic if you need to.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OBS Studio is very popular among faculty members. With the university moving onto remote teaching, there was a need for a reliable software to create a proper asynchronous learning content. OBS was the best choice.
  • organize/hide content in the editor window
  • converting mkv to mp3
  • intuitively easy to use even with no instructions
  • editing-montaging videos
  • easier way to adjust webcam image (templates)
  • i wish mic choice would show up in the window. sometimes the wrong mic is selected and notice too late (after recording)
For asynchronous teaching - absolutely. For synchronous teaching I would not recommend it - too many apps to handle (e.g. Teams or Zoom + slides + OBS).
August 03, 2021

OBS Studio Review

MD Rafsanjani Rahi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I have a travel company so I have done a lot of projects with OBS Studio, like video recording, video editing, voice recording, and live streaming. Our multimedia team always prefers OBS Studio because it's very easy to use. It's totally virus-free and written in C,C++, etc. There is no watermark so we can use it to make any documentation for our company. For quick promotion and advertisement, it is very helpful for a company.
  • Free software for live telecast
  • Open source project for video recording
  • Powerful video recording
  • Written in C and C++
  • Totally virus free and free download
  • Collaborates with Facebook live and YouTube live streaming.
  • Computer screen recording
  • A hub for collectting source and broadcast
  • Multiple sources not working at a time.
  • Sometime the program makes us confused that its running or not. [Sometimes we can't tell], is it running or has it stopped recording or stopped streaming! And sometimes we need to force to quit OBS Studio .
  • Commands not working sometimes.
  • Frequently updated.
For video promotion OBS Studio, [it] is a good option. YouTube or Facebook live streaming is so popular right now. Thorough OBS Studio we can promote our business there. The main benefits of OBS Studio is the [robust] feature set. Through OBS Studio we broadcast any video, we just have to do one thing manually (that is source set-up). After that, it works like a hub and streams the videos we want to show.
Joshua Welsh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OBS to record screencasts and lectures for classes I teach. I originally chose it because it is a cross-platform program. I was using Linux at the time, and it was the most robust screen capture with Picture in Picture that I could find. I have since switched to Windows, and since OBS is cross-platform, I was able to keep using it.
  • Picture-in-Picture
  • Scene Changes
  • Lots if resolution settings
  • Help finding the right resolution setting.
  • Help understanding virtual backgrounds.
  • Easy way to name files as they are being recorded.
I would recommend this to any colleague who is looking for a robust, standalone screen capture program that saves to a wide range of file formats and gives the user lots of ability to fine-tune things to be just the way they want. I would be less likely to recommend it to less tech-savvy colleagues because the program has a fairly steep learning curve, especially compared with Panopto, which is officially supported by our institution.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OBS studio to create and manage live streaming events on a variety of platforms. Everybody in my organization uses it because it solves the problem of broadcasting from your desktop and from your webcam throughout the internet and includes many features for free that would cost a lot of money from commercial applications.
  • OBS Studio makes it easy to connect with streaming service providers
  • OBS Studio makes it easy to switch from source to source during your broadcast
  • OBS Studio makes it easy to design and edit what your viewers will see.
  • As a FREE product, there is really very little to improve upon.
  • It would be great if multiple devices could be networked.
  • Maybe the user interface could be a bit prettier, but it is very functional.
OBS studio is extremely well suited to anybody who wants to get started broadcasting from their desktop or their webcam via live streaming because the cost is extremely affordable, namely FREE. It has a very supportive community, and one of the sponsors is Facebook, so you know that it integrates well with that platform. If you really want to do a lot of switching, and add a lot of bells and whistles in terms of onscreen graphics, then you will have to look at commercial products.
August 31, 2020

Love my OBS

Charles Beck | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
With all the various ways to present a video solution such as Loom or Vineyard, I found that using OBS has allowed me to customize my background and present solutions in a much more professional and cleaner way.
  • Allows for custom backgrounds.
  • Scrolling and moving information.
  • Quick and efficient duplication of slides.
  • Sometimes the way the individual screens are highlighted, to move them is sticky.
  • Better compatibility with MAC OS.
  • Make it less taxing on CPU/memory.

I think you're best suited if you want to do a detailed customized presentation, with the end-user logo and information in mind, almost as if you are sitting at a news desk. It doesn't take the place of a PowerPoint so there are certain circumstances where a PowerPoint presentation without much need for video is better.

This is especially handy these days when more remote workers are wanting to present in a professional style as if they were "in person"

Steven Shulmister | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use OBS Studio to stream and record video footage of meetings, focus groups, and gameplay. (We do market research for video games.)
  • Very easy to add different sources for both video and audio and arrange them.
  • Easily convert (remix) recorded files into a different format.
  • Sometimes when you close the program, it doesn't fully close, which causes issues if you try to open it again. Then you need to force quit to resolve the issue.
  • Frequent updates, but they are pretty quick.
OBS Studio is really good for streaming and recording video, especially when you are pulling video and audio from multiple sources.
Seth Paine | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
For a few months we had a live stream in our organization and we went back and forth between using OBS Studio and Google Hangouts. OBS was more complicated to use than Google Hangouts, but it is so much more flexible with what you can do with it as far as laying out elements like lower thirds, using whatever graphics you have, bringing in people with Skype, and the price is great, nothing can beat free. I am going to get back to doing live streams in the next month or two and I will be using OBS.
  • It is easy to start with a product that is free, there isn't the financial overhead to get started with it.
  • There are a lot of plugins that you can use to add lots of custom functionality. You can make your broadcasts whatever you want with it.
  • The quality of the videos that come out of OBS studio is very high, I am very happy with the results I get with it.
  • The UI can be improved, the layout can be made a little more intuitive
  • There is a high learning curve, the process of learning the program can be made easier
  • The process of installing and incorporating plugins can be improved.
I would recommend OBS to someone who wants to try a powerful livestream platform if they are a more technical person and are willing to spend time figuring out how to use the software. I would tell them that it is worth spending time with even if they don't keep using it, it helped me understand the whole livestream process because I was able to see how OBS works.
Travis Gray | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently using OBS for our primary streaming software after Adobe's old software went obsolete and other options were too pricey or still couldn't manage what we needed. OBS is simple enough and delivers exactly what we need. It can handle multiple inputs and files to enable us to not need a switcher, but perfectly fine if you were using a switcher/single input setup. We also route separate audio in (not from the switcher/HDMI/SDI input device) and it handles multiple audio inputs great. Other options for stream size, bitrate, and other settings are super easy to find and use as well, and always get great output from OBS. Have been using it for big events with a ton of pressure from stakeholders, as well as simple webinar presentations. Maybe not as robust as some of the paid options, and only single destination streaming available, but usually that's all we need to worry about, so it's perfect for our needs.
  • Simple and ease of use - get streaming pretty quickly
  • Multiple options for sources - if the switcher goes down or you need to switch over to a different external input, you can default to another file or image, or just keep all your inputs 100% in OBS
  • Options for bitrate and output size easy to find and change - great if your internet signal isn't great, you can adjust accordingly
  • Being able to record simultaneously - eliminates the need for an external recorder
  • More control over queuing extra sources, if using a video file, perhaps timecode and countdown cues
From simple streaming to bigger events, OBS has been able to handle all of it with full confidence from us. Have never questioned if it was going to be unreliable in a specific situation, even with minimal training. Software identified the external input source easily and had no issues setting that up (Blackmagic Mini Recorder), and great for pulling in separate audio from the computer input.
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