OBS 📽

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:bookmark: ITT we are discussing Open Broadcaster Software, A.K.A. OBS. I will be using this thread to document my usage of this software for live streaming and video recording. Readers are invited to ask questions, share tips, and generally discuss the application.

:warning: This post is a work in progress.

OBS is the RTSP client I use for live streams on Owncast.

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I would like to try streaming using OBS sometime soon.
My main use so far is for recording streams and other video sources and I really am impressed by the versatility of OBS in this regard.
Since YT adopted changes to prevent my Firefox extension from downloading audio/video from them, I have found this FOSS indispensible. Sure, the ads cannot be blocked, but I just press pause on the recording and then resume recording when appropriate to do so.
It’s very good.

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YT adopted changes to prevent my Firefox extension from downloading audio/video

Use yt-dlp.

the ads cannot be blocked

Use Ublock.

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As I have been using the ‘browser’ native to OBS, which does not accomodate extensions like uBlock, I have suffered through the ads.

I will work on recording the stream through Firefox which I do have uBlock enabled on.

Did I try that before and failed? Can’t remember. Worth giving a go in any case.

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:thinking:
My version of Debian doesn’t support browser source. Did you install from Flatpak? Different machine? Looked back? :sweat_smile:

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Yes I installed from Flatpak.

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I used to use OBS (Flatpak) for some simple recordings, but recently, for some reason, OBS stopped showing the ffmpeg vaapi h264 and other ffmpeg video encoders. Since my laptop isn’t very powerful, I can’t record properly or stream live without this encoder.

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If you are a windows user, these programs are ok. They download the videos without the ads.

https://www.4kdownload.com/-54

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Multi-Streaming with NGINX RTMP

I am now able to live stream to multiple platforms simultaneously thanks to having implemented an nginx-based RTMP relay to sit between OBS and these downstream platforms. This was done using the RTMP module and documentation provided on GitHub by arut:

As was described in the repository’s wiki, I created a Docker container to build the modules from source:

I would have liked to have deployed this container into my Kubernetes cluster; however, authorization is limited to IP rules, which does not provide sufficient security and usability. The container runs instead on the same machine running OBS, and will need to be started manually before the beginning of each stream. I am currently streaming to YouTube and Owncast, and I am considering adding others as well.

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Deprecated

Thanks to the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro ISO, OBS is no longer needed in my typical livestreaming workflow. I may continue using it occasionally, and I will make note of interesting use-cases here, but I am no longer using this software on a regular basis.