Open Broadcaster Software

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is an open source cross-platform video recording and live-streaming application. It provides an easy to pick up and extensible workflow with customizable scenes, volume mixers, transitions, filters and more.

Installation

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Install one of the following packages:

obs-studio - latest OBS release.
obs-studio-git^AUR - latest commit to master.
obs-studio-tytan652^AUR
obs-studio-browser^AUR

Configuration

For easy configuration, Tools > Auto-Configuration Wizard can quickly set up base settings for both recording and live-streaming. The wizard auto-selects bitrate, resolution and encoder based on your hardware (and network connection if streaming was set up).

Hardware video acceleration

Hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding is best for performance, CPU/GPU usage and quality. The encoder can be changed in Settings > Output > Streaming > Encoder (may have to first set Settings > Output > Output Mode to Advanced). See Hardware video acceleration if a hardware encoder is not detected.

Recording output

By default, OBS will output recordings in the user's home path with spaces in the video filename and the same encoder selected for streaming. The output path, filesize, file format, filename style and more can be changed in Settings > Output > Recording.

Hotkeys

By default, OBS assigns no hotkeys. All hotkey pairs highlighted in red upon selection can use the same keybind for toggling the pair's function.

Virtual camera output

Starting from version 26.1, OBS supports virtual camera output on Linux. To use it, install v4l2loopback, then the Start Virtual Camera button will appear in OBS. If the v4l2loopback kernel module is not loaded yet, OBS will automatically try to load it and ask for administrative privileges to do so (using pkexec(1)).

Wayland

Since OBS is a Qt application, see Wayland#Qt to make it work under Wayland. OBS has upgraded from Qt 5 to Qt 6 since version 28, so installation of qt6-wayland is required for the newer versions. See PipeWire#WebRTC screen sharing to enable Wayland screen capture.

Global shortcuts

While Wayland applications can set up global shortcuts through the XDG desktop portal, OBS currently has no support for it [1], meaning that the global shortcuts set in OBS only work when OBS is in focus.

Shortcuts via XDG desktop portal

The obs-wayland-hotkeys OBS plugin can be used to provide XDG desktop portal functionality. Install the obs-wayland-hotkeys-git^AUR package, and you should be prompted to register your global shortcuts when launching OBS.

Shortcuts via OBS WebSocket

OBS can be controlled through its WebSocket interface, which can be enabled in OBS by going to Tools > WebSocket Server Settings and selecting Enable WebSocket server.

The WebSocket password and port can be found in WebSocket Server Settings > Show Connect Info.

Note obs-studio needs the optional dependency qrcodegencpp-cmake to enable WebSocket support.

WebSocket clients:

obs-cmd — OBS cli for obs-websocket v5

https://github.com/grigio/obs-cmd || obs-cmd^AUR

obs-websocket-py — Python standalone script for OBS shortcuts

https://github.com/hirak99/obs-control || not packaged? search in AUR

obsws-python — Python SDK for OBS Studio WebSocket v5.0

https://github.com/aatikturk/obsws-python || python-obsws^AUR

Then in System Settings > Shortcuts, you can add client-commands to set your custom shortcuts.

Tips and tricks

Browser source

The obs-browser plugin gives the ability to use a webpage within the canvas, typically for web-based overlays. The webpage can be interacted with and works like any other source type.

The default obs-studio package does not provide this plugin. It can be added via other clients or plugin packages:

obs-studio-git^AUR compiles with the browser plugin.
obs-studio-tytan652^AUR is a custom client that provides the browser plugin as well as browser docks, along with other general improvements.

Capturing via Vulkan/OpenGL

The obs-vkcapture plugin adds the capability to capture Vulkan or OpenGL programs by hooking into those APIs directly, rather than using generic Xorg or Wayland window capture APIs. To use it, install obs-vkcapture^AUR, as well as lib32-obs-vkcapture^AUR if capturing 32-bit applications. Follow the instructions in the GitHub repository to setup a Game Capture using the plugin.

Encoding using GStreamer

obs-gstreamer is a project which provides:

An encoder plugin for using GStreamer for encoding.
Plugins for using a GStreamer pipeline as a source, video filter, or audio filter. This is an advanced capability intended for users familiar with GStreamer usage.

Note Historically, the GStreamer VAAPI plugins performed better than their FFmpeg counterparts on AMD cards; with the introduction of texture sharing support, FFmpeg encoders are now equally performant according to upstream.

To use obs-gstreamer for encoding, install obs-gstreamer^AUR (or obs-vaapi^AUR to get the standalone plugins) and change OBS' encoder to VAAPI H.26x/VPx/AV1 on <device name>. If OBS gives an error regarding encoders you might need to install the gstreamer-vaapi package.

Manual plugins installation

You can manually install plugin to the ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/. The folder structure is the following:

~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/plugin_name/bin/64bit/plugin_name.so
~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/plugin_name/data/locale/en-US.ini

Record rectangular area

If you use KDE, you can select rectangular area for the recording using the helper script obs-rectangle-area-selector.

Troubleshooting

QuickSync returns "Error creating a MFX session"

This error can occur if the right Intel QuickSync drivers are not installed.

[AVHWDeviceContext @ 0x6111a37c1040] Error creating a MFX session: -9.
Device creation failed: -1313558101.

To use QuickSync, install intel-media-sdk for Iron Lake (Gen5) to Ice Lake (Gen10) GPUs, or vpl-gpu-rt for Tiger Lake (Gen11) and newer GPUs.

For more information, refer to FFmpeg#Intel QuickSync (QSV).