OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software)

OBS Studio is a free screen recording software. You can use it to capture anything being shown on your computer screen.

Initial OBS Setup

Step 1: Install the OBS Studio app and launch it.

Open Broadcaster Software | OBS

Step 2: Next review the OBS Studio app permissions. Enable screen recording permissions under Open Screen Recording Preferences.

On an Apple computer, under System Systems, Privacy & Security, then Screen & System Audio Recording, toggle the switch for OBS to on. Revisit the permissions under the menu bar under OBS then Review App Permissions.

On PC, the OBS Studio app does not need additional permissions. This is a Mac only setting to change.

Step 3: Important: Make sure to choose to “Optimize just for recording, I will not be streaming”.

Revisit this settings under the Tools menu. Go to Tools then Auto-Configuration Wizard to switch optimization for streaming, recording, or virtual camera. The virtual camera allows you to use the OBS scene output as a webcam in other software such as Zoom.

Step 4: Click Next and choose the Base Canvas resolution and frame rate.

You can choose the highest resolution your monitor supports and it can scale down. In this case I selected 5120 x 2880.

Or choose either 7680 x 4320 (8K), 3840 x 2160 (4K), 2560 x 1440 or 1920 x 1080 (HD) resolution depending on your monitor’s resolution. YouTube can handle all of these resolutions.

Choose your desired frame rate: 60 or 30 frames per second (fps).

On an Apple computer go to System Settings, then Displays, then click the toggle to show all resolutions. Choose your desired monitor resolution.

On a PC go to Start > Settings > System > Display. Look for the Display resolution drop-down menu. Select the resolution you want from the drop-down menu.

Step 5: Under the Scenes column in the lower left of the OBS app click the plus symbol to create a new Scene. Give it a name.

Step 6: Under the Sources column click the plus symbol and select (MacOS) Screen Capture. It will read as MacOS screen capture for an Apple computer.

Method: Display Capture (or choose Automatic)

Display: (Name of your Display) (Ex: StudioDisplay: 2560x1440)

Step 7: Disable any built in mics if you don’t wish to use them. This is the Mic/Aux input that you can choose to mute.

Step 8: Change the scale of the window in the top of the OBS app to fit the screen. You can scale the capture window by grabbing and dragging the corners on the red rectangular selection box.

Note: You may not need to adjust anything by default.

Step 9: Settings for Recording.

Click the Settings menu. Click the Output menu on the left column.

Settings > Output

Recording Path: Choose the location to save the file to.

Recording Quality: Indistinguishable Quality, Large File Size

Recording Format: Fragment MP4 (.mp4)

Video Encoder: Hardware (Apple, HEVC) or (Apple, H.264)

Audio Encode: AAC (Default)

Audio Track: 1

*On PC, you can choose any available hardware acceleration under the video encoder setting with either the H.264 or HEVC codec.

Settings > Video

Base (Canvas) Resolution: 5120x2880

Output (Scaled) Resolution: 2560x1440 (match this value to the monitor setting in Step 4)

Common FPS Values: 60 or 30 (match this to Step 4).

Step 10: Start Recording

Click Start Recording and then begin playing the content you wish to capture. Click the stop recording button to finalize the captured video.