Setting up OBS

http://www.obsproject.com

Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Waiting again.

OBS Quickstart Guide is here. (It includes FAQs.)   https://obsproject.com/wiki/OBS-Studio-Quickstart

Pay special attention to number 3. You need to add your webcam as a video source.

Here are the step-by-step instructions:

Down at the bottom, you’ll see the “Sources” window. Click on the “+” sign to add a source.

Select “Video capture device”

Name the new device.  I was feeling super-creative, so I called mine “Webcam”.

Under “Device” – you’ll see your webcam.  Mine is called “Facetime HD Camera (built-in)”.  When you select this, you’ll know it’s the right one, because your image will show up. You can see my super-excited face in the picture.

Click “OK”.

Your image will now show up in your main window. However, you’ll notice two things.

1. It’s not filling the entire screen
2. It’s moving “opposite” to you – it’s not like a mirror.

Let’s fix the first problem first. Grab the lower-right corner of the red rectangle, and stretch it out to fill the entire window. You might have to move the rectangle around so it fills the entire window.  Adjust as needed.

Now, it should look like this.

Well, obviously, it would look like YOU, not like ME, but you get the idea.

Now we need to fix the second problem. We need to flip the video horizontally.

Looking at the “Sources” box again, you see the webcam…

Right click on “Webcam” -> Transform -> Flip Horizontal

Your image is now “flipped” – and should work like a mirror. When you tilt your head to one side, the head on the video will follow.

As per number 4 in the OBS quickstart guide, we are now going to make sure that your output settings are correct.

The “Settings” button can be found in the lower right corner.

When you first open the Settings panel, you’ll see the General settings.  Those should be ok.

Click on “Output” on the left-hand side.

These are my settings.  A few things I want to point out:

1. You need to remember where the recording path is set to – that is where your recordings will be saved. You can change this before you start recording (going through the Settings -> Output clicky thing again).  But if you forget – then the recording will automatically go to wherever it is set. OBS will NOT ask you each time. It also will not remind you at ANY time. Ask me how long it took me to find my recordings the first time!
2. My system defaulted to saving as .MKV files.  These are special video files for OBS. I changed it to .MOV files. You may prefer .MP4, or some other format. You have options!
3. Note the warning: “Recordings saved to MP4/MOV will be unrecoverable if the file cannot be finalized…” That means if you lose power, or there is an interruption, you have lost the entire recording. If you are worried about this, then (as it says) consider using MKV, and consult the OBSWiki for more details on how to work with those.

Click “OK”.

Congratulations. You have set up OBS!

You now have many many options on what to do with your video stream (you can begin recording immediately), or what to add to your video stream.