With OBS you can create a screen recording free of charge. In this practical tip, we will tell you how to set up the programme and which settings are available.
OBS Screen Recording: How to Set Up the Programme
With Open Broadcaster Software, or OBS for short, you can make a recording of your screen in just a few steps.
- To do this, download and install the software by following the steps in the installation wizard.
- When you open the programme, the autoconfiguration wizard appears. Here, select “Optimise for recording, streaming is secondary” and click on “Next”. Confirm the automatically made video settings by clicking on “Next” again.
- A test is then carried out to determine the optimum settings for your computer. Confirm these with “Apply settings”.
- Here you can define the screen section to be captured under “Transform” and “Edit transformation”.Here you can make volume settings for the desktop audio, i.e. the internal sound, and for the microphone. If you want to mute one of the two sources, click once briefly on the loudspeaker symbol.
- You can set the storage location and the file format of the screen recording via the “Settings” and “Output” button.
OBS: Further setting options
After you have made the most important settings for recording, you still have more options in OBS.
For example, you can record only a certain part of a screen. To do this, set up the screen source as described above and then right-click on it.
- It is also possible to add a webcam to the recording programme. To do this, select the item “Video recording device” on the plus symbol and specify the recording device. You can then move this as you wish.Now you will see the recording screen in the middle. This should be black because you have not yet added any picture and sound sources.
- To add your own screen as a source, click on the plus symbol under “Source” and select “Screen recording”. Set a name for the source and click on “Okay”.
- Then the properties of the screen source appear. If you have several screens, select the one you want under “Screen”. Furthermore, you can determine whether the mouse pointer should be included or not.
- Now you only have to adjust the audio source. By default, both the internal sound, i.e. what you hear on the computer, and what you speak into the microphone are recorded. This can be set in the audio mixer to the right of the sources.
You can also define OBS shortcuts, for example, to start a recording quickly. By default, no shortcuts are set. However, you can set some yourself by clicking on “File” and “Settings”. Under “Hotkeys” you will find all the actions that can be assigned a shortcut.
