# M1 optimised version?



## thmsdj (Dec 20, 2020)

Any news on when this will be a reality? My MacBook Air is running _hot_ with the OBS not optimised for M1. I know that M1 has built in support for H264 and H265 video encoding since Final Cut Pro is able to render and encode H264/H265 video without issues. 

Otherwise, love the software.

Thanks.


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## nottooloud (Dec 21, 2020)

M1 native won't change that. In general, Rosetta 2 apps are running at about 80% efficiency. The M1 Air is not a streaming machine, because it will thermal throttle after about 10 minutes of sustained load. It doesn't have a fan.


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## bluefurry (Dec 21, 2020)

FYI, I put my mac air on a cooling pad and the temp dropped quickly, though that does mean fans.  Also, an M1 optimized version could theoretically use hardware encoding, this would reduce the main processor load since all encoding is currently being done in software.


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## nottooloud (Dec 21, 2020)

Pro, or better yet a Mini, are both much better choices for streaming.


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## teilo (Dec 23, 2020)

I am using an M1 Mini with 26.1. OBS already has hardware encoder support, and it works great on the M1, even through Rosetta2.


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## zionstudios (Dec 24, 2020)

teilo said:


> I am using an M1 Mini with 26.1. OBS already has hardware encoder support, and it works great on the M1, even through Rosetta2.



I'm thinking about an M1 Mini for streaming as my older iMac gets pushed to its limit and video gets choppy.

Your experience is that the M1 has been running efficiently for streaming with OBS?


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## thmsdj (Jan 6, 2021)

teilo said:


> I am using an M1 Mini with 26.1. OBS already has hardware encoder support, and it works great on the M1, even through Rosetta2.



Could you take a screenshot of the hardware encoding support?


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## steve500 (Jan 27, 2021)

I am on an m1 MacBook Pro with latest 26.1.2 stable and does not have hardware encoding support. It is not an option in streaming nor recording settings, only software.


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## steve500 (Jan 27, 2021)

I have been testing streaming using OBS 26.1.2 on this MacBook Pro M1 and 10 minutes in at 73F room temp, the fan is not audible, it may not even be spinning and the unit itself isn't putting out much heat. 

This is a screen capture of 4k YouTube playback in Safari web browser canvas size and stream size at 4k resolution at 30FPS 50000kbps. Low power processor cores are mostly untouched and available while all four high power cores are at about 45-60% utilization. This unit does rather well.


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## The_X_Boy (Jan 30, 2021)

teilo said:


> I am using an M1 Mini with 26.1. OBS already has hardware encoder support, and it works great on the M1, even through Rosetta2.



I'm somewhat doubting this, first there is no Hardware encoding option at all. Second of all, I'm not sure if software running over Rosetta2 can use everything from the new M1 chip... And OBS 26.1.2 is still using the Intel architecture. I haven't pushed my Mac mini to it's limits. But I would stil like to see an version of OBS optimized for the M1 chip. I believe that an M1 Mac can be an amazing and affordable streaming machine...


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## skylerbunny (Feb 21, 2021)

I can promise that as of OBS Studio version 26.1.2, neither a native M1 build exists, nor M1 hardware encoding support exists.

What you're looking for is for this pull request (or another comparable pull request) to the project to be fixed, reviewed and merged: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/pull/4105

As you can see from reading, it intends to add support to build OBS Studio as a native M1 silicon binary; and further, to add hardware rendering for it. After it were merged, one would either have to build OBS from source to work with it; or wait for it to be provided as a beta/production application.


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## reedog117 (Apr 6, 2021)

OBS 27 rc1 is available for download and does have hardware encoding even though it’s still compiled for Intel. With hardware encoding enabled I’m seeing ~75% idle with the rest evenly split between System and User CPU. This is broadcasting at 1080p60 at 6500 bitrate with High profile selected on a Mac Mini M1. Zero dropped frames with a browser source, desktop capture, and webcam. 

My next tests will be with VLC video sources (Intel compiled) to see what kind of CPU usage and dropped frames I’m getting.


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## lancerkind (Apr 25, 2021)

@teilo can you use OBS in Studio mode and *window capture* a source without having a delay? OBS window capture on MBP intel hardware AFAIK always has a delay which means if window capturing people, their lips/actions will be out of sync from the audio.



teilo said:


> I am using an M1 Mini with 26.1. OBS already has hardware encoder support, and it works great on the M1, even through Rosetta2.


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## lancerkind (Apr 25, 2021)

@steve500 Here is a test: start a Zoom call with someone, use OBS to window capture the Zoom window.  Have the person in Zoom clap their hands, and notice if their clapping is out of sync with the *window capture* source.  If it can do that, then the M1 is a good streaming box. If it can't then better to stick with a cheap windows laptop with an invidea card.



steve500 said:


> I have been testing streaming using OBS 26.1.2 on this MacBook Pro M1 and 10 minutes in at 73F room temp, the fan is not audible, it may not even be spinning and the unit itself isn't putting out much heat.
> 
> This is a screen capture of 4k YouTube playback in Safari web browser canvas size and stream size at 4k resolution at 30FPS 50000kbps. Low power processor cores are mostly untouched and available while all four high power cores are at about 45-60% utilization. This unit does rather well.


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## lancerkind (Apr 25, 2021)

@reedog117  Here is a test for you: start a Zoom call with someone, use OBS to window capture the Zoom window. Have the person in Zoom clap their hands, and notice if their clapping is out of sync with the *window capture* source. If it can do that, then the M1 is a good streaming box. If it can't then better to stick with a cheap windows laptop with an invidea card.



reedog117 said:


> OBS 27 rc1 is available for download and does have hardware encoding even though it’s still compiled for Intel. With hardware encoding enabled I’m seeing ~75% idle with the rest evenly split between System and User CPU. This is broadcasting at 1080p60 at 6500 bitrate with High profile selected on a Mac Mini M1. Zero dropped frames with a browser source, desktop capture, and webcam.
> 
> My next tests will be with VLC video sources (Intel compiled) to see what kind of CPU usage and dropped frames I’m getting.


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## Aporiac (Apr 28, 2021)

lancerkind said:


> @reedog117  Here is a test for you: start a Zoom call with someone, use OBS to window capture the Zoom window. Have the person in Zoom clap their hands, and notice if their clapping is out of sync with the *window capture* source. If it can do that, then the M1 is a good streaming box. If it can't then better to stick with a cheap windows laptop with an invidea card.


Using Zoom is not a fair test because you've introduced another potentially high-latency communication link into the equation. Better to use a locally-connected Webcam over USB or SRT/NDI over Ethernet or similar. Furthermore, a single test is insufficient to determine if a given PC is a "good streaming box" because there could be a specific problem associated with that test - including how you've set it up.


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## MrCroft (Jul 25, 2021)

Aporiac said:


> Using Zoom is not a fair test because you've introduced another potentially high-latency communication link into the equation. Better to use a locally-connected Webcam over USB or SRT/NDI over Ethernet or similar. Furthermore, a single test is insufficient to determine if a given PC is a "good streaming box" because there could be a specific problem associated with that test - including how you've set it up.


Maybe I can give a better example: capturing IDEs/Text editor windows, for tutorials/video courses.

When you compare the recording using Window Capture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUy1x_VaiOQ
with the one using a cropped display capture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XssYolIksgw
you can clearly see the huge difference.
Unfortunately, you can't use display capture for streaming: if you open something, and it happens to appear in the area of the display that you're capturing, then everybody sees that, and it's not acceptable. Or, if you move the window by mistake or because you'd need to, then you'd have to adjust the display captured area in OBS or struggle to put the window back in it's place, pixel perfect. And it's also not acceptable for recordings either, it would mean more time in editing/cutting the videos in these cases.
Why don't they fix/optimise window capture on Macs, I have no clue. It's been years now :(
It's definitely not impossible, NDI clearly can do a much better job (although still not as fluid as Display Capture or Window Capture on Windows OS) - so it is possible. Unfortunately, NDI doesn't support multiple sources. You can only pick one window (picking another one just replaces the previous). And, in my case at least, I need more than 1 window captured in OBS across different scenes, for me to switch between them (a text editor window, a browser window, a terminal window). Plus, using yet another app is really not ok.


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## lancerkind (Oct 1, 2021)

M1 has been out of a while now. Has anyone given the "window capture clap test" a try?


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