Black Screen for Video Capture Device

[Millarkey Productions]

I am using OBS on a windows 10 Laptop to livestream a weekly event to Facebook. All I use are 3 scenes; 1.Intro video, 2.Camera (with Overlay) and 3.Outro Video.
Its a really simple system which just has Scene 1 with; Media Source & Text (GDI+), Scene 2 with; Video Capture Device & Display Capture, and Scene 3 with; Media Source.
My problem is that each week I have the issue of the Video Capture Device showing up as black. The first time this happened I unplugged the capture card, closed OBS, plugged the capture card back in and rebooted OBS, and that solved the issue. The same thing happened again this week and I tried the exact same technique and it failed.
I am using an unbranded HDMI-USB capture card off amazon that costs about £20 (I don't have much budget), a bunch of streamers reviewed this product and said it has no issues to speak of, which is probably why it works fine on every other streaming software besides OBS (eg, Xsplit, Wirecast etc.), it will also show up as a webcam source on Facebook live.
So this is not a "The Capture Card is the issue" sort of thing, its exclusively an OBS software issue that seems to predominantly effect USB Capture cards (and Display Captures).
Since OBS failed to perform this week, someone had to use a phone to stream the event to Facebook. I then spent the next 1-2 hours troubleshooting and trying to fix the problem.

Here is the list of all the troubleshooting steps I took;
- Unplug, close OBS, plug back in, restart OBS (this usually works) [FAILED]
- Uninstall "usb cam" in device manager then restart computer [FAILED]
- Uninstall then Reinstall OBS [FAILED]
- Uninstall "Unknown device" in "Other devices" in device manager then restart computer [FAILED]
- Restart Camera [FAILED]
- Make sure Bitdefender isn't installed [FAILED]
- Change Resolution in OBS [FAILED]
- Change FPS in OBS [FAILED]
- Create new Profile and Scene Collection in OBS [FAILED]
- Try using both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports [FAILED]
- Update Windows to version 1903 [Pending] (update took so long that I had to leave the venue and never found out if it worked)

I need to "idiot proof" this livestream system so that I don't need to be there to run it every week (older people may have to operate it). So ideally I need a permanent fix, or a super short troubleshooting list that will always work. Otherwise I will have to say "bye bye" to OBS forever as it cannot be reliable.

 

[GrahamJ]

I am using OBS on a windows 10 Laptop to livestream a weekly event to Facebook. All I use are 3 scenes; 1.Intro video, 2.Camera (with Overlay) and 3.Outro Video.
Its a really simple system which just has Scene 1 with; Media Source & Text (GDI+), Scene 2 with; Video Capture Device & Display Capture, and Scene 3 with; Media Source.
My problem is that each week I have the issue of the Video Capture Device showing up as black. The first time this happened I unplugged the capture card, closed OBS, plugged the capture card back in and rebooted OBS, and that solved the issue. The same thing happened again this week and I tried the exact same technique and it failed.
I am using an unbranded HDMI-USB capture card off amazon that costs about £20 (I don't have much budget), a bunch of streamers reviewed this product and said it has no issues to speak of, which is probably why it works fine on every other streaming software besides OBS (eg, Xsplit, Wirecast etc.), it will also show up as a webcam source on Facebook live.
So this is not a "The Capture Card is the issue" sort of thing, its exclusively an OBS software issue that seems to predominantly effect USB Capture cards (and Display Captures).
Since OBS failed to perform this week, someone had to use a phone to stream the event to Facebook. I then spent the next 1-2 hours troubleshooting and trying to fix the problem.

Here is the list of all the troubleshooting steps I took;
- Unplug, close OBS, plug back in, restart OBS (this usually works) [FAILED]
- Uninstall "usb cam" in device manager then restart computer [FAILED]
- Uninstall then Reinstall OBS [FAILED]
- Uninstall "Unknown device" in "Other devices" in device manager then restart computer [FAILED]
- Restart Camera [FAILED]
- Make sure Bitdefender isn't installed [FAILED]
- Change Resolution in OBS [FAILED]
- Change FPS in OBS [FAILED]
- Create new Profile and Scene Collection in OBS [FAILED]
- Try using both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports [FAILED]
- Update Windows to version 1903 [Pending] (update took so long that I had to leave the venue and never found out if it worked)

I need to "idiot proof" this livestream system so that I don't need to be there to run it every week (older people may have to operate it). So ideally I need a permanent fix, or a super short troubleshooting list that will always work. Otherwise I will have to say "bye bye" to OBS forever as it cannot be reliable.

I have had the same or very similar issue with a similar set-up.
When I come to start a new stream or recording, there is no input from the video capture card and I have to add another version of the source to the scenes.
I wonder if you solved your problem.

 

[Millarkey Productions]

I have had the same or very similar issue with a similar set-up.
When I come to start a new stream or recording, there is no input from the video capture card and I have to add another version of the source to the scenes.
I wonder if you solved your problem.

Hey There.
I have now solved this issue.

Turns out that I had a broken HDMI cable that would work "sometimes", this is what screwed up my troubleshooting, as I would test the HDMI and it would work, then when I plugged it back into the capture card it would stop working, after purchasing a Camlink4k and that not working either I decided to buy a new HDMI cable and that worked perfectly, for both the Camlink and unbranded Capture card.

So the fix was hardware, not software. I decided to use the Camlink 4k as it has more stable footage with less latency and I also have the option of going higher quality in the future.