Question / Help Camera feed freezes permanently in OBS Studio at random times

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Tschaekofske

New Member
Hello, I am using OBS Studio and a USB-connected PTZOptics camera to record worship services.

The problem: The camera image freezes and does not "unfreeze". the camera itself still responds to controls and can be viewed as an active image on a separate monitor. But in OBS Studio, the image remains frozen. This happens sometimes after an hour of recording, sometimes after only a minute or so. Stopping the recording and restarting OBS Studio brings back an active image. The camera and the laptop do not need to be restarted for the image to become live again.

The system: The software is run on an HP laptop with an i5 processor (8th gen). The OS is up-to-date Windows 10. There is not a dedicated video card. I am coming from an old Dell laptop with the same setup (older version of OBS Studio) that worked flawlessly for us other than the memory was taxed when doing a recording. The CPU usage shows at about 2% when OBS Studio is open but not recording. It is around 22% when recording and it drops to around 10% when the camera feed freezes. Both systems had Norton Utilities. In troubleshooting, I was running Norton in silent mode and finally removed it altogether. I have attempted to turn off everything that shows in the log file as enabled or on except for the firewall.

I very much appreciate any assistance that can be provided. I have run out of things that I know to try! I'm including a log file for the most recent video freeze. The actual freeze occurred at about the 09:14 time.
 

Attachments

  • 2019-11-24 08-22-34.txt
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carlmmii

carlmmii

Active Member
Based on the logs it looks like this is directly attached via USB, correct? It would definitely help to know whether this is a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 device as well, if so. What's the actual model number?

Assuming it's USB, webcams or any camera connected over USB are very susceptible to temporary interruptions in communication. The freezing you're seeing in OBS is likely a result of either a short period of bad connection, or you're trying to push too much data over the connection. Normally this can be recovered by disabling and reenabling the webcam in the source properties window (when you double-click it in OBS).

I would definitely lower the framerate to 30fps in the source properties. No reason to run at 60fps if you're only outputting a 30fps feed.

Past that, I would see if other ports on your laptop do any better with maintaining connection.
 
T

Tschaekofske

New Member
Carlmmii, thank you for all of the information. You are right; the camera is connected directly via USB 3.0. It is a PTZOptics camera, model PT20X-USB-GY-G2. In the camera settings accessed via IP, it showed frame rate at 30fps. But I realized that there is a physical dial on the camera for resolution and frame rate. This was set to 60fps. I changed the dial and had a successful test recording of 2+ hours with no freezing. Time will tell if this is the fix but your information was very helpful. Thank you again!
 
G

ginnjoose

New Member
Tschaekofske said:
Hello, I am using OBS Studio and a USB-connected PTZOptics camera to record worship services.

The problem: The camera image freezes and does not "unfreeze". the camera itself still responds to controls and can be viewed as an active image on a separate monitor. But in OBS Studio, the image remains frozen. This happens sometimes after an hour of recording, sometimes after only a minute or so. Stopping the recording and restarting OBS Studio brings back an active image. The camera and the laptop do not need to be restarted for the image to become live again.

The system: The software is run on an HP laptop with an i5 processor (8th gen). The OS is up-to-date Windows 10. There is not a dedicated video card. I am coming from an old Dell laptop with the same setup (older version of OBS Studio) that worked flawlessly for us other than the memory was taxed when doing a recording. The CPU usage shows at about 2% when OBS Studio is open but not recording. It is around 22% when recording and it drops to around 10% when the camera feed freezes. Both systems had Norton Utilities. In troubleshooting, I was running Norton in silent mode and finally removed it altogether. I have attempted to turn off everything that shows in the log file as enabled or on except for the firewall.

I very much appreciate any assistance that can be provided. I have run out of things that I know to try! I'm including a log file for the most recent video freeze. The actual freeze occurred at about the 09:14 time.
Click to expand...

EXACT same behavior that has been driving me nuts for months. Right when I thought I had this problem fixed, it came back. I admit, putting my Canon C100 MII through an Elgato camlink 4k MIGHT be overkill....but sometimes it works for WEEKS at a time, and sometimes it freezes every 5 minutes and I have to stop the stream

I'm not a potato either - Ryzen 2700X, 1080 Ti, 32 GB, NVMe drives, 12mbps UP....
 
C

CBC-AVM

New Member
I'm having the same issue. I use a PTZoptics camera. Windows 10 Pro, I7 10th Gen, 16GB Ram, SSD. Camera is on static IP. Camera still works via huddle CAM controller and video is working on separate browser. This only started after the most recent OBS update Dec 2020.

Since we are live streaming church services. We cannot stop the feed. The only way to get the camera to start again is to right click the Video source [called 30x PTX] and select properties and then click OK.
Refresh playback when source becomes active is checked.

I have presets entered corresponding to the huddle cam numbers and have the box refresh on becoming active.
 
C

CBC-AVM

New Member
Log from this mornings church service stream from the above post.
I appreciate any suggestions. With COVID-19, streaming is our only way to reach out to the rest of our church community. Thanks
 

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  • 2020-12-27 08-37-42.txt
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C

CBC-AVM

New Member
I reverted back to ver 26.0 and the camera still froze when switching scenes. Reverted to ver 25.08 and the camera now works fine. Something in the code in 26.x is causing the problem.

Any version 26 or later, I have to right click on the camera source and hit properties, then ok to unfreeze the video.
 
D

DamoVisuals

New Member
Hey guys, on OBS 26.1.0 and the Australian version of EOS Utility running a Canon 800D.
I was having heaps of issues when switching between scenes, mainly the camera freezing every time. Turns out it was human error and I was using my DSLR as 2 separate video sources. For example, when I made my just chatting scene when I added my webcam I didn't click add existing source, I added it as a new source (Video capture device 2) when instead I should've clicked "add existing source" and added (Video capture device 1).

Making it the same source across all scene fixed the issues straight away, works great now.
Hope this helps : )
 
andrewjt19

andrewjt19

New Member
Tschaekofske said:
Hello, I am using OBS Studio and a USB-connected PTZOptics camera to record worship services.

The problem: The camera image freezes and does not "unfreeze". the camera itself still responds to controls and can be viewed as an active image on a separate monitor. But in OBS Studio, the image remains frozen. This happens sometimes after an hour of recording, sometimes after only a minute or so. Stopping the recording and restarting OBS Studio brings back an active image. The camera and the laptop do not need to be restarted for the image to become live again.

The system: The software is run on an HP laptop with an i5 processor (8th gen). The OS is up-to-date Windows 10. There is not a dedicated video card. I am coming from an old Dell laptop with the same setup (older version of OBS Studio) that worked flawlessly for us other than the memory was taxed when doing a recording. The CPU usage shows at about 2% when OBS Studio is open but not recording. It is around 22% when recording and it drops to around 10% when the camera feed freezes. Both systems had Norton Utilities. In troubleshooting, I was running Norton in silent mode and finally removed it altogether. I have attempted to turn off everything that shows in the log file as enabled or on except for the firewall.

I very much appreciate any assistance that can be provided. I have run out of things that I know to try! I'm including a log file for the most recent video freeze. The actual freeze occurred at about the 09:14 time.
Click to expand...
This sounds exactly what I'm experiencing at our church. I have a great computer system and the internet is super fast, but occasionally the camera feed freezes in OBS. OBS is not actually frozen as everything else works. The only way around it is to stop the stream and start over, or go into the Properties for the Camera Source and toggle the Settings in there, like changing it to OBS Virtual Camera. Then the video feed unfreezes and works fine. Is this what you're experiencing? Did you fix your problem?
 
Gil-ad

Gil-ad

New Member
cyclemat said:
@DamoVisuals little tip Create A Fullscreen Scene of your cam use this scene as source when you need Filters Create a second Scene like "CamGreenscreen" insert The Fullscreen Cam Scene and add the Filters to the Scene ! Voila the device will only open onetimes no problems no stucks
Click to expand...
Hi,
OK. I implemented this tip. I will try it in the next few days.
I realy hop it will resolve the issue.
[I use Sony A6400 connected via USB Elgato CAM Link 4K]
 
andrewjt19

andrewjt19

New Member
I have been experiencing the same issue with the computer at our church. I wanted to share a work-around that I have discovered for me which seems to work consistently. A little history before I continue... We were using a laptop that was newer for streaming, but it was just barely enough to keep up. We ended up purchasing a very solid gaming platform quite capable of streaming alone. After getting everything set up and having no issues, about a two weeks ago the camera image started randomly freezing or even before we started the stream. I could not find the problem.
SOLUTIONS:
1. I found that if I opened Youtube and Facbook (the two site I stream to with OBS) first and get them ready before opening OBS, the camera works flawlessly.
2. The other work-around is to open the properties on the camera source. Simply opening the Properties will unfreeze the camera image for me. You may need to toggle the camera input.
Hope this helps.
 
C

CBC-AVM

New Member
I only have 1 video source for all my scenes. I also have a very powerful new desktop I7 10th Gen gaming computer. I won't upgrade my OBS software past 25.0.8. The PTZoptics LAN connected camera is working fine in this version.
 
Gil-ad

Gil-ad

New Member
Hi All,

I updated my OBS to the latest version: 26.1.1 (64 bit) and I can confirm that (also according the this version release note) this issue was resolved
 
R

Rumi

New Member
I came here searching for answers for why my cameras started freezing. I have some simple logitech usb cameras and my system was working without issues for months. I'm wondering if a recent OBS update was responsible. I'm running 26.1.1 on windows. The only way I have found to unfreeze them is to restart the computer, which of course is a disaster in the middle of streaming an important event. I can't think of anything else that has changed.
 
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jSan

New Member
I am suffering the same freezing issue with the latest version of OBS. PZTOptics camera freezes on the stream (but is not frozen on the pztoptics window). I've learned here to try the properties trick to unfreeze it. It is frustrating in the middle of a live stream though.
 
P

PAC Sound

New Member
I'm having the same problem with the video freezing, but audio continues. I have a Vaddio AV Bridge MatrixMIX Production System connected by USB and it froze up two weeks ago and then again today while streaming and recording. I have used this system for the past year and a half and it has never froze up in the past. I'm using an old computer with i7 2700 processor. I'm planning on upgrading my computer, is this the problem? From some of the other post with this problem I'm seeing a pattern of possible being this version v26 may be a problem. Thanks for any insight into this issue.
 
H

HolyCrossAFC

New Member
Daats said:
same here, win10 + 26.1.1
fastest way to unfreeze is selecting the camera as source and click deactivate then activate
Click to expand...
so while you are streaming, click teh camera as source, deactivae and reactiveate and the stream poeple are watching will start back up? It wont stop the stream?
 
S

Seascoot

New Member
I am experiencing the same problem. Video feed is from a Sony A6000 through USB 3 via an Elgato Camlink 4k. System is Windows 10 with OBS 26.1.1 (64 bit). Freezing just started this week although I have been running 26.1.1 for about 3 weeks.

Never had the problem with prior major releases since 25.0.4.

Like others I can unfreeze by selecting the camera source and deactivating then activating.
 
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