Question / Help Capturing audio/display/game from multiple computers?

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theplatypus27

New Member
Hey Guys,

Some of my friends run a YouTube channel, and I agreed to help out with all the tech for them. I am fairly intermediate in my knowledge of OBS, but I have a quite specific task that I could do with some help on.

Let's use an example: My two friends want to do a fortnite live-stream together for their YouTube channel, both of them setup on two different computers. I will be streaming on OBS studio directly to YouTube. Is there anyway to create two different scenes, one that records audio/display/game from one computer, and another that records audio/display/game from the other computer (Neither of these computers are actually the computer that has OBS on)? This would mean that I could switch between both players, depending on which person is more exciting etc. . I guess I could connect the computers via USB, to my laptop, but I'm not sure how to specify which audio etc. output I want to be connected to each scene.

If anyone could help I'd be really grateful.

Thanks,
Oscar
 
koala

koala

Active Member
If your friends and you are sitting next to each other, you can use hdmi capture devices to capture the output of their PCs. There are cheaper and more expensive capture devices, usb and pci-express, and you get what you pay. This is the variant that is most easy to setup, because it is essentially plug and play, some clicks and you have the screen of the remote computers within the OBS on the streaming PC. If you want to capture two different PCs, you probably need two capture devices, but before you buy too many, look into the documentation of the devices.

Then there is the NDI plugin. With NDI, you are able to send the output of one OBS (either source or output) to the input of a OBS on another PC (as source). It's more tricky to setup, because you have to install and configure OBS not only on your streaming PC, but also on the two PCs you want to capture. There is much more possibility to configure stuff wrongly, so the result may not always be satisfactory. You need much more technical expertise to configure it successful. But it is definitely possible to do it right and be successful.
NDI plugin:
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-ndi-newtek-ndi™-integration-into-obs-studio.528/
However, I don't know if the number of NDI sources can be higher than 1 if you don't buy NDI. You have to try if it will work.

As third variant, instead of using NDI, you can set up a rtmp server yourself as intermediate server. It works this way: you install OBS on both gaming PCs and stream directly to a local rtmp server you set up in your LAN. The streaming PC gets the streams from this rtmp server via vlc media source. This way, they are in your streaming OBS and can be handled like any other source. From there you can re-broadcast it to your actual streaming service.
Setting up a local rtmp server:
https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...wn-private-rtmfp-server-using-monaserver.153/
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-set-up-your-own-private-rtmp-server-using-nginx.50/
This variant is technically more difficult to set up than NDI, but it's all completely free software with no license hassles.

By the way, before you start buying stuff, make sure your prospective streaming PC has enough computing power to produce a reliable stream. Make test streams.
 
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theplatypus27

New Member
Thanks so much koala! The easiest idea seems to be the top one, but I can't find specific hdmi capture devices, could you possibly provide a link to one or a few?
 
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