DistroAV - Network Audio/Video in OBS-Studio using NDI® technology

DistroAV - Network Audio/Video in OBS-Studio using NDI® technology 6.0.0

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GraveWalker

New Member
This question might have been asked already so I apologize if I sound like a broken record.

Does using theNDI plugin to send my video and audio to a second stream PC really save any processing power on the gaming PC side? Obviously, my gaming PC no longer needs to encode the video and send it to the streaming service so I would think I would see some performance increase. However, in my testing sending the video over NDI to a second stream PC VS just using the same gaming PC to encode the video for the stream seems to be the same load on the gaming PC.

Curious what others have experienced or if you have any ideas on what I might be doing wrong or should do differently.
 
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LinusC64

New Member
Hi, i Have a Problem. i want to install the obs-ndi package but if i do this the reply is comming i dont have the newest version. I Use Debian Buster in the newest Version an d i run obs_Studio in die Newest for my debian, it is obs-studio (22.0.3+dfsg1-1). But i need version 26, this Version only exist in Debian Bullseye and this is not in Release. Can somebody tell how this is possible?
 
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GraveWalker

New Member
LinusC64 said:
Hi, i Have a Problem. i want to install the obs-ndi package but if i do this the reply is comming i dont have the newest version. I Use Debian Buster in the newest Version an d i run obs_Studio in die Newest for my debian, it is obs-studio (22.0.3+dfsg1-1). But i need version 26, this Version only exist in Debian Bullseye and this is not in Release. Can somebody tell how this is possible?
Click to expand...


bullseye is the latest release of Debian. Looks like you will need to update from buster to bullseye
 
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GraveWalker

New Member
LinusC64 said:
Hi, i Have a Problem. i want to install the obs-ndi package but if i do this the reply is comming i dont have the newest version. I Use Debian Buster in the newest Version an d i run obs_Studio in die Newest for my debian, it is obs-studio (22.0.3+dfsg1-1). But i need version 26, this Version only exist in Debian Bullseye and this is not in Release. Can somebody tell how this is possible?
Click to expand...

Another option would be to pull down and older release of the ndi plugin built for Buster
 
Acey05

Acey05

Member
jshea2 said:
I also like to divide the workload, so I have a dedicated stream computer connected via LAN with NDI, but I'm having the exact same issue. Every stream I try and somehow workaround / "fix it", basically going to NDI Output and unchecking and rechecking the output. I've also tested each setting, network or internal, normal safe or low latency experimental mode, but none of these seem to do much. The problem i have with doing the dedicated NDI is when the audio isn't in a scene it's still outputting, so i just need the master NDI source. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm going from a Mac to a Mac. is this also an issue with windows?
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Yes I'm on windows.

The only solutions I found were to set all audio levels to the same Sample Rate (48khz) and to disable "Use Device Stamps" for the Desktop Audio properties, I have no idea why but these things worked. Also, NDI doesn't like dedicated filters on your audio (they sometimes bug out) so if you have any kind of NDI Audio or ASIO filters/outputs, they might stop the second PC from picking it up via NDI. So either NDI Ouput filter should be used, or none at all (the usual filters like gates, etc. are fine).

As for the "performance", I don't know why, but it seems to be an OBS thing, I tried using some Media Sources (like videos) for when I was AFK on the stream, turns out OBS uses an abnormally large amount of processing power (almost 5-10% per media source), even when the media source isn't displayed or disabled. I tried a million things and it seems like an issue with OBS or a really weird way they decided to process stuff. I mean I don't know why OBS would need almost 30% of my processor if I have 2 videos in 2 different "Scenes" that are not active, but that could explain why NDI was having a heart attack on the primary PC.

GraveWalker said:
This question might have been asked already so I apologize if I sound like a broken record.

Does using theNDI plugin to send my video and audio to a second stream PC really save any processing power on the gaming PC side? Obviously, my gaming PC no longer needs to encode the video and send it to the streaming service so I would think I would see some performance increase. However, in my testing sending the video over NDI to a second stream PC VS just using the same gaming PC to encode the video for the stream seems to be the same load on the gaming PC.

Curious what others have experienced or if you have any ideas on what I might be doing wrong or should do differently.
Click to expand...
NDI should only be costing you 2-3% processing power while active.

The only way your Primary PC would still be under the same load as if encoding is if it's Streaming, using a Plugin that does multi-streaming (Youtube + Twitch+ etc), you have many Media Sources (Videos, images, etc), you're Recording, you have plugins with fancy filters (like StreamFX) or are doing something fancy with the NDI filters (NDI Video + NDI Audio filters) to send data in a fancy way to your Secondary PC.
 
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GraveWalker

New Member
Acey05 said:
Yes I'm on windows.

The only solutions I found were to set all audio levels to the same Sample Rate (48khz) and to disable "Use Device Stamps" for the Desktop Audio properties, I have no idea why but these things worked. Also, NDI doesn't like dedicated filters on your audio (they sometimes bug out) so if you have any kind of NDI Audio or ASIO filters/outputs, they might stop the second PC from picking it up via NDI. So either NDI Ouput filter should be used, or none at all (the usual filters like gates, etc. are fine).

As for the "performance", I don't know why, but it seems to be an OBS thing, I tried using some Media Sources (like videos) for when I was AFK on the stream, turns out OBS uses an abnormally large amount of processing power (almost 5-10% per media source), even when the media source isn't displayed or disabled. I tried a million things and it seems like an issue with OBS or a really weird way they decided to process stuff. I mean I don't know why OBS would need almost 30% of my processor if I have 2 videos in 2 different "Scenes" that are not active, but that could explain why NDI was having a heart attack on the primary PC.


NDI should only be costing you 2-3% processing power while active.

The only way your Primary PC would still be under the same load as if encoding is if it's Streaming, using a Plugin that does multi-streaming (Youtube + Twitch+ etc), you have many Media Sources (Videos, images, etc), you're Recording, you have plugins with fancy filters (like StreamFX) or are doing something fancy with the NDI filters (NDI Video + NDI Audio filters) to send data in a fancy way to your Secondary PC.
Click to expand...

Thanks, this is the answer I have been looking for. Another question that I have is does the plugin use the cpu or the gpu for processing the ndi stream.
 
Acey05

Acey05

Member
GraveWalker said:
Thanks, this is the answer I have been looking for. Another question that I have is does the plugin use the cpu or the gpu for processing the ndi stream.
Click to expand...
Yes, there is a GPU cost as well, since OBS kinda needs some kind of graphical unit to do it's stuff (it's hard-coded that way). If you don't want your GPU to be used for processing, in Windows 10 under Control Panel, you can tell OBS to no use your graphics card, only processor, but IIRC, it will instead use the Processor GPU unit if Intel.

This will add, pending on scene, 5-10% more load.
 
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Uwe Smidt

New Member
Are there any problems with the newest version and NDI? I updated to OBS 26.1.0, OBS-NDI on Windows to 4.9.0 and the latest NDI-Tools 4.5.
I can see the NDI-Stream from the other PC on the NDI-Studio-Monitor, but do not see the Streams from the other PC inside OBS. If I capture e.g. the own screen on the PC with OBS, I can choose this stream easily in OBS.
 
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rockbottom

Active Member
The fact that you're getting the NDI stream OK with Studio Monitor but not in OBS on your second PC has me thinking something may be wrong with the NDI plugin install on the second PC.
 
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dioleev

New Member
Uwe Smidt said:
Are there any problems with the newest version and NDI? I updated to OBS 26.1.0, OBS-NDI on Windows to 4.9.0 and the latest NDI-Tools 4.5.
I can see the NDI-Stream from the other PC on the NDI-Studio-Monitor, but do not see the Streams from the other PC inside OBS. If I capture e.g. the own screen on the PC with OBS, I can choose this stream easily in OBS.
Click to expand...
rockbottom said:
The fact that you're getting the NDI stream OK with Studio Monitor but not in OBS on your second PC has me thinking something may be wrong with the NDI plugin install on the second PC.
Click to expand...
I run the exact same setup and the plugin doesn’t show up in OBS at all. Tried a reboot to no success. Any ideas, guys?
 
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Ramaswamy Tummala

New Member
I have multiple instances of OBS running. However, NDI main output setting (Tools -> NDI Output Settings -> Main Output) works for only one instance of OBS as this setting seems to globally apply to all running OBS instances. i.e., if I modify the NDI output setting in one instance of OBS, close all instances of OBS and reopen them, all OBS instances show the same NDI output setting but only one OBS instance will actually output NDI.
In my setup each OBS instance runs with its own profile and scene collection, i.e., there is no sharing of OBS profile or scene collection among OBS instances. Is there way to have each OBS instance output its own NDI main output?
Thanks in advance.
 
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Ramaswamy Tummala

New Member
Ramaswamy Tummala said:
I have multiple instances of OBS running. However, NDI main output setting (Tools -> NDI Output Settings -> Main Output) works for only one instance of OBS as this setting seems to globally apply to all running OBS instances. i.e., if I modify the NDI output setting in one instance of OBS, close all instances of OBS and reopen them, all OBS instances show the same NDI output setting but only one OBS instance will actually output NDI.
In my setup each OBS instance runs with its own profile and scene collection, i.e., there is no sharing of OBS profile or scene collection among OBS instances. Is there way to have each OBS instance output its own NDI main output?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Running OBS 26.0.2, NDI version 4.9.0
 
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