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

DistroAV - Network Audio/Video in OBS-Studio using NDI® technology 6.1.1

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Hi all. Hope this is the right place to post this question. I'm having trouble playing streams recorded with KiloView Recorder Software that are generated by OBS and re-encoded by NDI bridge to h.264. No player (VLC, ...) can handle the "UYVA" format.

In detail: I am using the OBS NDI Plugin to output NDI Streams of video captured by several video devices attached to a PC. I can see the streams on my network an can also record them using the KiloView Recorder Software. The recorded files play well with e.g. VLC. Now, to reduce bandwith, I did a test using NDI Bridge to re-encode the NDI streams to NDI-HX (h.264). I still can receive and preview those NDI-HX streams and record them using KiloViews Recorder Software. But this time, the recorded files cannot be played. VLC complains that it does not know how to handle the "UYVA" format. Actually I could not find any player or conversion tool being able to handle the recorded files because of that format. KiloView say they do not change the frame format in the stream, and just write to disk what is coming from the source. I actually did find references to that UYVA format in the OBS-NDI Plugin sources, so the plugin seems to generate that.

I would be very thankful if somebody could explain why this happens (I am not a video expert). Then, is there a way to configure the OBS-NDI Plugin to use a more widely recognized frame format rather than UYVA?

Thnaks for your support!
 
hilc said:
Hi all. Hope this is the right place to post this question. I'm having trouble playing streams recorded with KiloView Recorder Software that are generated by OBS and re-encoded by NDI bridge to h.264. No player (VLC, ...) can handle the "UYVA" format.

In detail: I am using the OBS NDI Plugin to output NDI Streams of video captured by several video devices attached to a PC. I can see the streams on my network an can also record them using the KiloView Recorder Software. The recorded files play well with e.g. VLC. Now, to reduce bandwith, I did a test using NDI Bridge to re-encode the NDI streams to NDI-HX (h.264). I still can receive and preview those NDI-HX streams and record them using KiloViews Recorder Software. But this time, the recorded files cannot be played. VLC complains that it does not know how to handle the "UYVA" format. Actually I could not find any player or conversion tool being able to handle the recorded files because of that format. KiloView say they do not change the frame format in the stream, and just write to disk what is coming from the source. I actually did find references to that UYVA format in the OBS-NDI Plugin sources, so the plugin seems to generate that.

I would be very thankful if somebody could explain why this happens (I am not a video expert). Then, is there a way to configure the OBS-NDI Plugin to use a more widely recognized frame format rather than UYVA?

Thnaks for your support!
Click to expand...

We did further testing and re-encoded other NDI-Sources (multiple NDI-streams generated with "NDI Screen Capture" (not HX) on different Win 10 and Win 11 laptops; an NDI-stream generated with a Kiloview N4 HDMI-NDI converter) using NDI-Bridge (from NDI-Tools 6.0) to h.264 and saved the re-encoded streams to disk using the KiloView Recorder Software. All those files can be played without issue using VLC or can be used in Camtasia or PremierePro. Only the re-encoded streams originating from the OBS NDI-Plugin cannot be played with any available video player (e. g. VLC says "Codec not supported: VLC could not decode the format "UYVA" (No description for this codec)") or used in any editing software.

Is there any way to configure the OBS NDI-plugin to use another video frame format? We are evaluating OBS and NDI for use in education, so our students would certainly be very thankful for any help we can get :)
 
Hello, I have had a problem with the plugin or I don't know if it is a configuration error, but I would like to know a solution.

The gaming PC is not detected by the streaming PC, however, the gaming PC does detect the streaming PC... I would like to know how to solve that, since the streaming PC is a low-power laptop for gaming. I hope someone can help me. If possible here or email: feik04@yahoo.com it would be very helpful <3

Psdt: I have obs 30.0.0 on both PCs, as recommended. In my opinion, the configuration is all good, but I don't know if I'm missing something, since as mentioned, the gaming PC does capture the streaming PC.)
 
wanted to know if its worth it to get 2 extra ports of both PC and plug in to each athor ? so it can just send the NDI info over just 1 cable insted of going to modem then pc then back to modem ? is that doable ? and will help at all ?
 
leeroiyy said:
wanted to know if its worth it to get 2 extra ports of both PC and plug in to each athor ? so it can just send the NDI info over just 1 cable insted of going to modem then pc then back to modem ? is that doable ? and will help at all ?
Click to expand...
Could you use a cross-over cable direct from PC#1 to PC#2... maybe, but why? the ONLY reason I'd think to do this is i you don't have your own network (ex, on campus) and security or other settings on network are interfering (unlikely, but possible)... then .. maybe... with a bunch of caveats of it will take networking configuration outside the normal to get it to work (easy for someone who knows networking, not so much for others)

With typos, I'm no entirely sure the question
A typical modem usually only have one Ethernet port (and if multiple, it would be for link aggregation). Though the device maybe a modem, it would be more appropriate to call it a Gateway, if the device is BOTH a modem and an Ethernet switch for the LAN. In which case, unless known problem, I'd use the switch... then again... I don't trust ISPs. So I have a dedicated modem, and then my own personal router/firewall (business grade, not consumer), and then a separate switch behind that. And that is geeking out.. a bit.. granted :^) but even 25+ years ago with my first cable modem, I still had my own (consumer grade) router (with built-in Ethernet switch)... I recall doing cross-over cables back in the '90s... with more recent switches (this century), I've not had a reason/need
 
Lawrence_SoCal said:
Could you use a cross-over cable direct from PC#1 to PC#2... maybe, but why? the ONLY reason I'd think to do this is i you don't have your own network (ex, on campus) and security or other settings on network are interfering (unlikely, but possible)... then .. maybe... with a bunch of caveats of it will take networking configuration outside the normal to get it to work (easy for someone who knows networking, not so much for others)

With typos, I'm no entirely sure the question
A typical modem usually only have one Ethernet port (and if multiple, it would be for link aggregation). Though the device maybe a modem, it would be more appropriate to call it a Gateway, if the device is BOTH a modem and an Ethernet switch for the LAN. In which case, unless known problem, I'd use the switch... then again... I don't trust ISPs. So I have a dedicated modem, and then my own personal router/firewall (business grade, not consumer), and then a separate switch behind that. And that is geeking out.. a bit.. granted :^) but even 25+ years ago with my first cable modem, I still had my own (consumer grade) router (with built-in Ethernet switch)... I recall doing cross-over cables back in the '90s... with more recent switches (this century), I've not had a reason/need
Click to expand...

I mainly have separate networks (in my case, I use VLANs on my Cisco ethernet switch to keep them on separate collision domains) because Beam wants more bandwidth, preferring NDI where possible, falling back to Beam if needed like I did on a stream a couple of nights ago. My biggest issue with NDI in OBS is that there is no easy way (assuming it's even possible) to tell the sending OBS process (apart from maybe setting the interface in Settings, but I don't know) to use a different interface. I like keeping things separate here so then I don't saturate any links which have (other) mission-critical traffic on them.

--Katt. =^.^=
 
I too use VLANs, both on router/firewall, and PoE switch
Those of use with such networking knowledge, know how to work around these sorts of issues, when needed (usually).
In the case of OBS Studio sending out NDI (completely separate from receiving NDI video feeds, which is what I'd assume (maybe wrongly??) that most OBS Studio users are using NDI for, manual (command line) adjustment to Operating System routing table to handle interface for a given output might make sense, but still presumes a non-overlapping network space.

Then again, takes a fair amount of traffic to flood a 1GbE network, and if that is the case, I'd be more inclined to keep it simple with 2.5/5 GbE 802.11bz or even 10GbE (which I do have here at home, though no SFPs at the moment ... awaiting new workstation)
And then again, if OBS Studio traffic is mission-critical, that has a whole other set of implications from video processing and power redundancy, to physical path divergence even at ISP level, etc. True mission critical gets really damn expensive really quick.
I love the one commercial datacenter facility I we had space in ... where the guards included many ex-special forces, and were nation state gov't authorized to commandeer fuel trucks, if need be, to keep certain generators (facility segments) running.
 
Just to let you know:

I had problems installing the plugin (macOS Sonoma 14.1). After installing NDI Tools I installed the plugin, but it reported that it cannot find the lib and I have to install it. So I separately installed the lib from NDI, no change.

i figured out that OBS just don't had the rights to access the folder with the lib installed (/usr/local/lib). They were set to rwx/none/none (700), and since I am working as a normal user (not as admin), OBS could not access the folder. Logging in as admin and changing the rights to rwx/rx/rx (755) (sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/lib) solved the problem for me and OBS can work with NDI now.
 
NDI HX Camera on iPhone will not show in OBS. I dose i fact show in Studio Monitor. Issue on both my desktop and Laptop. Cannot get it to show up as and NDI Source. Any help? OBS is 30.1.2 windows 64 bit installed NDI 4.13.0 and will not work. Can see outside of OBS but not OBS.
 
Terry Locke II said:
NDI HX Camera on iPhone will not show in OBS. I dose i fact show in Studio Monitor. Issue on both my desktop and Laptop. Cannot get it to show up as and NDI Source. Any help? OBS is 30.1.2 windows 64 bit installed NDI 4.13.0 and will not work. Can see outside of OBS but not OBS.
Click to expand...

Have you tried newer releases? 4.13.2 appears to have been recently released.

--Katt. =^.^=
 
KattPhloxworthy said:
Have you tried newer releases? 4.13.2 appears to have been recently released.

--Katt. =^.^=
Click to expand...
Yes! Here is the deal.... Will not work on my desktop or my laptop but a laptop I have for use at the township I work for to videotape does... Same files only works on one computer and not the other 2. Don't know why. Please help.
 
Hi, I was trying to set up NDI to use my 2-PC setup to stream, it worked fine for the last month until recently it started to be laggy most of the time, this happens with the NDI OBS plugin and NDI Tools. I tried monitoring network usage with Windows Task Manager and it turns out that when I see the source going smoothly network usage is at around 150Mbps, while when I see it lagging it is far lower (20Mbps and below).

I don't understand what can cause this as I have both my PCs connected to the same router via ethernet cables (gigabit ofc).
this a video that shows the problem
https://youtu.be/5rTSbDZi45Y
Thanks in advance for your time and help :)
 
Looks like NDI 6 releasing has also caused the NDI install script for Linux to install NDI 6 while the plugin is still expecting NDI 5. Temporary fix is to simply rename libndi.so.6 to libndi.so.5
This has worked for me running Pop!_OS 22.04 but ymmv
 
MaddesJG said:
Looks like NDI 6 releasing has also caused the NDI install script for Linux to install NDI 6 while the plugin is still expecting NDI 5. Temporary fix is to simply rename libndi.so.6 to libndi.so.5
This has worked for me running Pop!_OS 22.04 but ymmv
Click to expand...
Probably more 'correct' to make a symbolic link: ln -s libndi.so.6 libndi.so.5
That's what I had to do
 
How to run NDI from smartphone on OBS on Mac? Not sure if this plugin works or still needs to be installed? Are NDI tools not enough?
 
Hi,
for a few days I have been experiencing this problem with NDI 5 on OBS 30.1.2 win10 22h2
FPS 30.00 / Rendu 33.ms / image manquées cause retard de rendu
it's ok without NDI plugin : 60FPS and 2ms
 
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