Question / Help How to capture only the active monitor or all 4 on the quad monitor setup?

[Mike Filsh]

Hi,

First, thank you for doing such great work here.

I have a quad monitor setup, and I would like to record my work, either in a single monitor mode or all 4 monitors. With a single monitor mode, all 4 are functional, but OBS is only recording the one with the active windows, where I am actually working. When I switch to apps that are displayed in the other monitors, then OBS would switch there.

Or OBS records all 4 at the same time.

I would really appreciate someone at least pointing me to the material that would show me how to set this up. I am sure its addressed somewhere, I just need to help finding it, unless an explanation wouldn't take much time.

Thank you!!!

Mikhail.

 

[C-Dude]

You can't do either of those directly but there are a few workarounds.

You can set up 4 scenes with one display on each scene and switch manually (either by clicking on the scene or adding hotkeys)

You can also set it up to record all 4 monitors at the same time, assuming you have four 1080p monitors, then you would change your canvas res to 3840x2160 (if you want to record with your displays at 2x2) or 7680x1080 (for 4x1) then put all of your displays in a scene and put them into place, which should be pretty easy with source alignment snapping on.

You will however need a pretty beefy pc if you want to record all your monitors at the same time.

 

[Warmuptill]

You could use the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin, to automatically record the monitor you are currently working on.
It works by checking where your mouse cursor is located and then switching to the corresponding scene that is capturing that monitor.

First you will have to create scenes for each monitor and add the respective Display Capture of that monitor to the scene.
The next step is to download and install the plugin (described on the overview page of the plugin) and then configure the settings located in "Tools -> Advanced Scene Switcher".
Switch to the tab named "Screen Region". The current coordinates of your mouse cursor will be displayed there, which will be the criteria used by the scene switcher plugin to decide which scene to switch to. You will have to enter the coordinates of the top left corner and the lower right corner of each monitor (these values can also be negative) and the scene you want to switch to if the cursor is in that region (and the transition used during the scene change).
After setting all this up you need to switch to the "General" tab and make sure the scene switcher is active by clicking the start button.

Now OBS should automatically switch between these scenes depending on which monitor your cursor is on.

If you run into any problems or need further help just send me a message and I will help you set it up.