Is there any way to absolutely guarantee that an audio source will be selected on startup?

[pedrovay2003]

I apologize in advance if this is a little hard to understand, but I'm going to try to explain it as well as I can.

I use OBS Studio on a Windows 10 desktop, which is plugged into a TV that's turned off when I'm not using it. I have OBS studio set up to start with Windows, and to also immediately start the replay buffer, so I can use it as a DVR, like Windows Game Bar or Nvidia GeForce Experience would let me do; I just like OBS Studio a lot more.

I remote into my computer a lot using TeamViewer, Microsoft Remote Desktop, and Steam Link. Randomly, after playing a game or recording my screen for a little while and saving a replay, there won't be any audio. At that point, I'll open OBS Studio and test my audio, and sure enough, it's not recognizing any. The only way to fix this is to go into the audio settings and manually tell it my source. I understand that remoting into a machine can change the audio settings, so I made sure to make my TV my default audio device in Windows. I also manually changed my audio source to that same device in OBS Studio. But still, it's about a 50/50 chance of getting any audio recorded if I don't manually tell it the source first. That kind of defeats the purpose of having it start with Windows and doing everything for me.

Is there some way that I can absolutely guarantee that OBS Studio will record audio upon a replay or a manual recording if I have it start up with my machine, or is remoting in and changing audio sources too often just a problem that OBS Studio can't handle, and it's better to start everything up myself? Thanks in advance for any advice with this, I really haven't gotten anywhere trying to figure it out myself.

 

[FerretBomb]

Unfortunately the way that RDP works tends to cause significant issues. Using OBS over RDP isn't officially supported, and the virtual graphics and audio drivers that Windows spins up when you RDP into a system can do... pretty much everything you've noticed.

I'd recommend giving VNC a shot, if possible, see if that prevents the issues.
There are also direct remote control options through the obs-websocket plugin, if all you want to do is start/stop recording or use the replay buffer. Stuff like the T2T2 website, TouchPortal, or Lioranboard can let you just control OBS from your smartphone if it's on the same LAN.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I haven't played with OBS and RDP, so I can't comment specifically
BUT
As FerrotBomb noted, some remote desktop services involve their own drivers which can cause issues. One possible workaround is to make to NOT use Default Global Audio and Video inputs in OBS, but only specifically called out inputs, that might help alleviate a change of audio source. For those with such knowledge, you could/might need to control RDP with both client and host settings (possibly using GPO to go beyond GUI options?). Or use a remote control program that behaves differently, as suggested.
The troubleshooting process would involve closely monitoring the Windows device settings (audio in this case), and what happens/changes when remotely connecting (and noting things like RDP client can be set to redirect audio ... or not). And then how those connected audios devices behave in OBS

For me, I needed my streaming PC in a sound system closet, but needed to control the PC from another room. Fortunately, I was within a 50ft cable run length, so a high quality USB cable, and a single fiber-optic DisplayPort cable to drive 2 monitors, and I'm all set. But in your case, I'm assuming you are VPNing into you house from elsewhere? In which case, you may have to do work arounds for software not designed to be routed (easy enough, but does require a more in-depth understanding of address resolution, and protocol routing). If you are in the same house/LAN, I concur with suggestion to simply use an OBS specific remote control setup

 

[pedrovay2003]

I really appreciate the advice from both of you. Yeah, a lot of the time, I'm outside of my home network trying to play and record at the same time, and I'm sure that's what's messing up the audio settings. I actually did switch it from the default audio device to a specific one in the OBS settings, but it seems to automatically switch it back to default a lot, probably because they'll disappear on reappear after I'm done remoting in. That's what I assume, anyway.

I use an Android app called StreamControl, which is fantastic, but it does lack the ability to modify the audio source that's set on my desktop. I'll definitely take a look at those other programs that were mentioned.

Thanks again for the advice!