Lag between video and audio the longer OBS is running - how do I fix?

R

Roger Hitchcock

New Member
For the last 2 or 3 months the following problem has developed in OBS.

First some context
I use OBS to run online training - this is normally via Zoom but any platform works.
I simply share my screen via the online platform since I have found that this is the easiest (I am not a computer expert :))
This means that OBS is running locally on my computer - not streaming (my computer is an ASUS Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz with 8GB RAM)

The problem that has developed that I need to fix is that the longer OBS is running in a particular session the worse the mismatch between audio and video gets. When I start OBS it is fine - but after a few minutes the lag becomes evident and then continues to grow. To reset things I need to restart OBS. It seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on.

Any thoughts/ideas/solutions would be appreciated.
 
U in CPU model name means Ultra-low power, optimized for battery life, not the computationally demanding task of real-time video encoding. Also, system (CPU) thermal throttling may be coming into play (slowing system down as it gets hotter)

Your system is capable most likely, with OS and OBS optimizations, to run fine. But it will take some technical expertise to make good adjustments (lots of bad info on Internet regarding OS optimizations) Personally, I follow the business targeted optimization techniques, and NOT those from gamers. Another, more expensive but simpler option may be simply to get a newer, more powerful computer.

For some initial pointers if you will dive into the tech
- Other have commented, especially on under-powered systems, Audio video sync issues arise in part when your audio sources don't all have same sampling rate (check OBS log for this). Pick 44.1 or 48KHz and make sure everything (Mics, speakers, etc) use the same

- I recommend monitoring hardware resource (CPU, GPU, RAM, Disk I/O, etc) utilization [for ex. using Task manager’s Performance tab and/or Resource Monitor] to see if your system is being maxed out with your settings https://obsproject.com/wiki/General-Performance-and-Encoding-Issues and https://obsproject.com/wiki/GPU-overload-issues

- You may be running out of RAM. or ??
So knowing how to optimize your Operating System for being under-powered may also help (turning off Windows OS eye candy, unnecessary background processes, browser windows (which can be very RAM consumptive), etc
 
You could also run the old gadets from like WinVista? I have used them since that time without issue. Save my a$$ several times over the years. They run pretty light. To get the temps you must also run another program caled coretemp...
Screenshot 2022-01-11 133636.png
 
Lawrence_SoCal said:
U in CPU model name means Ultra-low power, optimized for battery life, not the computationally demanding task of real-time video encoding. Also, system (CPU) thermal throttling may be coming into play (slowing system down as it gets hotter)

Your system is capable most likely, with OS and OBS optimizations, to run fine. But it will take some technical expertise to make good adjustments (lots of bad info on Internet regarding OS optimizations) Personally, I follow the business targeted optimization techniques, and NOT those from gamers. Another, more expensive but simpler option may be simply to get a newer, more powerful computer.

For some initial pointers if you will dive into the tech
- Other have commented, especially on under-powered systems, Audio video sync issues arise in part when your audio sources don't all have same sampling rate (check OBS log for this). Pick 44.1 or 48KHz and make sure everything (Mics, speakers, etc) use the same

- I recommend monitoring hardware resource (CPU, GPU, RAM, Disk I/O, etc) utilization [for ex. using Task manager’s Performance tab and/or Resource Monitor] to see if your system is being maxed out with your settings https://obsproject.com/wiki/General-Performance-and-Encoding-Issues and https://obsproject.com/wiki/GPU-overload-issues

- You may be running out of RAM. or ??
So knowing how to optimize your Operating System for being under-powered may also help (turning off Windows OS eye candy, unnecessary background processes, browser windows (which can be very RAM consumptive), etc
Click to expand...
Thank you - will definitely explore and tweak settings - appreciate the input
 
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