Need Recommendation for Compter/Laptop.

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CBCGrayGA

Member
Can any of you recommend a computer or a laptop that can handle everything I want to do with OBS? (My current laptop is not working so well with everything we have progressed to using - see below)

- Using 2 cameras during the live stream for our church service (1 camera connected with an aja utap hdmi device and the other with a cam link- both through usb)

- being able to project different scenes to the televisions through hdmi, including being able to play some videos during the live stream as needed.

- also be able to monitor the livestream on the internet (we stream through sermon.net and simulcast to YouTube and Facebook) so I would need multiple windows open, etc….

Thanks.
 
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SifoDyas

New Member
Hi there, not really recommending for your specific purpose, however I can share what we are using which seems to handle our needs with ease. This was put together under a very tight budget utilising the pre-existing analogue audio equipment and mobile phones for cameras...

Recently purchased Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-55) i5 10300H, RTX3060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. OBS is used on this laptop for video recording our Church's Sunday service, with the goal of live streaming in the near future. I chose this model as it was the cheapest laptop with a NVidia RTX 3060 graphics card I could find (I've read that the i5 10300H is not the best choice with this card however that is from a gaming perspective... this is primarily sold as a gaming laptop though :-)

Using from 1-3 x Android phones as cameras via Wi-Fi Hotspot and NDI-HX Android camera app @ 1080p 30fps
Audio comes in from an analogue Yamaha mixer (rec out) via a Creative Sound Blaster Play 3 (mic in) with a stereo to mono adapter (the mic in on the Play 3 and the laptop are mono as I understand)
The Play 3 output is also used for any pre-recorded audio via VLC Media Player and/or Zynewave Podium DAW to the Yamaha mixer ST input.
The laptop audio jack is used for headphone monitoring of the OBS audio output.

A PowerPoint presentation comes in from a second (10 year old) laptop via a direct Ethernet LAN connection. This laptop is extending it's display to a projector set up next to the stage, I use OBS on this laptop to capture the extended display and send via NDI output (enabled within OBS) to the Acer Nitro. Any additional video is also played on this second laptop and output to the extended display with audio being sent to the Yamaha mixer.

So the Acer Nitro is running OBS and either VLC and/or Zynewave Podium, receiving up to 3 camera feeds via WIFI, a PowerPoint via LAN, and audio in/out via Play 3 USB sound card.

Total CPU utilisation is less than 20%, the RTX 3060 is taking the video encode/decode duties and has plenty of headroom for when we begin live stream.

If I had a larger budget I would get a proper audio interface.

All the best with your laptop shopping! :-)
 
C

CBCGrayGA

Member
SifoDyas said:
Hi there, not really recommending for your specific purpose, however I can share what we are using which seems to handle our needs with ease. This was put together under a very tight budget utilising the pre-existing analogue audio equipment and mobile phones for cameras...

Recently purchased Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-55) i5 10300H, RTX3060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. OBS is used on this laptop for video recording our Church's Sunday service, with the goal of live streaming in the near future. I chose this model as it was the cheapest laptop with a NVidia RTX 3060 graphics card I could find (I've read that the i5 10300H is not the best choice with this card however that is from a gaming perspective... this is primarily sold as a gaming laptop though :-)

Using from 1-3 x Android phones as cameras via Wi-Fi Hotspot and NDI-HX Android camera app @ 1080p 30fps
Audio comes in from an analogue Yamaha mixer (rec out) via a Creative Sound Blaster Play 3 (mic in) with a stereo to mono adapter (the mic in on the Play 3 and the laptop are mono as I understand)
The Play 3 output is also used for any pre-recorded audio via VLC Media Player and/or Zynewave Podium DAW to the Yamaha mixer ST input.
The laptop audio jack is used for headphone monitoring of the OBS audio output.

A PowerPoint presentation comes in from a second (10 year old) laptop via a direct Ethernet LAN connection. This laptop is extending it's display to a projector set up next to the stage, I use OBS on this laptop to capture the extended display and send via NDI output (enabled within OBS) to the Acer Nitro. Any additional video is also played on this second laptop and output to the extended display with audio being sent to the Yamaha mixer.

So the Acer Nitro is running OBS and either VLC and/or Zynewave Podium, receiving up to 3 camera feeds via WIFI, a PowerPoint via LAN, and audio in/out via Play 3 USB sound card.

Total CPU utilisation is less than 20%, the RTX 3060 is taking the video encode/decode duties and has plenty of headroom for when we begin live stream.

If I had a larger budget I would get a proper audio interface.

All the best with your laptop shopping! :-)
Click to expand...


I was looking at this desktop, would this work you think?
 
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SifoDyas

New Member
Looks great, except... maybe the NVIDIA 1650 graphics card. I passed over a number of laptops with this card because I was unsure if it was up to the job. Maybe check out the NVIDIA website, I read the 1650 was using an old version of the video encoder. This led me to believe a 1660Ti was the minimum option with a RTX 2060 or even better a RTX 3060 being preferable. It took me a long time to make the decision as I don't have any experience in this area, however I am extremely happy with the performance of the setup I eventually decided to purchase.
 
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rockbottom

Active Member
That's not entirely correct now. There are 1650's with the 7th Gen Turing encoder. You need to make sure it has GDDR6 & either the TU116 or TU106 chipset.

GTX-1650.JPG
 
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Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Good luck trying to determine ahead of time if a 1650 has Turing NVENC or the older version ;^)
You are safe with 1650 Super of higher as noted earlier

Additional Things to consider regarding a House of Worship streaming PC
- How long do you want this system to last? What support do you want/need (ex next day onsite?)
- What resolution video to playback? Many modern phones/cameras record at 4K
- Once you stream a service, your streaming provider (YouTube, Facebook, etc ) will HEAVILY compress the video
- so you may want to consider saving a local recording so you have a higher quality video for future use (annual highlights, sharing clips of things like baptisms, wedding, etc)
- and if you do record, consider getting HDD to offload the recordings off the SSD for longer-term storage
- will you want to be able to video edit on this PC?
- How much time do you want to spend on optimizing your operating system and OBS if system under-powered?
- Do you want this PC to be able able to record and/or stream at 4K in a few years (if 4K livestreaming becomes mainstream, which it may well not).
etc
My recommendation
- don't go less than 6c/12t if you want this PC to last 3 years or more and have headroom to minimize need to focus on optimizations (I prefer to focus on content/presentation than OS/OBS optimizations)
- paying a small premium for business class computers yields huge improvement in build quality over most consumer systems
- beware laptops as they are optimized for battery life not performance, and real-time video encoding is VERY demanding. A laptop can work (I did for many months), but I tried a 5yr old gaming laptop and it couldn't handle our simple setup
Personally I prefer to run Service Bulletin on streaming PC, using a dual monitor setup, so a single operator can run everything (our style of worship means a sound engineer is NOT required). A consideration is what level of staffing/volunteers will you have. We struggle to get people ot run livestream, so a PC that is less likely to be overwhelmed by an OBS operator error is important

anyway.. food for thought
 
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Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
rockbottom said:
It's easy to determine what chipset is in the GPU Lawrence, you just need to know where to look....
Click to expand...
notice I said ahead of time. Sure .. easy once unit in your hands... but may be too late at that point
most GPUs are purchased online, and many resellers won't reliably have accurate info when a product was changed mid-lifecycle like the 1650 was. my comment was intended only as a caution that ordering and getting a Turing based GTX 1650 may not be straight-forward. Then again, I haven't tried. Do online listing show a Turing 1650 as a different model vs the original?
 
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rockbottom

Active Member
Wrong, I found at least (20) 1650 models with either the TU116 or TU106 chipset in less than 30 seconds on TechPowerUp. Now finding stock will more than likely be a challenge but that goes for any GPU that's decent these days.
 
C

CBCGrayGA

Member
Lawrence_SoCal said:
Good luck trying to determine ahead of time if a 1650 has Turing NVENC or the older version ;^)
You are safe with 1650 Super of higher as noted earlier

Additional Things to consider regarding a House of Worship streaming PC
- How long do you want this system to last? What support do you want/need (ex next day onsite?)
- What resolution video to playback? Many modern phones/cameras record at 4K
- Once you stream a service, your streaming provider (YouTube, Facebook, etc ) will HEAVILY compress the video
- so you may want to consider saving a local recording so you have a higher quality video for future use (annual highlights, sharing clips of things like baptisms, wedding, etc)
- and if you do record, consider getting HDD to offload the recordings off the SSD for longer-term storage
- will you want to be able to video edit on this PC?
- How much time do you want to spend on optimizing your operating system and OBS if system under-powered?
- Do you want this PC to be able able to record and/or stream at 4K in a few years (if 4K livestreaming becomes mainstream, which it may well not).
etc
My recommendation
- don't go less than 6c/12t if you want this PC to last 3 years or more and have headroom to minimize need to focus on optimizations (I prefer to focus on content/presentation than OS/OBS optimizations)
- paying a small premium for business class computers yields huge improvement in build quality over most consumer systems
- beware laptops as they are optimized for battery life not performance, and real-time video encoding is VERY demanding. A laptop can work (I did for many months), but I tried a 5yr old gaming laptop and it couldn't handle our simple setup
Personally I prefer to run Service Bulletin on streaming PC, using a dual monitor setup, so a single operator can run everything (our style of worship means a sound engineer is NOT required). A consideration is what level of staffing/volunteers will you have. We struggle to get people ot run livestream, so a PC that is less likely to be overwhelmed by an OBS operator error is important

anyway.. food for thought
Click to expand...

it’s just me, I’m the one person that takes care of all the streaming so I want somethings that’s gonna last and something that I can utilize to run everything I need to run from my one spot in the church. I have taught a few other gentleman how to run the live stream only, but they don’t truly understand what all is going on with the OBS Platform and so when I’m not there they just run the live stream they don’t do anything

I don’t have a big budget, so I wanna make sure I get what I need, I think I’d prefer a desktop or a laptop at this point. I just wanna make sure I get the right one.

If you have a recommendation on a specific desktop, Please let me know and I will definitely check it out.
 
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SifoDyas

New Member
Btw, I agree with the points Lawrence makes about laptops. I needed portability, however I would definitely have rather taken a desktop if that option was viable.
I always have the laptop plugged into mains power, a 2 hour video recording session would completely drain the battery otherwise...
 
C

CBCGrayGA

Member
SifoDyas said:
Hi again :-) If the choice is only between the two options you present then definitely the second option, the RTX 2060 and i7 processor should easily handle what you need it to do.
Click to expand...

Those are not the only options, I just get discounts on HP computers.

Is there a specific computer you could recommend by chance.

Thanks.
 
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SifoDyas

New Member
CBCGrayGA said:
Those are not the only options, I just get discounts on HP computers.

Is there a specific computer you could recommend by chance.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Sorry but it literally took me months to finally decide on my setup, a couple of times I almost made a purchase which, in hindsight I would have had regrets about.
However, what I decided was important was a dedicated graphics card that could support video encoding/decoding, taking a load off the processor.

The HP you posted looks the business, if you can get a discount even better!
 
C

CBCGrayGA

Member
SifoDyas said:
Sorry but it literally took me months to finally decide on my setup, a couple of times I almost made a purchase which, in hindsight I would have had regrets about.
However, what I decided was important was a dedicated graphics card that could support video encoding/decoding, taking a load off the processor.

The HP you posted looks the business, if you can get a discount even better!
Click to expand...

thank you
 
S

SifoDyas

New Member
SifoDyas said:
Sorry but it literally took me months to finally decide on my setup, a couple of times I almost made a purchase which, in hindsight I would have had regrets about.
However, what I decided was important was a dedicated graphics card that could support video encoding/decoding, taking a load off the processor.

The HP you posted looks the business, if you can get a discount even better!
Click to expand...
Btw, I like the large screen on the HP yo
CBCGrayGA said:
thank you
Click to expand...
I do like how large the screen is on the HP, I struggle with the 15.6 inch screen on my laptop at times when I have multiple windows open.
 
L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
CBCGrayGA said:
Those are not the only options, I just get discounts on HP computers.
Is there a specific computer you could recommend by chance.
Click to expand...

If you get HP discounts, then I'd go with HP's EliteDesk or Z series. I got a Dell Optiplex, but only because of the discount, I'd have been equally happy with the HP. That recommendation being based on getting more than 3 year onsite, next business day service and phone support reaching a local native language support center. And avoid consuming gear as noted previously. Recommending a specific model isn't something I'd do without an understanding of requirements, and budget.

Because I record at 1080p (stream at 720p) and do a Windows Capture for our Service Bulletin, it was important to have a monitor MORE than 1080p tall (to avoid resolution issue of trying to upscale a window), so Monitor #1 is a 27" 1440p DisplayPort, with #2 being a 24" 1200p DisplayPort. Being DisplayPort meant I only needed a single cable out from the PC to drive both monitors. Monitor #2 is largely used for the software PTZ controls. Otherwise, is nice but not required for our setup
Monitor 1 has OBS with Stats window (not in Studio Mode), PowerPoint (Windowed Slide Show for bulletin), live stream monitor, and (very small) TXT file with Sermon Questions (to copy 'n paste) to livestream for audience to see and hear, thereby prompting responses/interaction.
 
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cyclemat

Active Member
a Laptop is not good to streaming The temps the Usb limitation and many more !
how many treads i had the last days that say cant use cam and HDMI capture device at same time and all have the same problem USb bandwith !
 
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