OBS doesn't record video for first 10-ish seconds of game capture

[Mr. Math]

Log file - https://obsproject.com/logs/VtGBnMRRNCSrW0LQ

This is, obviously, a minor issue, but it's been annoying me for a while. When I open a PC game to record a video, OBS simply shows a black screen for about 10 seconds before finally showing the picture. The sound comes through just fine, but not the video. Any suggestions for the cause and how to fix it?

 

[DayGeckoArt]

It looks like you're using game capture, you may want to try screen capture instead. Maybe there's a delay in OBS recognizing the game

 

[Mr. Math]

You're correct that I've been using Game Capture. I just tried using Window Capture as an alternative, and it did start recording video right away, so that worked. The issue there is that Game Capture can filter out overlays, such as the Steam overlay, but Window Capture can't. So suddenly I had the Steam pop-ups and my FPS counter visible on the recording.

So now I need to either solve the problem of Game Capture not capturing the first 10 seconds of video, or somehow get Window Capture to filter out the overlays like Game Capture does.

 

[Mr. Math]

So hey, does anyone else have suggestions about this? Because it's still happening. Are there settings in OBS I could play with to make Game Capture start recording video immediately when the game turns on?

 

[AidenDavis]

There are many reasons for recording lag, do you have many programs open at the same time when recording games with OBS, what is the CPU situation? Are there lags when playing games? If everything is fine with your computer and the performance is good, it might be a problem with obs, have you tried other game recording tools such as bandicam, recmaseter, camtasia... Maybe you can try the free version and check.

 

[Mr. Math]

Lately I've been recording Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I have the Steam client going at the same time, and according to the Task Manager, the CPU usage tends to vary between 20% to 30%. Sometimes it goes as high as 35% to 40% while recording, but not often. I've not noticed any lag to the game itself. It runs a smooth 55 to 60 fps at all times. RAM usage, in case that matters, is at 25% while the game is running. I've not yet tried any other recording software, so I'll see about that.

 

[Harold]

You're correct that I've been using Game Capture. I just tried using Window Capture as an alternative, and it did start recording video right away, so that worked. The issue there is that Game Capture can filter out overlays, such as the Steam overlay, but Window Capture can't. So suddenly I had the Steam pop-ups and my FPS counter visible on the recording.

So now I need to either solve the problem of Game Capture not capturing the first 10 seconds of video, or somehow get Window Capture to filter out the overlays like Game Capture does.

the FPS overlay being provided by another program is extremely likely to be conflicting

Wiki - Known Conflicts | OBS

This page has moved to https://obsproject.com/kb/known-conflicts.

obsproject.com

 

[Key19]

Log file - https://obsproject.com/logs/VtGBnMRRNCSrW0LQ

This is, obviously, a minor issue, but it's been annoying me for a while. When I open a PC game to record a video, OBS simply shows a black screen for about 10 seconds before finally showing the picture. The sound comes through just fine, but not the video. Any suggestions for the cause and how to fix it?

I came here researching the same issue. Didn't find any solutions. Did some digging in Game Capture Properties and came across "Hook Rate" which was set to Normal (recommended). I changed it to Fastest and the issue is gone.

I know this is a dead thread but in case this helps anyone (or you, still), this is the solution I found in order to continue being able to use Game Capture but also eliminate the delayed initiation of video capture (which for me was just about 10 seconds, so the same as you). Now it's instant.