Question / Help OBS MacBook Pro - Powered USB Hubs - Multiple cameras questions

[ralphiedee]

Originally had a streaming set up:
MacBook Pro mid 2015 16MB ram ( 2 USB outs)
2 logitec cameras
4 port powered USB hub.
found out I could NOT run two logitec cameras from the same powered USB port as only one would work correctly
then using audio and video on the same bus taxes the cpu

my MBP has 2 USB outputs do the output 1 ran from the cpu to a usb hub and the audio and 1 camera ran off that bus. I was able to get by but I still could not use my second camera. The USB 2 output was connected to a separate hard drive which has music on it and I did not want to connect anything else on that bus so I bought a thunderbolt to USB converter figuring I could use the thunderbolt output to run the second camera but that does not work either.

I bought a brand new MacPro 2019 for my main computer ( I do video and graphic work) it will be used to upgrade my previous machine a Mac Pro mid 2012 desktop with 3.3 6 core processor, 32GBs of memory and 4 hardrives inside as it also has 4 standard USB busses.

Common tells me to user the older MAC PRO for streaming as this has more than enough of what I need to get a decent stream using all my cameras. Just need to know if I'm overlooking anything as far as the OBS Gods see it?

Any insight?

 

[iRandy]

Your post is very specific about your Mac specs, but you casually mention a "4 port powered USB hub" as if they are all the same. The USB hub you use and even the cables you use to connect can make a big difference. I'm also fairly new to OBS, but your Mac setup may already be powerful enough.

Here's the setup I have running:

• MacBook Pro 2012
• Anker Powered USB 3.0 hub (using only one of the MBP USB ports)
  • iPhone 11 running OBS Camera
  • iPhone XS running OBS Camera
  • 4k video camcorder
  • Samson C01U USB microphone

The cables matter too. Cheap USB cables will cause you worlds of problems for streaming. I've been experimenting to get the longest cables possible to position the cameras farther away from the MBP, but you may not need long cables.

Of course the settings in OBS help too. On this MBP, I've had to tweak the settings to make OBS to always use the hardware encoder to avoid 100% CPU and lagging video.

I stream to FB Live with this setup.