OBS Window Capture Lagging on Mac Catalina 10.15.5 even when not Streaming

[nerdy_m4rc]

Hi Guys!

For the past weeks, I've been doing livestream for our podcast. I'm using MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) with 2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 Processor and with 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Memory. I'm also using the latest OBS 25.0.8 (64 bit) version.

My problem is, the video is terribly lagging even if I haven't started the livestream on Youtube. My setup is very simple, I just "Window Capture" our Zoom conference then stream it on YouTube. If you will notice here in my sample video - https://youtu.be/fk2UXqP0_bI the sound quality is good but the video is super laggy. I don't think it is because of my internet connection because like I said, video is already lagging as soon as I do the "Window Capture".

Below are my settings:

I also attached the log file. Am I missing anything? I hope anyone could help me because I'm really anxious in improving the quality of our stream.

Thanks in advance!

 

[nerdy_m4rc]

Hi!

Any help or suggestions?

Thanks much!

 

[tommybanana]

We are also having laggy video problems on Catalina that started after about 6 weeks of no problems....

 

[Tangential]

Window capture on MacOS is very subpar. It doesn't work well and consumes a lot of resources.

If at all possible, substitute display capture and then crop as appropriate.

 

[nerdy_m4rc]

Window capture on MacOS is very subpar. It doesn't work well and consumes a lot of resources.

If at all possible, substitute display capture and then crop as appropriate.

I tried using "Display Capture" improves a little. Problem with this is it is hard to estimate to crop the area, you can only adjust left and top. :(

 

[Tangential]

I tried using "Display Capture" improves a little. Problem with this is it is hard to estimate to crop the area, you can only adjust left and top. :(

You should be able to crop any of the 4 sides. Here is an example of me doing that.

 

[NiccoloGranieri]

I'm also having massive video lag. I've recorded a whole video course using Mojave, but then I deleted the partition because OBS seemed to have solved the crashing on Catalina issue... and now all of a sudden this lag appears.
Any solution in the meantime? I need to record full screen with my face in the bottom right corner. Typical remote lecture scenario.

 

[Tangential]

I'm also having massive video lag. I've recorded a whole video course using Mojave, but then I deleted the partition because OBS seemed to have solved the crashing on Catalina issue... and now all of a sudden this lag appears.
Any solution in the meantime? I need to record full screen with my face in the bottom right corner. Typical remote lecture scenario.

Are you using window capture or display capture? If window capture, it is not very usable in MacOS and you might try switching to display capture. If you are using Studio Mode I would also make sure that you have selected "Disable V-sync" in Settings->Advanced

 

[nerdy_m4rc]

Will there be an update for OBS soon to improve the "Window Capture"? It's hard to use OBS in Mac compared to Windows. :(

 

[7arsandre]

Any news on this issue?

 

[F3rrY]

Any news?? I have the same problem, when I stream for a Window, I have a lot of lagging.

Yes, I can use the display capture, but the people see my screen until I open the window that I have to show and it's too hard...

 

[TolisParis]

Same problem here. How to make it straight ?
My very best

 

[A Pearl]

I have the exact problem with my livestream... is there a solution to this?

 

[Myah06]

Simple answer, even when settings are adjusted to the best of your ability, Mac is NOT for recording and streaming. Windows is a lot better when settings are adjusted accordingly.

 

[Quaint Productions]

Anyone tried NDI setup yet? I'm just going through it all now. At least on the preview window its not lagging. I'm taking zoom feeds (speaker and powerpoints), and enabling NDI throughout the workflow, then out to youtube and recording on SSD through OBS. I'll show my findings once complete and tested.. so far.. I just have the NDI coming though to OBS. STANDBY TEAM!

 

[marcosbacon]

Is there an alternative for OBS that works better for screen capture? Or is it an OS related issue?

 

[MrCroft]

Anyone tried NDI setup yet? I'm just going through it all now. At least on the preview window its not lagging. I'm taking zoom feeds (speaker and powerpoints), and enabling NDI throughout the workflow, then out to youtube and recording on SSD through OBS. I'll show my findings once complete and tested.. so far.. I just have the NDI coming though to OBS. STANDBY TEAM!

I've just tried NDI. Indeed, there is almost no lag. It still doesn't seem as fluid as Display Capture, but it's good enough. Maybe my case differs: in my case, I'm recording a text editor/IDE windows (VSCode), in which I type code, and there the lag is still noticeable, however it's much better than direct Window Capture in OBS.
Unfortunately, NDI doesn't support multiple sources. You can only pick one window (picking another one just replaces the previous). And, in my case at least, I need more than 1 window captured in OBS across different scenes, for me to switch between them (a text editor window, a browser window, a terminal window).
Why don't they fix/optimise window capture on Macs, I have no clue. It's been years now :(
It's definitely not impossible, NDI clearly can do a much better job - so it is possible.