OBS worked with capture device before Windows 10 reinstall, stutters afterward

[barinelg]

Hello everyone.

I just had to reinstall Windows 10 due to it being... well, Windows. Before doing so everything worked perfectly in terms of streaming with OBS and using my capture device. After Windows was finished installing and with all drivers updated, I installed the AverMedia software and drivers for my LGP C875. Unfortunately, OBS now severely stutters when displaying the LGP's capture; video is like a broken PowerPoint presentation and the audio cuts out as well.

Here's everything I know:

• The Windows 10 reinstall was within 24 hours prior to this post
• OBS is running as administrator
• The capture is perfect in RECentral, potentially ruling out the device being faulty
• Stuttering occurs when selecting either the direct capture or the LGP Stream Engine device
• Upon first loading OBS/activating the device the video is fine but quickly begins to stutter shortly after. It also appears to worsen over time
• All "Video Capture Device" settings are set to their defaults
• I have tried this with a fresh OBS install with no scenes nor profiles, using and skipping the config wizard, and using my profile/scene backups. All scenarios stutter
• I have tried different USB ports with no luck
• I have tried fresh installs of OBS on 2 different drives with no luck
• A full screen capture of a PC game works perfectly
• All drivers are up to date to the best of my knowledge
• OBS stats show no rendering lag frames
• Both the preview and a recording of the capture stutter
• I have tried pausing my antivirus; no luck
• I have tried capturing 2 devices which had different resolutions; both appear in OBS but stutters the same way

I have attached a part of OBS' log. It contains everything logged after adding the source to an empty scene.

Any ideas of what all I should check at this point? I've spent hours on this and have exhausted every possibility I can think of and have had no luck fixing this. Any help at all is greatly appreciated.

 

[Fierelier]

Delete all sources, and just add a screen capture. If everything stutters already in the preview, no matter what you add to OBS, going off on a whim here, but maybe your GPU's OpenGL doesn't work correctly. Check your CPU usage in the task manager, if it's high, this hypothesis could be true.

Please supply specs.

 

[barinelg]

Appreciate the reply!

For testing, I've been using only 1 scene and 1 capture at a time. When doing a game capture of FF14, it was perfect; not a single issue. CPU usage is minimal when using only the capture device; OBS reported 3.5% or less and runs at < 10% overall on average while recording. Full system specs are in the linked log (obs_log_startup.txt).

Also a few other things I noticed:

• See the attached log (obs_audio_decode_errors.txt) for an intermittent audio error
• A 1080p capture (FF7R on launch PS4) starts stuttering far sooner than a 720x480p capture (Wii component through RetroTink)
• It seems like OBS is trying to catch up with the capture device, but is unable to

As a reminder to all, this was working perfectly prior to wiping Windows, so I'm not entirely sure what key element is different that would cause OBS to suddenly dislike my capture device. Could it be a difference with OBS interfacing with USB, like a missing driver or conflicting device? I also saw a mention somewhere of audio timestamps, so curious if that could be a factor.

 

[barinelg]

Here's a full, unfiltered log from a recording test. Please note that it does not have the audio issue that randomly appears.

 

[Fierelier]

Your setup looks fine to me. Perhaps you may get lucky with older drivers for the capture device, but beyond that, I'm not really certain.

Perhaps this is some exotic problem with, what I assume, is the newer W10 revision you have now? The newest release of the driver, which seems to be v1.1.0.5 (see: https://www.avermedia.com/en/support/download?keyword=C875), is dated 2020-09-25, so I am thinking it should be okay, but it also seems to be released in response to the Windows update in particular, judging from the date. Seeing as your device is a little older, perhaps you didn't get all the fixes?

It may be worth checking the driver date of your capture card in the device manager, if it is dated much older than 2020-09-25, that might be the culprit. That'd mean you still get software updates, but no driver updates for the device. Even if the date is good, it obviously isn't telling you everything there is, the device could still be using old sections of the driver.

Again, just theorizing.

It might also be worth using something else to see if the output works well at all. Try observing the card in VLC, to see if it works smooth there (Media > Open Capture Device...)

 

[barinelg]

The 2020-09-25 download is actually their Assist Central; a utility to download and install the latest software and drivers for a device. Doing a cross compare between that and the download list it appears everything with the device is up to date.

Unfortunately for VLC, it says "The capture device 'AVerMedia C875 Capture' does not support the required parameters." I do not know what the proper parameters are.

It does appear that I'm simply out of luck. It's very possible, as pointed out to me on Discord, that the newest version of Windows could have changed enough that OBS' internals just can't work with it anymore. It does work in the RECentral application, but it was also pointed out that they may be using an internal structure that allows it to function as inteded, but is generally inaccessible outside of that program.

I may be able to get away with a workaround for now: use the RECentral preview and capture that. Far from ideal, but if it gets me by then that's something.

Do appreciate the help in brainstorming!

 

[Fierelier]

Try looking in device manager how up to date the driver is for your capture card, might still be worthwhile info to know!

 

[barinelg]

According to device manager, the driver date is 2015 but the driver version matches exactly to what the website/Assist Central says.

 

[Fierelier]

Yeah, I think it could be the old driver causing the issue then, potentially. I hope you, or someone else, finds a solution. Bestest of luck!