Question / Help Play head in Studio One not visible in OBS

[Carystaal]

Hi, first post so bear with me.

I'm recording my DAW workflow (Studio One) but OBS doesn't appear to pick up the verticle playhead that shows what position I'm at on the timeline.

I've taken screenshots and uploaded them here - OBS_Studio One screen grabs

I have V20 of OBS so uninstalled and reinstalled V24 but it still doesn't pick up.

Has any Studio One user encountered this issue and found out how to fix it? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Please let me know if further information is required in order to assist.

Cheers!

 

[Carystaal]

I just did a couple of tests...

Installed another screen recorder (Flashback Express) and it too doesn't show the playhead position or movement in Studio One...

I also tried recording the screen of Cakewalk Sonar and both software picked up the playhead movement and position in that DAW.

So it appears OBS isn't the issue and it's more than likely a Studio One/graphics handling issue.

Will do some more digging but if anyone can chime in that'd be great.

 

[koala]

You should be able to capture all what is on the screen with display capture instead of window capture. If your software uses some kind of hardware acceleration to draw parts of its window content, it might be that OBS Studio isn't able to pick this up with window capture.

 

[Carystaal]

Thanks for the input koala!

I'm not sure how Studio One draws it's window content and there aren't any graphic settings I can change that could potentially address it but it's definitely something to do with Studio One (given that OBS is not the only screen recording software that can't capture the playhead).

I've posted in a Studio One Facebook group to see if anyone had encountered this.

 

[Carystaal]

Update...

I have an old Windows 7 laptop and installed both OBS and Studio One on it - OBS is able to record the time line and playhead fine on it! This leaves me to believe that there's a graphics issue on my main DAW computer which is stopping the play head showing in OBS and any screen recording software but for my life I can't figure out what it is.

Could it be something to do with a driver? Is there something all screen recorders need in order to capture full display, something my crappy laptop has that my main computer is missing?

I must mention that my main system is not usually connected to the internet so it's highly possible that drivers haven't been updated. I must also mention that the play head was not visible in OBS on both my old 10 year old AMD graphics card and this newer Nvidia 610 graphics card.

 

[Carystaal]

Update....

In my frustration I installed another screen recorder called Flashback Express - it too captured the screen without the playhead showing.

However in the record mode and performance setting it had an advanced tab and a checkbox for this option:

"Capture layered windows and tool tips in GDI and MPEG mode (can cause flicker)"

I ticked the checkbox and did another test recording and the playhead showed up!

So it's something to do with OBS not picking up layered windows I'm guessing? Or a system setting that forces me to use this option? Either way I can't find a setting in OBS that can replicate the setting I ticked in Flashback Express. Any ideas?

 

[koala]

Unfortunately, capturing layered windows in addition to capture just the main window is a feature missing in OBS. This is mostly apparent with menus: they never show up in OBS Studio, except if they are rendered as graphics by the application itself.

Under Windows 7 with Aero off it works, because Windows 7 without Aero renders the desktop differently to what Windows 10 does.

This is only an explanation for your observations, unfortunately there is no solution except using display capture.

 

[Carystaal]

Thanks again for your reply koala.

I'm still stumped though why OBS on my rubbish laptop can see the playhead in Studio One but it can't see it on my more powerful tower. That's with both of them in the default OBS setting.

I'd rather use OBS to screen record as I can see what I'm capturing but until I get this figured out I have no alternative but to use Flashback :/.