Question / Help Recording a particular area of the screen

[TheMartianGeek]

Hello, everyone. I've just recently been trying out Open Broadcaster Software, and I like it all right, though it is a bit different from what I'm used to. I am having one problem, though...how do you record just a certain area of the screen? I have already searched for related questions, and apparently you are supposed to use subregions, but when I try that, rather than giving me, say, a 416x660 video, I get a normal-sized video composed of the 416x660 area surrounded by black space. That is not what I want. On a related note, is there any way to, when selecting an area to record, get the OBS window out of the way so I can actually see what I'm selecting? And is it possible to have it remember the last settings I used (or, better yet, make templates for various sizes and choose one of them)?

 

[dodgepong]

If you want the video to be the same resolution of the area that you selected, you'll need to change your base resolution in Video settings after determining the size of the area you want to capture.

As for remembering the last settings you used, it should be doing that already. Which settings in particular is it not remembering?

As for moving OBS out of the way, I confess that it's kind of annoying. If you can, I recommend getting a second monitor and move OBS to that so you can see everything. I know this is not always possible, but I don't really know a better solution at the moment.

 

[TheMartianGeek]

If you want the video to be the same resolution of the area that you selected, you'll need to change your base resolution in Video settings after determining the size of the area you want to capture.

Oh. Okay, that's easy enough...I guess I probably should have thought of that. I guess I thought changing that might mess up the video quality or something...?

As for remembering the last settings you used, it should be doing that already. Which settings in particular is it not remembering?

...Oh, maybe it did do that after all. I could have sworn it wasn't before...okay, then.

As for moving OBS out of the way, I confess that it's kind of annoying. If you can, I recommend getting a second monitor and move OBS to that so you can see everything. I know this is not always possible, but I don't really know a better solution at the moment.

Heh, well, my brother has two monitors, but I don't...not to mention I'm on a laptop, so I don't really have a way of accessing a second one anyway (or the money to afford one). It's a shame that that isn't possible, though. A possible feature in a future release, perhaps? At least most things I'd record would stick out from behind the window in at least one dimension.

Thanks for the answer, in any case. I do Let's Plays, but I recently had to install a new hard drive, so of course now I have to reinstall all my software and whatnot. And this time, I am really trying to avoid any software piracy (except the OS, and that barely even counts because I already had Windows 7 before, the exact same version to boot; I even reused the same activation key), so no Camtasia Studio for me this time. Maybe I'll do pretty well with OBS and Lightworks or some other freeware or cheap editor.