Question / Help recording ISO (isolated camera sources)

Danklim

New Member
I am new to live streaming and have been playing with both OBS and wirecast. I see that wirecast has a feature for ISO recording, and am wondering if OBS can do something comparable. Could you please help me understand?


Here's what i'm looking to do:

I stream using two 4k webcams, both with green screens in the background. I want to stream/save this in 3 ways:

a) a split screen shot of both cameras. this would go to streaming services live for viewers (and, as i understand, would be converted to 1080p because most services dont permit 4k). The green screen would be chroma keyed out and filled with another visual on this live stream. I would send this to a service like restream IO to live stream to many platforms.

b) record/stream the unedited, 4k footage from camera 1 a seperate youtube stream/upload/account. This footage would have full resolution and would not have the green screen chroma keyed, so that i can use and edit this footage later with more freedom. I would want to stream this to a private youtube account, that i can use/dl from later.

c) record/stream the unedited, 4k footage from camera 2 in a seperate private youtube stream/upload/account. This is the same thing as described in B, but i want a seperate video that i can use/edit for the second camera.


Is this possible to do in OBS?
 

Fenrir

Forum Admin
Not currently. OBS can only output a single video stream (either to a file, a stream, or to both) at a time. You cannot save multiple scenes/sources to separate files.
 

Fenrir

Forum Admin
It has been requested a few times, but the roadmap is constantly in flux and it's fairly low priority as it's a niche use case that most users won't have a need for. We have to prioritize based on the needs of the entire community, so that causes things like this to take time.
 

Danklim

New Member
Ok that makes sense, thank you for your help.

One last thing i was wondering- is it possible to make OBS do this kind of multi-output isolated recordings by opening up multiple instances of OBS? Could I, for example, open up and run three instances/windows of the OBS application at the same time and have each one output to a different stream/recording (so i could do both composite and isolated recordings/streams) in seperate files/stream locations?

Or is this a bad idea?
 

Narcogen

Active Member
Ok that makes sense, thank you for your help.

One last thing i was wondering- is it possible to make OBS do this kind of multi-output isolated recordings by opening up multiple instances of OBS? Could I, for example, open up and run three instances/windows of the OBS application at the same time and have each one output to a different stream/recording (so i could do both composite and isolated recordings/streams) in seperate files/stream locations?

Or is this a bad idea?

You can try this, but I think it may only work if the multiple instances are actually different versions of the app.

Certain video sources also you may find exclusive access taken by one instance making that same source unavailable in the other instances.
 

Danklim

New Member
Thanks Narcogen. I'll give it a try. What do you mean by different versions? Past versions? Like running both OBS studio and classic simultaneously? Or something else?
 

Narcogen

Active Member
More like running a copy of 19.0.3, a copy of 18.0.2, and a copy of r 17.0.3 alongisde each other.

I have run two non-identical versions concurrently to do local recording plus simultaneous streams to different services with different scenes. The only issue seems to be that some video sources, like blackmagic devices, if accessed directly will be exclusive to the instance that accesses them.

Using Black Syphon solves this issue for that particular device.
 

Fenrir

Forum Admin
Don't use multiple versions, that's horrible advice. If you really need to run two instances, you're better off copying the directory and using portable mode. add -p to the shortcut for each.
 

Danklim

New Member
Hmm ok... thanks again!

More like running a copy of 19.0.3, a copy of 18.0.2, and a copy of r 17.0.3 alongisde each other.

I have run two non-identical versions concurrently to do local recording plus simultaneous streams to different services with different scenes. The only issue seems to be that some video sources, like blackmagic devices, if accessed directly will be exclusive to the instance that accesses them.

Using Black Syphon solves this issue for that particular device.

Do you have any idea if Logitech webcams have that exclusivity issue?


Don't use multiple versions, that's horrible advice. If you really need to run two instances, you're better off copying the directory and using portable mode. add -p to the shortcut for each.

I'm not sure what you mean by "copying the directory and using portable mode. add -p to the shortcut for each." I've never done this before and am new to OBS, is this easy to do? Is there any good guides that show how to do this?

Also, is using multiple versions a bad idea because it makes it less stable or something?
 
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Fenrir

Forum Admin
Basically any video device can only be used in a single instance of OBS at once. You won't find any consumer devices that let you use it twice. There's tools out there you can use, but I don't have any recommendations offhand.

As for portable mode, I am honestly not familiar enough with mac to know how to do that from a shortcut. See if you can search how to add a launch flag to an application.
 

digitalson

New Member
i know how to do it!!!!! install the ndi plugin....and in each scene make scene as seperate ndi source...then download the free ndi isocorder from newtek's site .and that will allow you to record any ndi video on the system...the free version only allows 2 recordings...but if you have another computer on the same network (lan) you can use another isocorder for an extra 2...the paid version does 16 ndi sources...not sure of the price...and they are timecoded for importing into a video editing program....hope this helps....and byw i think obs rocks...ive tried vmix for a while and could not even stream and record at the same time....on a monster i7 pc
 
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