Question / Help Smooth switching between windows during non-game screen capture

[BRW]

I'm new to OBS. I want to create a series of short "How To" type YouTube videos. Each video will be a screen capture alternating between, say, a PowerPoint slide presentation, an Excel spreadsheet, an MS-Access database, a browser (Chrome), etc. I'll run each of those in a separate maximized (full screen) window and switch between them as I record the video.

After a few attempts I managed to record a video using only a single Display Capture source, but I don't think I'm using OBS properly or to its full potential.

For example, I used the Windows Alt-Tab key combination to switch between my various windows. That's quite distracting for the viewer, who will see me tabbing around, trying to find the window I'm looking for. Is the idea that I should just edit stuff like that out in post production, or is there a better way to do the switching in OBS? [If editing it out in post is the way to go, what is a recommended video editor?]

Since I suspected that I wasn't using OBS properly, I experimented by creating a scene for each window, allocating a hot key to switch to each scene and creating a Window Capture source for each scene, with the source pointing to the appropriate program for each window. However, when I record via this method, my output video is black from start to finish and none of my hotkeys do any switching. Plainly I'm doing something wrong.

Is there an easy way to smoothly switch between different windows during screen capture with OBS?

 

[FerretBomb]

That *should* work, and is indeed how to use OBS properly.

1) Make sure your target windows aren't minimized, just in the background. Windows stops rendering any windows that are minimized to reduce unnecessary load on the system, so if they are then there's nothing for OBS to capture.

2) You're setting your hotkeys to 'switch to scene' in the Settings->Hotkeys menu, correct? Does the highlighted scene change when you press one?

3) If you're on a laptop, the changes made to enable Display Capture also disables both Window and Game capture. You'll have to set OBS back to running on the high-performance GPU if you're on a laptop, for them to work. This will re-disable Display Capture.

4) What are you trying to capture? There are some programs (like Discord) that have workarounds needed to capture them properly. Others (like Edge) cannot be captured individually, due to how the developers made them, and an alternate application may be needed. Still others (like Photoshop) use layered windows and will only capture the base window (no subwindows) with a Window capture and have to be Display captured instead.

Depending on the responses to the above, we may be able to get you going. If you're just recording, not livestreaming these tutorials, you could always cut out the alt-tabbing in your video editor... just make sure not to be playing any music during the recording (add it later instead) and not to speak during an alt-tab (or add all speech as a voiceover track later).

 

[koala]

I always postprocess stuff I record and intend to upload to Youtube. It relieves me from doing everything perfectly in the first place. It's no live presentation, isn't it? With this in mind (and with a good video editor, of course), it's very easy to cut that half second where I switch windows. Or switched to something wrong. Or clicked in the wrong place. Just delete the frames. Or if I enter something and mistyped - I just delete the few frames where wrongly entered text and backspaced to correct.

If you record with this in mind, you need to watch over your voice, of course. If you life comment, you need to respect that cutting points. If you add your voice later, it's much easier, since you will comment the finished video instead of the raw material.

How you will do it depends on your personal preference, of course. Some prefer to record a life performance, some prefer to produce the video with postprocessing. The more experienced you are the more you can probably record life, but as a start I recommend you resort to postprocess and don't create endless takes for the same scene until you finally get it right.

 

[BRW]

@FerretBomb & @koala : thank you very much for your replies.

Responding to @FerretBomb's points: (1) I had some of my target windows minimized, so I've maximized them. (2) My hotkeys are set to 'Switch to Scene', but they still don't do anything. Being a newbie, I'm not sure what you mean by "highlighted scene". (3) I'm on a desktop system, not a laptop. (4) For simple experimentation purposes I'm just trying to capture a fullscreen PowerPoint presentation and a Notepad++ Window. I've only got 2 scenes: "PowerPoint" and "Notepad++". The source for the PowerPoint scene is a Window Capture tied to PowerPoint.exe. The source for the Notepad++ scene is a Window Capture tied to Notepad++.exe. Before pressing my "start recording" hotkey I bring up my first PowerPoint slide in fullscreen presentation mode. Then I hit my "start recording" hotkey and move through a few PowerPoint slides. I try my 'Switch to Scene' hotkeys, but they do nothing. So, I hit my "stop recording" hotkey and examine the output video. The really weird thing is that it only shows my browser window, but I don't even have my browser set as a source for this experiment. I should mention that in Studio Mode I see a Preview window and a Program window. In the Program window I see my browser, which I guess makes sense since that's what's getting recorded. Obviously OBS isn't seeing the sources that I want it to see, but I don't know why that is.

I may revert to my original technique and just use a single Display Capture source, taking care to not speak while I Alt-Tab between windows and edit those transitions out in post, per @koala's suggestion. Can you suggest an appropriate editor for a beginner?

 

[Narcogen]

In Studio mode, what goes to output, your recording file, is what is in the Program window. I'm not sure how you're getting that at all if you have two sources, both window captures, neither a browser. I'm guessing you have at least one more source than you think you do. Posting a logfile might help.

Either don't use Studio mode, or use the Transition button to move the scene you want from the Preview window to the Program window; that is what will make your recorded output be the content you want.

If you're not livestreaming or trying to duplicate the effect of transitions between edited sections in a recorded video without editing (live-to-tape) then you likely don't need studio mode.

If you are, then you need to know that OBS is only recording what's in the Program window; the Preview window is for you to set up your next source.

 

[koala]

With hotkeys you're only switching scenes within OBS, but you don't automatically task-switch to any Windows app.You have to manually change to that app in any case. It helps if you run OBS on a second monitor to always watch the preview.

 

[BRW]

Aha! Now I get it. I only have one monitor, so I'll just use a single Display Capture source, Alt-Tab between windows and clean up the transitions in post. I've tracked down and experimented with OpenShot Video Editor and it's giving me what I want. Thanks again for all of your replies.