Question / Help [SOLVED] Black screen when using Display Capture on Windows 10 Desktop

[o1o2o3]

When using Display Capture as a source for a scene in OBS 19.0.02 (64bit), I see the following black screen:

Here's the log after opening OBS and adding the Display Capture source to the "Screen Sans Taskbar" scene:

11:09:14.611: CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz
11:09:14.611: CPU Speed: 3500MHz
11:09:14.611: Physical Cores: 4, Logical Cores: 4
11:09:14.611: Physical Memory: 32716MB Total, 28217MB Free
11:09:14.611: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 14393 (revision: 1198; 64-bit)
11:09:14.611: Running as administrator: false
11:09:14.611: Aero is Enabled (Aero is always on for windows 8 and above)
11:09:14.611: Portable mode: false
11:09:14.619: OBS 19.0.2 (64bit, windows)
11:09:14.619: ---------------------------------
11:09:14.619: ---------------------------------
11:09:14.619: audio settings reset:
11:09:14.619: samples per sec: 44100
11:09:14.619: speakers: 2
11:09:14.620: ---------------------------------
11:09:14.620: Initializing D3D11...
11:09:14.620: Available Video Adapters:
11:09:14.621: Adapter 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
11:09:14.621: Dedicated VRAM: 4256104448
11:09:14.621: Shared VRAM: 4268152832
11:09:14.621: output 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1080}, attached=true
11:09:14.623: Loading up D3D11 on adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (0)
11:09:14.638: D3D11 loaded successfully, feature level used: 45056
11:09:15.240: ---------------------------------
11:09:15.240: video settings reset:
11:09:15.240: base resolution: 1920x1080
11:09:15.240: output resolution: 1920x1080
11:09:15.240: downscale filter: Bicubic
11:09:15.240: fps: 30/1
11:09:15.240: format: NV12
11:09:15.241: Audio monitoring device:
11:09:15.241: name: Default
11:09:15.241: id: default
11:09:15.241: ---------------------------------
11:09:15.242: [CoreAudio encoder]: CoreAudio AAC encoder not installed on the system or couldn't be loaded
11:09:15.243: [AMF] Encountered Exception during AMF initialization: Unable to load 'amfrt64.dll', error code 126.
11:09:15.243: Failed to initialize module 'enc-amf.dll'
11:09:15.247: NVENC supported
11:09:15.287: Couldn't find VLC installation, VLC video source disabled
11:09:15.290: No blackmagic support
11:09:15.317: ---------------------------------
11:09:15.317: Loaded Modules:
11:09:15.317: win-wasapi.dll
11:09:15.317: win-mf.dll
11:09:15.317: win-dshow.dll
11:09:15.317: win-decklink.dll
11:09:15.317: win-capture.dll
11:09:15.317: vlc-video.dll
11:09:15.317: text-freetype2.dll
11:09:15.317: rtmp-services.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-x264.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-vst.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-transitions.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-text.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-qsv11.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-outputs.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-filters.dll
11:09:15.317: obs-ffmpeg.dll
11:09:15.317: image-source.dll
11:09:15.317: frontend-tools.dll
11:09:15.317: enc-amf.dll
11:09:15.317: coreaudio-encoder.dll
11:09:15.317: ==== Startup complete ===============================================
11:09:15.318: Service '' not found
11:09:15.319: All scene data cleared
11:09:15.319: ------------------------------------------------
11:09:15.353: WASAPI: Device 'Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)' initialized
11:09:15.355: [WASAPISource::WASAPISource] Device 'default' not found. Waiting for device
11:09:15.374: adding 23 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 23 milliseconds
11:09:15.443: Switched to scene 'Screen Sans Taskbar'
11:09:15.443: ------------------------------------------------
11:09:15.443: Loaded scenes:
11:09:15.443: - scene 'scene1':
11:09:15.443: - source: 'scene1 Source' (game_capture)
11:09:15.443: - scene 'scene2':
11:09:15.443: - source: 'scene2 Source1' (monitor_capture)
11:09:15.443: - source: 'scene2 Source2' (monitor_capture)
11:09:15.443: - scene 'scene3':
11:09:15.443: - scene 'Screen Sans Taskbar':
11:09:15.443: ------------------------------------------------
11:09:24.877: User added source 'Display Capture' (monitor_capture) to scene 'Screen Sans Taskbar'
11:09:27.580: rtmp-common.c: [initialize_output] Could not find service ''
11:09:27.581: ---------------------------------
11:09:27.581: [NVENC encoder: 'simple_h264_recording'] settings:
11:09:27.581: rate_control: CQP
11:09:27.581: bitrate: 0
11:09:27.581: cqp: 16
11:09:27.581: keyint: 250
11:09:27.581: preset: hq
11:09:27.581: profile: high
11:09:27.581: level: auto
11:09:27.581: width: 1920
11:09:27.581: height: 1080
11:09:27.581: 2-pass: true
11:09:27.581: b-frames: 2
11:09:27.581: GPU: 0
11:09:27.581:
11:09:28.064: [Media Foundation AAC: 'simple_aac_recording']: encoder created
11:09:28.064: bitrate: 128
11:09:28.064: channels: 2
11:09:28.064: sample rate: 44100
11:09:28.064: bits-per-sample: 16
11:09:28.064:
11:09:28.067: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
11:09:28.067: [ffmpeg muxer: 'simple_file_output'] Writing file 'C:/Users/Mitch/Videos/obs/video/2017-06-21 11-09-27.mp4'...
11:09:34.234: [ffmpeg muxer: 'simple_file_output'] Output of file 'C:/Users/Mitch/Videos/obs/video/2017-06-21 11-09-27.mp4' stopped
11:09:34.234: Output 'simple_file_output': stopping
11:09:34.234: Output 'simple_file_output': Total encoded frames: 184
11:09:34.234: Output 'simple_file_output': Total drawn frames: 185
11:09:34.234: ==== Recording Stop ================================================

 

[o1o2o3]

Running as administrator fixes it... why is that?

 

[DiggFerkel]

If your PC has more than one display adapter then disable the unused adapters in Device Manager. OBS doesn't seem to know the active display so if you narrow it down to only one choice it works.

 

[Narcogen]

If your PC has more than one display adapter then disable the unused adapters in Device Manager. OBS doesn't seem to know the active display so if you narrow it down to only one choice it works.

This is not a good suggestion.

Which display adapter is "active" is not the issue. The issue is that specifically on laptops that have both an integrated and discrete GPU, OBS needs to run on the discrete GPU to use certain functions like game capture, but needs to run on the integrated display in order to perform a display capture, because in most laptops with a single display but two GPUs, the integrated GPU actually controls the physical display.

Similar issues can arise for users who have a CPU with an integrated GPU and a discrete GPU, if OBS is set to run on the wrong one, or if the display is plugged into the integrated GPU instead of the discrete one.

Just advising people to disable a display adapter is not a good idea. There are other ways of addressing these issues, and for people who are using multiple displays, or want to use QuickSync, disabling the integrated adapter would break these functions.

 

[DiggFerkel]

Well, it's quick, simple and it works.