Stream to virtual Display

[kleinUNDhilflos]

Hi,

i am a teacher and want to use OBS to improve my remote education in time of the pandemic.
the setup with the virtual cam was quiet easy. but get the input from a "webcams" has two big disadvantages:

- the meeting software (in my case cisco webex) often cuts the picture to fit in a student specific frame. witch is ok for a normal webcam picture. because normaly the face is in the middle. but when i am sharing screens or power points there is important information on the cuted parts.

- when my input is a "webcam" the meeting handels this as a "face" in the meeting. this meens my output von obs is not always show in the front... sometimes when a student is speaking it switches to the webcams of the student or is just showing me as one of the "faces" in the meeting.

of course both points make sense on a point of view from the meeting software. and i testet a lot of diffrent softwares they al acted the same...
in my opinion a sulution can be to have something like a virtual display or an application witch shows the stream... for example i am able to "share" the out from "NVIDIA Share" in Webex. share meens the button in the meeting software where i can select a display or application to show to my students.


maybe someone has a solution for this, or someone is able to implement this as a featur.... because i think in time of the pandemic, it woulde be greate if more teachers improve the setup for the chalenges of this time

thank you very much

 

[FerretBomb]

Generally the fix for this would be to not use your meeting software for this. It sounds like it isn't designed for doing presentations (or the settings may be wrong; you'd have to contact their support for help with that though as it is out-of-scope here).

My solution in your shoes would be to stream to a site like YouTube (if you have a streaming-enabled account there), and just have your students open the presentation stream on YT in a separate browser window.

 

[kleinUNDhilflos]

if i woulde be a professor on university this might be an option... but as a theacher on a normal scool there is lot more interaction with my students... an for this usecase a meeting software like: cisco webex, adobe connect, jitsi, ... is a lot better. i can let my students work in groups and so on.

these meeting software where developed with business meetings in mind. they are a lot closer to the need of a teacher as for example youtube.

but as you all know. teaching is not allways just interaction between the students or the teacher and the student. there are also parts where you just listen to the teacher (good teachers keep this parts short, but sometimes they are usefull) and for this parts i would like to give my students more an expirience like a twitch stream, than an business presentation.

i am on your site: if cisco would develope an optione, that it would be posible to select a webcam as "share device". all my problems would be fixed. but i dont think this is going to happen... and it would only be an option for this paricular meeting software.

if there would be an Solution to let the stream act like a display/window it will work with every meeting software. For me it looks like OBS is the leading Software for this streaming stuff... and i am a noob in obs... so i think her is the only change to find a solution

 

[FerretBomb]

More suggesting that you use a streaming platform like YouTube in addition to your meeting software, just for the presentation.

Alternate idea, if your meeting software allows screensharing and you just don't have a second screen (you really should consider getting one), they sell small plug-in 'headless monitor' dongles for around $20 that pretend to be a screen. You could just grab one of those, then right-click on OBS' Preview window, select the Fullscreen Preview option, and send it to the fake monitor. Then share that fake monitor in your teleconference software.

Really though, you could do the same with an actual monitor (many secondhand shops have tons of these, and they're on ebay for cheap) and have the productivity benefits that brings. Once you've used a two-monitor setup, it is VERY hard to go back to a single.

 

[EduardoQ]

Hi
I am also using OBS for online presentations (business presentations in my case). In order to prevent other participant’s webcam to come “on top” when they open their mics while I am presenting, some conference call solutions have a SPOTLIGHT option. I use it with MS Teams. I go to the participant list, click on my name (...) and then select the spotlight me option. That forces my webcam to keep on top for everyone even do they still can participate. I do not know if this same option is available on your solution, but look for something similar.
It may not be the best solution, since OBS focus is on streaming as others comment, but we can level up the quality of our shared content on a presentation/meeting using OBS.

 

[McPringle]

Very easy. There are two options available. I have the german version running and try to translate the menu options.

1. First, right click on the preview in OBS and from the context menu, select "Window mode projector (preview)" / "Fenstermodusprojektor (Vorschau)". Adjust the size of the new window as needed. Next, in your meeting software, start the screen sharing and select the new window as the source. With tools like Skype for Business, Teams, etc. you must keep the window in the foreground (you can right click on the window and select "Always in foreground" / "Immer im Vordergrund"), or the covered parts will be blacked out.
2. Attach a second monitor, an old one with Full HD support (1920x1080) would be optimal. Right click on the preview in OBS and from the context menu, select "Full Screen Projector (Preview)" / "Vollbildprojektor (Vorschau)". In the sub menu, select your second monitor. Next, in your meeting software, start the screen sharing and select the second monitor as the source. You can work on the first monitor, use your notes and OBS, and your students will only see the OBS output from your second monitor, independent of the focus and the foreground windows on your first monitor.

I hope this is what you are searching for.

 

[Rwin62]

If you use Windows10 you could use the software solution from Amyuni.

Activating a Secondary Display on Windows 10 when no Monitor is Connected - Amyuni Technologies

I just installed it and it works like a charm.
You get an extra virtual display in windows and use that for your OBS output.
In Webex meetings you can share this virtual display with your students.

 

[thomastthai]

If you use Windows10 you could use the software solution from Amyuni.

Activating a Secondary Display on Windows 10 when no Monitor is Connected - Amyuni Technologies

I just installed it and it works like a charm.
You get an extra virtual display in windows and use that for your OBS output.
In Webex meetings you can share this virtual display with your students.

I read the info for Amyuni virtual monitor but didn't see how you would switch to or view them. How does that work?