streaming from Obs Studio to Android main camera

L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Sorry, your post doesn't make sense
OBS Studio is a compositing tool... ie brings together one or more sources, and allows those to be flexibly composited (combined) with filters, effects, transitions, etc. That combined/produced video output can then be streamed and/or locally recorded.

Can that video stream be sent, instead of to a Content Delivery {streaming platform} Network, to some other receiver, capable of translating streaming protocols... sure. OBS Studio will let you stream to pretty much anywhere you want to point to.

Is an Android (or iOS) mobile OS camera app programmed to accept a network video stream? no, of course not. The camera app is designed to use the devices own len(s) as an Input Source. Could you point camera lens of OBS Studio computer monitor and get a really poor image? sure
*IF* what you want to do is create some video output on a PC (using OBS Studio in this case) and send that to a mobile device, and have that device be capable of compositing the PC send video feed along with camera input on mobile device, then you need compositing s/w on the mobile device. And real-time video compositing is really computationally demanding, while all consumer mobile devices are battery, not performance, optimized.
Is a simple compositing on a mobile device possible? sure... with a whole lot of restrictions & limitations.

If you don't want compositing, then you need to explain your use case better. And know WiFi is a terrible medium for jitter sensitive video. I'd be inclined, if I was even going to attempt something like this to use a USB/Lightning to Ethernet adapter to bypass WiFi.
For example, you could configure PC to send NDI or RTSP and have a viewer on mobile device. easy. But then what? I could see nefarious/fraudulent purposes for such? Are you going to 'pretend' that video source is from the camera? or ?? And then send that video out via (same) WiFi or cellular?
Or is this a case of wanting to Zoom/Teams/Webex from mobile device, but get content/video feed from other computer? and why do that other than bypassing corporate or other device provider security protocols? why not just stream from OBS Studio computer? IF OBS Studio computer not connected to same/desired network, then what about simple tethering computer to mobile device?
 
A

AaronD

Active Member
Lots of people get the directions of signals backwards, or not related to signals at all. "Input", for example, could refer to *any* connector, simply because you put a plug "into" it, and then the usual translation does happen from there to the software world, except for GIGO.

I think OP simply has the terms backwards, and wants the camera app to feed OBS.

The normal camera app doesn't do that, but there are other apps that do. I like IP Webcam on Android, and I'm pretty sure there's an equivalent for iPhone:
play.google.com

IP Webcam - Apps on Google Play

Turn your phone into a wireless camera!
play.google.com play.google.com
 
A

AaronD

Active Member
Okay, so you did get the directions right. And it's working???

Taking an XY approach to this ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem ), you can take a screenshot directly from OBS, by right-clicking on the image itself. Then if you really want that picture on your phone, there are several ways to transfer the file.
 
P

PHayes_BBSIndy

New Member
Revoluter25 said:
Hi
the video is not mine ...I am looking for the way he did it
Click to expand...
Revoluter25 said:
Hello guys,
is there a way to stream from Obs studio to the main camera app of my smartphone ?
This could be achieved by utilizing a separate app or software on the phone that allows it to function as a webcam. what do you think ? any ideas ?
Click to expand...
I think I understand, as I am seeking the same solution. When trying to Google a solution to this I am confronted with a deluge of links on how to use my phone as a camera. I already know how to do this.
What I want, and what I think the OP wants, is the ability to sent a virtual camera video feed from OBS, complete with special effects, filters ect. to my Android phone, whereupon by means of some as yet undiscovered app or collection of settings, it would be possible to subplant my Android phone's natively generated video with the highly edited one streaming live from obs via bluetooth, wifi, or usb cable.

Example: Poshmark (An online retail platform) has begun to provide it's sellers with an Android App whereby their users can now perform live sales shows. However, currently the sellers can only "Go Live" directly from their Poshmark App using the phone's camera. Presumably this serves two purposes. First, it gives Poshmark some control over what is broadcast, and second, it relieves Poshmark of the need to staff a IT Help Desk of mammoth proportions to answer questions from users that know more about fashion than tech.

I am somewhat familiar with OBS having used it for E-tail, but my Android dev skill don't go far beyond enabling dev mode and poking around.

Basically I think what I need is some means to tell Android to use this source instead of that source, thus fooling all dependent apps on that device.

Any tips or resources would be greatly appreciated.
 
L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
PHayes_BBSIndy said:
Basically I think what I need is some means to tell Android to use this source instead of that source, thus fooling all dependent apps on that device.
Click to expand...
Good Luck, and more likely doable on Android than iOS, as the Poshmark app, for security reasons, may (just a guess) well be specifically calling to device's camera. So, not only do you need to get OBS Studio output (presenter mode) or other (a number of possibilities), but then you need a given app to allow you to select that video feed (vs native camera), OR you have to get Android to 'lie' to app and present an alternative video feed as the coming from the devices own camera (an obvious security issue)

Though... this is NOT my area of expertise, so do NOT take my word for this.
 
J

jdove

New Member
PHayes_BBSIndy said:
I think I understand, as I am seeking the same solution. When trying to Google a solution to this I am confronted with a deluge of links on how to use my phone as a camera. I already know how to do this.
What I want, and what I think the OP wants, is the ability to sent a virtual camera video feed from OBS, complete with special effects, filters ect. to my Android phone, whereupon by means of some as yet undiscovered app or collection of settings, it would be possible to subplant my Android phone's natively generated video with the highly edited one streaming live from obs via bluetooth, wifi, or usb cable.

Example: Poshmark (An online retail platform) has begun to provide it's sellers with an Android App whereby their users can now perform live sales shows. However, currently the sellers can only "Go Live" directly from their Poshmark App using the phone's camera. Presumably this serves two purposes. First, it gives Poshmark some control over what is broadcast, and second, it relieves Poshmark of the need to staff a IT Help Desk of mammoth proportions to answer questions from users that know more about fashion than tech.

I am somewhat familiar with OBS having used it for E-tail, but my Android dev skill don't go far beyond enabling dev mode and poking around.

Basically I think what I need is some means to tell Android to use this source instead of that source, thus fooling all dependent apps on that device.

Any tips or resources would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Perfectly expressed and articulated! I too am looking for this solution and would be grateful if you would share any progress on this front.
 
S

SPopov

New Member
PHayes_BBSIndy said:
I think I understand, as I am seeking the same solution. When trying to Google a solution to this I am confronted with a deluge of links on how to use my phone as a camera. I already know how to do this.
What I want, and what I think the OP wants, is the ability to sent a virtual camera video feed from OBS, complete with special effects, filters ect. to my Android phone, whereupon by means of some as yet undiscovered app or collection of settings, it would be possible to subplant my Android phone's natively generated video with the highly edited one streaming live from obs via bluetooth, wifi, or usb cable.

Example: Poshmark (An online retail platform) has begun to provide it's sellers with an Android App whereby their users can now perform live sales shows. However, currently the sellers can only "Go Live" directly from their Poshmark App using the phone's camera. Presumably this serves two purposes. First, it gives Poshmark some control over what is broadcast, and second, it relieves Poshmark of the need to staff a IT Help Desk of mammoth proportions to answer questions from users that know more about fashion than tech.

I am somewhat familiar with OBS having used it for E-tail, but my Android dev skill don't go far beyond enabling dev mode and poking around.

Basically I think what I need is some means to tell Android to use this source instead of that source, thus fooling all dependent apps on that device.

Any tips or resources would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
This is what I've been looking for as well and had no luck so far. With recent technological advances I was hoping this would be possible.
 
just_stuff_tm

just_stuff_tm

New Member
SPopov said:
This is what I've been looking for as well and had no luck so far. With recent technological advances I was hoping this would be possible.
Click to expand...
You are looking to use the virtual camera or the scene in obs studio as a mobile native camera. It may be possible to create a companion app that intercepts the native camera and use a rtmp server like node media server and ffmpeg to receive the stream from obs and inject it into the intercepted camera
 
just_stuff_tm

just_stuff_tm

New Member
Revoluter25 said:
Hello guys,
is there a way to stream from Obs studio to the main camera app of my smartphone ?
This could be achieved by utilizing a separate app or software on the phone that allows it to function as a webcam. what do you think ? any ideas ?
Click to expand...
Using OBS Studio to emulate an Android device's camera feed involves several steps:

### Setting Up OBS Studio:

1. **Install OBS Studio**: First, ensure you have OBS Studio installed on your PC.

2. **Virtual Camera Setup**:

- **For Windows**:
- In OBS Studio, start the "Virtual Camera" by going to the "Tools" menu and selecting "Start Virtual Camera". This feature might need to be installed or enabled if not already available.

- **For macOS**:
- The virtual camera feature might require additional plugins or software like **OBS Virtualcam** or **CamTwist** since OBS doesn't natively support this on macOS as it does on Windows.

3. **Source Configuration**:
- In OBS, you can set up various sources for what you want to stream as a camera feed. This could be:
- A video file playing in a loop or as a one-time feed.
- A screen capture of another application or video playback from software like "One Studio".
- Live camera feed from an external camera connected to your PC.

### Configuring Android Emulator:

1. **Android Emulator Camera Settings**:
- Open Android Studio and run your virtual device.
- In the AVD manager, when you edit or create a new virtual device, you can set the camera to use the host's webcam, which will be the virtual camera from OBS.

2. **Webcam Integration**:
- Ensure your system recognizes OBS's virtual output as a camera. On Windows, after starting the virtual camera in OBS, it should appear as "OBS Virtual Camera" in device lists.

### Application in Emulator:

- Once the emulator recognizes the OBS virtual camera as its camera source:

- **Testing**: Open any app in the emulator that requires camera access. The app should now use whatever is being broadcast through OBS as if it were coming from the device's camera.

- **Live Adjustments**: You can change what's being shown in OBS in real-time, which can be useful for testing different scenarios, showing pre-recorded videos, or even live-streaming from another source through OBS into the Android environment.

### Additional Notes:

- **Latency**: There might be some latency between the actual feed and what's displayed in the emulator, depending on system performance, the complexity of your OBS scenes, and the emulator's efficiency.

- **Performance**: Running an emulator, OBS with a virtual camera, and potentially other applications might be resource-intensive. Ensure your PC has enough processing power, RAM, and a good graphics card if you're dealing with high-resolution or complex video feeds.

- **Software Limitations**: If you encounter issues with the virtual camera on macOS or other systems, you might need to look into alternative virtual camera solutions or plugins that are compatible with your setup.

This setup allows for great flexibility in testing Android applications under various simulated camera conditions, making it invaluable for developers or anyone needing to manipulate or control the camera feed into an Android environment.
 
just_stuff_tm

just_stuff_tm

New Member
Revoluter25 said:
Hello guys,
is there a way to stream from Obs studio to the main camera app of my smartphone ?
This could be achieved by utilizing a separate app or software on the phone that allows it to function as a webcam. what do you think ? any ideas ?
Click to expand...
Creating an Android app that acts as if it were the device's camera hardware to send video from an external source involves several considerations:

1. **Camera2 API and MediaCodec**: Android provides the Camera2 API which allows for more fine-grained control over the camera hardware, including the ability to capture frames from the camera. However, to simulate camera input from an external video source, you would not directly use the Camera2 API to capture from the device's camera but instead to potentially display or process incoming video frames as if they came from the camera hardware.

2. **Virtual Camera**: Android doesn't natively support a "virtual camera" out-of-the-box where you can inject video frames as if they're coming from the physical camera. However, there are workarounds:

- **Custom Camera Implementation**: You might create a pseudo-camera experience by developing an app that captures video from an external source (like a USB camera or network stream) and then processes this video within your app as if it were coming from the device's camera. However, making other apps believe this video stream is coming from the device's built-in camera would be complex and might require system-level permissions or modifications not typically available to third-party apps.

- **Streaming and RTMP**: For live streaming or similar applications, you could take video from an external source, encode it (possibly using MediaCodec for hardware acceleration), and then stream it via RTMP or another protocol to a server, from which other devices could pick it up. Apps like Larix Broadcaster demonstrate this concept, though they stream from the actual camera or screen.

- **USB Cameras**: Using the Android USB host feature, you can connect a USB camera and access it via the Android SDK. There's no need for a "virtual" device if you're directly using an external camera, but integrating this feed as if it's from the phone's camera to be used by any app would be tricky.

- **Open Source Projects**: Looking into projects like LibreCamera on GitHub might give insights or code snippets on how one might approach integrating external video as a camera source, though these projects are often about providing better camera interfaces rather than faking a camera input.

- **Limitations and Workarounds**: Some apps or functionalities might require root access or custom ROMs to override camera inputs due to security features in Android preventing exactly this kind of manipulation for privacy reasons.

4. **Integration with Other Apps**: For your app to send video that other apps recognize as coming from the device's camera, you'd likely need to:

- Develop a module or plugin for specific apps that can accept external video sources.
- Use Android's screen sharing or casting features, which wouldn't be treated as camera input but could be used for similar purposes in some contexts.

5. **Potential for Future Development**: Given the interest in virtual reality, augmented reality, and advanced video applications, future Android updates or custom kernels might offer more straightforward paths for virtual camera inputs.

In summary, while directly making Android treat an external video source as its native camera input isn't straightforward due to security and system design, you can develop applications that capture, process, and stream external video content. However, getting other apps to recognize this as native camera feed would require significant system-level integration or specific app support for external sources.
 
A

AaronD

Active Member
just_stuff_tm said:
You are looking to use the virtual camera or the scene in obs studio as a mobile native camera. It may be possible to create a companion app that intercepts the native camera and use a rtmp server like node media server and ffmpeg to receive the stream from obs and inject it into the intercepted camera
Click to expand...
just_stuff_tm said:
Using OBS Studio to emulate an Android device's camera feed involves several steps:

### Setting Up OBS Studio:

1. **Install OBS Studio**: First, ensure you have OBS Studio installed on your PC.

2. **Virtual Camera Setup**:

- **For Windows**:
- In OBS Studio, start the "Virtual Camera" by going to the "Tools" menu and selecting "Start Virtual Camera". This feature might need to be installed or enabled if not already available.

- **For macOS**:
- The virtual camera feature might require additional plugins or software like **OBS Virtualcam** or **CamTwist** since OBS doesn't natively support this on macOS as it does on Windows.

3. **Source Configuration**:
- In OBS, you can set up various sources for what you want to stream as a camera feed. This could be:
- A video file playing in a loop or as a one-time feed.
- A screen capture of another application or video playback from software like "One Studio".
- Live camera feed from an external camera connected to your PC.

### Configuring Android Emulator:

1. **Android Emulator Camera Settings**:
- Open Android Studio and run your virtual device.
- In the AVD manager, when you edit or create a new virtual device, you can set the camera to use the host's webcam, which will be the virtual camera from OBS.

2. **Webcam Integration**:
- Ensure your system recognizes OBS's virtual output as a camera. On Windows, after starting the virtual camera in OBS, it should appear as "OBS Virtual Camera" in device lists.

### Application in Emulator:

- Once the emulator recognizes the OBS virtual camera as its camera source:

- **Testing**: Open any app in the emulator that requires camera access. The app should now use whatever is being broadcast through OBS as if it were coming from the device's camera.

- **Live Adjustments**: You can change what's being shown in OBS in real-time, which can be useful for testing different scenarios, showing pre-recorded videos, or even live-streaming from another source through OBS into the Android environment.

### Additional Notes:

- **Latency**: There might be some latency between the actual feed and what's displayed in the emulator, depending on system performance, the complexity of your OBS scenes, and the emulator's efficiency.

- **Performance**: Running an emulator, OBS with a virtual camera, and potentially other applications might be resource-intensive. Ensure your PC has enough processing power, RAM, and a good graphics card if you're dealing with high-resolution or complex video feeds.

- **Software Limitations**: If you encounter issues with the virtual camera on macOS or other systems, you might need to look into alternative virtual camera solutions or plugins that are compatible with your setup.

This setup allows for great flexibility in testing Android applications under various simulated camera conditions, making it invaluable for developers or anyone needing to manipulate or control the camera feed into an Android environment.
Click to expand...
just_stuff_tm said:
Creating an Android app that acts as if it were the device's camera hardware to send video from an external source involves several considerations:

1. **Camera2 API and MediaCodec**: Android provides the Camera2 API which allows for more fine-grained control over the camera hardware, including the ability to capture frames from the camera. However, to simulate camera input from an external video source, you would not directly use the Camera2 API to capture from the device's camera but instead to potentially display or process incoming video frames as if they came from the camera hardware.

2. **Virtual Camera**: Android doesn't natively support a "virtual camera" out-of-the-box where you can inject video frames as if they're coming from the physical camera. However, there are workarounds:

- **Custom Camera Implementation**: You might create a pseudo-camera experience by developing an app that captures video from an external source (like a USB camera or network stream) and then processes this video within your app as if it were coming from the device's camera. However, making other apps believe this video stream is coming from the device's built-in camera would be complex and might require system-level permissions or modifications not typically available to third-party apps.

- **Streaming and RTMP**: For live streaming or similar applications, you could take video from an external source, encode it (possibly using MediaCodec for hardware acceleration), and then stream it via RTMP or another protocol to a server, from which other devices could pick it up. Apps like Larix Broadcaster demonstrate this concept, though they stream from the actual camera or screen.

- **USB Cameras**: Using the Android USB host feature, you can connect a USB camera and access it via the Android SDK. There's no need for a "virtual" device if you're directly using an external camera, but integrating this feed as if it's from the phone's camera to be used by any app would be tricky.

- **Open Source Projects**: Looking into projects like LibreCamera on GitHub might give insights or code snippets on how one might approach integrating external video as a camera source, though these projects are often about providing better camera interfaces rather than faking a camera input.

- **Limitations and Workarounds**: Some apps or functionalities might require root access or custom ROMs to override camera inputs due to security features in Android preventing exactly this kind of manipulation for privacy reasons.

4. **Integration with Other Apps**: For your app to send video that other apps recognize as coming from the device's camera, you'd likely need to:

- Develop a module or plugin for specific apps that can accept external video sources.
- Use Android's screen sharing or casting features, which wouldn't be treated as camera input but could be used for similar purposes in some contexts.

5. **Potential for Future Development**: Given the interest in virtual reality, augmented reality, and advanced video applications, future Android updates or custom kernels might offer more straightforward paths for virtual camera inputs.

In summary, while directly making Android treat an external video source as its native camera input isn't straightforward due to security and system design, you can develop applications that capture, process, and stream external video content. However, getting other apps to recognize this as native camera feed would require significant system-level integration or specific app support for external sources.
Click to expand...
AI-generated wall of text??? Looks impressive, and much better formatted than a lot of human-made posts, but it doesn't seem to me like it says anything at all, when you really get into it. Just echoes the question, and then says, "it may be possible...," with no real explanation of how to actually do it. Most of the actual instructions are just boilerplate how-to-install-an-app, which the askers have clearly already done (OBS) or know how to do (phone apps).

Also beware of AI hallucinations: confidently incorrect, but so well written/generated that you have to already know, to tell the difference.
 
Last edited:
just_stuff_tm

just_stuff_tm

New Member
AaronD said:
AI-generated wall of text??? Looks impressive, and much better formatted than a lot of human-made posts, but it doesn't seem to me like it says anything at all, when you really get into it. Just echoes the question, and then says, "it may be possible...," with no real explanation of how to actually do it. Most of the actual instructions are just boilerplate how-to-install-an-app, which the askers have clearly already done (OBS) or know how to do (phone apps).

Also beware of AI hallucinations: confidently incorrect, but so well written/generated that you have to already know, to tell the difference.
Click to expand...
Or you could just use android emulator on pc and use obs-studio virtual camera. Also yes it was written with the help of AI maybe I should have disclosed that!
 
A

AaronD

Active Member
OBSVCAM said:
If your are seeking for replacing and overlaying the existing phone camera as a virtual camera with OBS Studio, you can do that with OBS Studio on almost any android device. This may help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KofZRSRXjvc
Click to expand...
Okay, so that video demonstrates that it's possible to get all of those visual effects on camera on the one specific rig in the demo, without any of us being present to see anything different from what the camera sees. But neither the video nor the description says HOW do to it, and the comments are disabled. So not actually helpful.

Can you fill that gap?
 
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