@regstuff I'm so glad I finally found this thread. I want to use OBS for adding media, graphics, color correction, etc. to my broadcasts, but use a hardware encoder to do the heavy lifting. Though this won't prevent the stream from crashing in the event of an OBS crash... [unless there is a budget hardware encoder that has two inputs - one of which would come from OBS projector and the other directly from a hardware switcher - and would fail over from one to the other, hmm]
>>> Never come across any encoder with two inputs. Let me know if you do. :) We're worried about the OBS crash problem too, so we're actually thinking of keeping this option as a backup. The primary option is to use a video switcher (like this one:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...swatemtvstu_hd_atem_television_studio_hd.html though there may be cheaper options), and feed the graphics alone (the video area will be green-screened) through the projector view output of OBS. The actual video will come straight from the video source into the switcher, and chroma keying will combine the two. This is a bit more reliable. Also the audio goes straight through the switcher and is independent of your mac now. (Hope this paragraph made sense!)
...but it would save system resources and produce a better, more flexible stream with things like adaptable bandwidth, bonding, etc. as you mentioned.
>>> Again, which is the encoder you're using?
I've done some fiddling towards this end, but am glad to know there are other people interested in the same thing. One concern, at least on Mac, is that the task bar persists on the projector output. This seems to be correctable with some tweaking of Mac settings, however.
>>> I did not have this issue. Might have been because of Mirror Display?
I've also noticed that the mouse can still be seen on top of the projector output, regardless of the "don't show mouse over projector" setting. Perhaps this is a version bug or something. I suppose it's not a big deal, as long as you're careful.
>>> Did not face this issue.
My biggest concerns with such a setup are 1) video quality and 2) audio.
As for audio: OBS does have the ability to locally monitor audio sources, and do so on an individual basis. I assume audio monitoring selections are persistent across scenes, just like sources. I've done some poking around and discovered that the monitored audio does include filters, as well as the other advanced audio properties like summing and panning. Volume control for the monitored audio includes both the source's volume slider in OBS and the audio controls on your computer. I haven't scientifically tested the sync, but it seems that the monitored audio syncs nicely with the projector video - no reason to expect that it wouldn't.
>>> I can confirm that syncing was good and steady for a 30 minute live stream.
Without some complicated workarounds, the streamed audio and monitored audio are not independently controllable, unless I missed something. Importantly, though, you do still have your computer's audio controls to determine the volume of the monitored audio output - it's very important that be independent.
>>> One thing I noticed was that once I send the projector out to the other screen (the hardware encoder), I wasn't getting the audio on my laptop. A workaround is to go to your MIDI settings and create an Aggregate audio output that includes both your laptop system audio and the "other screen". This way you can hear on your laptop and stream it too.
An obvious problem if using monitored audio and projector video is that the audio and video signals are separate. Unless in a situation where HDMI video and analog audio can be easily combined at the end use (or don't need to be combined, I suppose), a fix for this would be needed.
>>> Not sure what you mean hear. The audio and video will both carry through the HDMI.
My best guess for this would be an HDMI audio embedder (
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/889742-REG/Sescom_SES_AUDIO_N_HDMI_HDMI_Audio_Inserter.html and
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13347 ). The Sescom looks like it has a better chance of working, given some negative reviews about the Monoprice unit on various sites. I'm absolutely certain that there are other audio software solutions to this problem. If anyone has any specific ideas, please let me know!
As for video: it seems to me that, as R1CH said above, the projector output is as high quality as the source(s) you're sending OBS. I've seen multiple devs/admins say similar things in various posts. I have quite a bit more digging to do on this front. Is the projector output's resolution is the same as the base canvas? What about frame rate? I'm sure I have lots to learn about this.
Cheers!
