Question / Help Where did the Advanced Options for Media Sources go?

[adcprod74]

I was over the moon when OBS added the audio monitoring feature. Then you guys took away the option for advanced settings on Media Sources. WHY!?!?!

I often use OBS to receive RTMP streams. Without being able to tweak the incoming buffer settings, receiving streams as sources can get really... well unreliable. Also, increasing the buffer allows users to play back a wider array of video formats in OBS! OBS can handle Pro Res with a higher buffer. Otherwise local videos usually have to get transcoded first to H.264.

Please bring back the advanced options! I understand if you want to hide those features from most users, but they're called advanced for a reason. (If you want to put the media source receive buffer settings elsewhere, I'm fine with that.)

Thanks in advance. This would make my life complete. :)

 

[Fenrir]

I think you're a bit confused on what those buffers actually did. There was a static network buffer added that allows up to 2mb of buffer for network sources. These settings were removed because they weren't really providing much value and cluttered the UI.

 

[adcprod74]

I disagree. I can put OBS 18.X with a large incoming media source buffer (say 300 frames) against 19.X without an adjustable buffer and the same stream dies pretty quickly in 19.X. I'd say that clearly demonstrates the value it can bring in some use cases.

If you folks say that it clutters the UI, can you please put in a setting to bring it back for advanced users to enable somehow? I'm a huge OBS fan, but I have trouble recommending it for our broadcast-oriented use cases with this feature absent.

 

[R1CH]

The entire media source was rewritten, those settings simply don't exist any more.

 

[adcprod74]

Also, the ability to add delay to a feed can actually be useful. Trust me, this is a killer feature for the future of television. I represent about 100 users in my agency who use OBS daily to re-stream streams and add some extra things on top.

Yes, you read that right. We often re-stream other streams as sources in our online programs. We really need this feature brought back. The VLC plugin is nice and offers some of this functionality, but having this built into OBS is waaay more useful and flexible.

 

[adcprod74]

R1CH,

What can be done in this case? The automatic buffer often isn't enough.

 

[R1CH]

I've tested 50mbps UDP (RTSP) and TCP (HTTP) streams over the internet and the buffer is sufficient. It should be totally fine for LAN use. What bitrate are your source streams?

 

[adcprod74]

Hmmm... They are pretty low in the 1.5 Mb range. To be fair, I just tested some stuff out on the .19.X Linux version when I wrote this. VLC on Linux on the same PC had no trouble, but OBS would die after about 30 seconds. I then went around the building and in-fact noticed that the newer Windows version seemed okay.

I understand that the Linux version isn't necessarily considered a production version. (I have an older 18.x OBS version on my Surface Pro 3 with Windows that I first did the comparison against as well.) Sorry about my paranoia there. I'll do some more testing on the Windows and Mac versions and PCs in the building here and report back if I see anything else odd related to this.

All I have to say is, you guys rock! We love OBS! Thanks for the prompt reply R1CH!

 

[R1CH]

It's possible the Linux kernel is limiting the maximum allowed receive buffer. Try running these commands:

sysctl "net.core.wmem_max=12582912"
sysctl "net.core.rmem_max=12582912"
sysctl "net.ipv4.tcp_rmem=10240 87380 12582912"
sysctl "net.ipv4.tcp_wmem=10240 87380 12582912"

 

[ricardohc]

rtsp streams on VLC can be adjusted to 50ms so, for an "realtime" ptz camera preview. It works very well. How to pass this parameters back to OBS in Media Source ?
this is the string we use. 50ms delay on vlc and ( using the same machine ) 500ms in OBS.

rtsp://ip:554/live

 

[adcprod74]

I wrote about this a while back. I've come up with some interesting workarounds using NGINX-RTMP. However, I'd still love to have this incoming stream buffer option back in OBS a la VLC as mentioned in the previous comment. This could still be very helpful when my NGINX workarounds can't be used with certain use cases with realtime-ish streams (RTMP, UDP or whatever).

This is what the feature looks like in the VLC GUI: