Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation - high CPU usage

[OBS_Us3r]

I usually keep OBS open, minimized, but often I notice that the fan starts very loud, and the Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation process consumes CPU more than other processes. After I close OBS, everything returns to normal.
I would like to know why OBS "listens" to the microphone even when it is not recording.
How can this be stopped?
-- OBS 30.2.3 - (64 Bits), Windows 11 24H2

 

[koala]

If OBS is configured to use the mic, then yes, OBS will keep the mic open and listening to it. OBS is continuously processing audio and video, no matter of some recording or streaming in progress. This enables preview and monitoring, so you're able to setup your scenes and sources without requiring an active recording or streaming session.

 

[OBS_Us3r]

If OBS is configured to use the mic, then yes, OBS will keep the mic open and listening to it. OBS is continuously processing audio and video, no matter of some recording or streaming in progress. This enables preview and monitoring, so you're able to setup your scenes and sources without requiring an active recording or streaming session.

This continuous monitoring, this continuous listening to the microphone sounds more like espionage than a facility, it should be an option at most. You do the setting once in a while, you don't have to have your microphone and screen capture open continuously.

 

[konsolenritter]

OBS does in software what otherwise expensive hardware solutions for video mixers do (in realtime). If you don't feel comfortable with the way free OBS works you're invited to write your own video mixer software, possibly with standby capabilities (pausing while minimized). You are requesting a special case here.

 

[OBS_Us3r]

OBS does in software what otherwise expensive hardware solutions for video mixers do (in realtime). If you don't feel comfortable with the way free OBS works you're invited to write your own video mixer software, possibly with standby capabilities (pausing while minimized). You are requesting a special case here.

You are invited to not speak if you have nothing important to say.

 

[AaronD]

You are requesting a special case here.

Agreed, from another Active Member.

Broadcast and privacy don't go together very well. Always remember that. It's just how this part of the world works.

• If you don't trust OBS (or yourself to not have it broadcasting), don't keep it running.
• If you don't want sensitive stuff on the screen while you're broadcasting, don't have it open at the same time. Minimized is not enough. Close it completely.
• If you're not using something in OBS (Mic, Desktop audio, etc.), Disable or delete it in OBS. Don't keep stuff around just because that's how it came.
• Etc.

If you're *really* paranoid, there's nothing wrong with having a dedicated physical machine that never does anything else and never has anything sensitive on it. (A dedicated physical machine also solves some of the other problems that people tend to have...)

 

[AaronD]

This continuous monitoring, this continuous listening to the microphone sounds more like espionage than a facility...

It's how every serious signal processing thing works. For example:

• Analog audio mixers literally cannot shut off their circuitry. They MUST always process something.
  • There's no such thing as "no signal". If you unplug something, it'll either "spring weakly" to silence in a way that a source can easily overcome, or if the "spring" is too weak, it'll pick up environmental noise and call *that* a signal to process like it's set for.
  • Disabling a function does not stop the circuitry. In most cases, the circuitry continues to run the full set of processing as usual, but the result is thrown away. Also in most cases, the "headphone button" continues to work when the channel strip is muted (and uses the fully processed signal), so the operator can make sure it really is good *before* sending it live!
• Digital audio mixers *can* shut off parts of their functionality, and some do. It's a way to have a longer list of functions, all of which work, than the processor can actually support simultaneously. However:
  • It's a nightmare to troubleshoot and debug! Dynamic scheduling and dynamic resource allocation is one of the hardest computing problems to solve in general, so a lot of applications simply forbid it. Things like rocket guidance, human safety, etc. Those systems need more capable processors than they might otherwise, because they're being used less efficiently, but any "capacity problems" will appear immediately or never, with nothing in between.
  • For the same reason, even though it's not a "safety critical" thing, a lot of digital audio mixers also run as if they were. Again, it's trivial to prove sufficient capacity, if *everything* is *always* running, regardless of whether it's used or not.
• OBS? I fully expect it to work like a "guaranteed capacity" digital processor. NOT doing that would be a bug that needs fixing.

If OBS did shut things off, it would invite two problems that don't presently exist:

• "Everything works perfectly, but when I go live it dies!"
• "Why can't I test things before I go live?!"

Both of which lead to embarrassment in front of a live audience. Don't do that.