OBS Studio is an open-source and completely free screen recorder that allows you to record desktop and online live streaming video. It is a lightweight software that supports Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Open Broadcast Software is a video streaming and mixing software. Still, primarily, it is known for its screen recording proficiencies along with recording gameplays and switching between multiple windows at a time. It performs video editing, filtering, color correction, and real-time audio enhancement and noise removal by its built-in sound enhancer. The settings panel is diverse and equipped with maximum customization for users. However, around 80% of OBS Studio consumers require the software mostly for recording and saving gameplays.
- Quick Navigation
- Windows
- Record Using OBS
- Screen Grabber Pro
- Flashback Express
- Streamlabs OBS
How to Use OBS Studio to Record Gameplay
OBS Studio looks intimidating at first glance. With all the options and buttons that are present on the toolbar, it’s easy to get confused. However, that is not a problem if you know what exactly you are doing in the first place. To avoid any confusion and errors, here are few steps on how to record games with Open Broadcast Software with moderate settings.
Quick guide to OBS Studio:
- Download the OBS Studio installer from their official website and install it once downloaded. Please make sure you get the right version according to your operating system.
- Click on the “Settings” tab and Set audio and video value from there to the recommended setting.
- After configuring audio and video setting, go to “Outout Settings” tab and select the desired output folder on your PC.
- Select “Scene Box”, from the list on the box, click the “Add” button and enter the name of your choice to be saved later.
- After choosing the name, draw the cursor again to “Source Box,” and select “Add” from there. Next go to “Game Capture” tab that opens up windows after you click “OK.”
- After that, click on “Start Recording” icon and your gameplay will start recording instantly after a pop-up window appears.
- To end the gameplay recording, directly hit “Stop Recording” button and you are done with an entirely recorded gameplay saved to the destination folder.
- You can play the output video from the folder that you assigned earlier.
If OBS Studio doesn’t work for you or your PC, here’s an equally competent OBS alternative for you – AceThinker Screen Grabber Pro, which is easy to use, lighter than Open Broadcast Software and free of annoying settings that most of us never needed. It enables you to record videos in full screen, region, webcam, etc. methods with audio from the system, your microphone, or both. High-quality video output is ensured for a better screencast. And you can record to several formats, including MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV, FLV, and more for playing and sharing almost anywhere you like. It is full of features, yet consumers are allowed to take control of limited features while most of the settings are made default. Now you can get the correct version of this alternative to Open Broadcaster Software to record games, your desktop, videos, etc. at leisure. To know to use this tool, follow these steps.
Popular Alternatives to Open Broadcaster Software for iPad. Explore 8 iPad apps like Open Broadcaster Software, all suggested and ranked by the AlternativeTo user community. The actual developer of this free Mac application is Open Broadcaster Software. The software is categorized as Audio & Video Tools. The most popular version among the application users is 0.6. This Mac download was checked by our antivirus and was rated as malware free. You can run this free app on Mac OS X 10.8.5 or later.
Step1 Download and install
Download the tool by clicking the download button below and install it on your PC..
Try It Free
Free Download
Mac OS X 10.8 & above
Secure Download
Step2 Select the video output
After that, click “Audio Input” to select the audio source to suit your needs. You can add audio from the system, microphone, or both. The audio tracks will be synced simultaneously with no lag. Now it’s time to record your screen. To start creating the screencast, get back to the screen recorder and select a recording mode from Full Screen or Region. If you choose to record just a particular area, you will then be asked to hold to choose your desired region required to be visible on the screen. The recording will start once the “OK” button is pressed.
NOTE:Before starting to record, you can click “Settings” and “Options” to configure your essential output settings like the output video format, destination folder, recording hotkeys, mouse cursor style, etc.
Step3 Annotate while recording
As you see, during the recording process, you can even use the built-in editor to add some notes, insert your webcam, and more to enhance your video instantly. When the recording is done, you can stop it by hitting the Stop icon. The recorded video will then be saved and will be displayed on the “Preview Panel” of the main interface. You can then locate, rename or play it freely by clicking the “Open folder” button. This OBS Studio screen recorder alternative even allows you to share the recorded video to YouTube or FTP using its built-in uploading function.
Get Free Trial Now
Flashback Express
Another tool that is a great alternative to OBS Studio is Flashback Express. This tool is equally competent as with OBS Studio but has a slight drawback; it’s not free. Some features are available from the paid version only. However, in terms of screen recording capabilities, it doesn’t fall behind. If you are interested in this tool, here are the steps on how to use Flashback Express.
Steps on using Flashback Express:
- Acquire the Flashback Express installer by clicking this link and run it on the PC.
- Once installation is complete, open the tool to reach its home screen.
- On the home screen, click the “Record your Screen” option to start.
- On the next window that will appear, select the recording mode from the “Record” bar and click the “Record” button.
- While recording is on-going, you can add text and make notes that will appear on the output video. Once done with recording, click the “Stop” button to save the file.
- After clicking the Stop button, a reminder will appear which contains the “Save,” “Review” and “Discard” buttons. Click the “Save” button to keep the video file.
Stream with superb experience using a reliable and easy-to-setup desktop streaming software. Streamlabs OBS is a free program developed for professional and aspiring streamers. It helps bridge the gap between streamers and viewers, allowing them to be an integral of the stream. This app features a lot of options you can utilize to improve your stream. As you go live, the tool will allow you to open multiple windows, including chat box, video editor, Streamlab dashboard all in one place. As far as the screen recording is concerned, consumers can capture the on-going screen activity of your computer with clear visual quality. You can further explore this tool through hands-on experience. Proceed to the instructions below.
Here are the steps on using Streamlabs:
- You will need to download Streamlabs OBS. Head on to the main page of the program and look for the “Download” button by scrolling down on the page. When the download is complete, have the app installed on your computer.
- Prior to recording, you may want to configure some preferences. To do so, click on the “Settings” icon located at the upper right corner of the interface. From this window, set some preferences such as Output, Audio, Video, Hotkeys etc.
- To begin the recording, click the “+” icon which is located from the “Sources” section at the bottom of the app. Choose “Display Capture” to capture the entire screen of your desktop. Next, click the “Add Source” button at the bottom right corner. Type in the name of your recording into the “Add New Source” field and click the “Add New Source” button.
- After following the above steps, you should see the entire screen on your computer being displayed on the app. Click on the “REC” button to finally start the recording. When the recording begins, you should see the record button shaded in red color.
- Finally, click on the record button to stop, and the video will be automatically saved on your local drive. Now, locate the video on your computer. You will know where it is saved by going to “Settings” > “Output” > “Recording”. Follow the file directory to locate the video.
Conclusion
OBS Studio is indeed an excellent tool that can record PC screens. This tool is trusted by many because of its popularity that it gained over the years. However, it can’t be denied that it is intimidating for first-time use and is not very user-friendly for amateurs. That is why we included some of the best alternatives to OBS Studio that compares to performance. Screen Grabber Pro, in particular, can do the job efficiently and seamlessly for high-quality videos.