Screen Recording in Linux with OBS Studio
OBS Studio is an open source software for screen recording. Applicable to Windows, MAC and Linux.
Installing OBS Studio on Linux
I am on Linux Fedora. These are the two commands to follow:
sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
Then install with:
sudo dnf install obs-studio
Output shows:
Installing:
obs-studio
Installing dependencies:
obs-studio-libs
x264
Total download size: 4.1 M
Installed size: 11 M
OBS Studio Configuration
Once you open the program, it might have a popup window called “Auto-Configuration Wizard”.
If you tap on “Yes”.
Usage information:
- Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary.
- Optimize for recording, I will not be streaming.
I chose option 2.
Video settings:
- Base (Canvas) Resolution: Use current 1366x768
- FPS: Either 60 or 30, but prefer 60 when possible.
Those were the default values.
Final results:
- The program is now executing a set of tests.
Nothing to do here. Just wait for the test to be completed. Then “Apply Settings”.
Adding Screen, Camera and Audio
Add the Screen:
- Inside the Sources window.
- Tap the plus sign.
- Select Screen Capture
- Create new.
A popup window shows:
- Properties for “Screen Capture”
- Capture Cursor: Selected by default
- Tap on OK
Add the camera:
- Sources window.
- Plus sign.
- Video capture device.
- Pop window.
- Review defaults.
- OK
- Reisize camera layer.
Add audio:
- Desktop audio is already added. Mute or leave the default.
- Mic is also already added.
- For the Mic, go to the wheel to open settings.
- Choose Filters.
- Filters window. Plus sign to add a new filter.
- Select compressor. Review defaults.
- Add new filter. Noise supression.
- You can play with these filter settings once you do some screen capture testing.
Controls settings:
- Bottom right. Controls menu. Settings.
- Output. Recording path. Leave default or modify. I like to change to my
Videos
folder. - Output. Recording format. Default is
flv
. I likemp4
instead. Choosing this will show a warning. - Hotkeys. Start Recording. I like to use
Ctrl+Shift+R
. Then set Stop Recording to the same.
Apply and OK
Record the screen
Test screen capture:
- Bottom right menu
- Start recording
- Test what you want to capture
- Test the mic
- Stop recording
- Review video
- Modify Mic settings.