Detailed instructions for recording your film using OBS

Making the presentation

We recommend generating your presentation on software such as Powerpoint, Pages, or similar, but other formats may work as well.

We have not identified an easy way to record the powerpoint presentation screen in high definition while in presenter view. If you need to use the presenter view feature on powerpoint (i.e. you’d like to use the notes feature to guide your presentation), consider setting up a second computer in presenter view, and running both simultaneously (a helper is often useful to scroll through your presenter view slides as you present).

Using OBS to record the presentation

Download OBS here: https://obsproject.com/download

To start, OBS has a good quick start guide, copied here with annotations for your convenience.

1. Run the auto-configuration wizard

When you load OBS Studio for the first time you should see the Auto-Configuration Wizard. If you're new to OBS or just want to get started as quickly as possible, follow the steps to get good starting settings for your setup. If you only see the main OBS Studio window, you can access the Auto-Config Wizard in the Tools menu at the top. This wizard will automatically test your system and attempt to find settings that your PC can handle. This includes streaming or recording, resolution, bitrate, encoder, streaming provider and more. You can always modify the settings manually later.

Some modifications we recommend for high quality output:

Under Controls, click Settings > Video >

Base Resolution: Maximum resolution (highest numbers)

Output Resolution: Maximum resolution (highest numbers)

Downscale Filter: "Bilinear (Fastest but blurry if scaling)"

Common FPS values: "30"

We have found that these “Downscale filter” and “Common FPS values” settings do not need to be higher quality than these settings.

2. Set up your audio devices

By default, OBS Studio is set to capture your system default desktop audio device and microphone. You can verify this by looking at the volume meters in the mixer section of the main OBS Studio window, and see if they are active. If they aren't moving, or you suspect the wrong device is being captured, click on Settings -> Audio and select the devices manually.

Note: if you would like to be several feet from your laptop camera for the video recording, we recommend purchasing an inexpensive microphone (this one was $16 on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074BLM973/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), which will improve the audio quality significantly.

Audio settings you may want to tweak: Properties > filters > Suppression level. The more negative the number, the more sound the program will filter out. You’ll get a cleaner sound with less background noise, but if you’re not speaking loudly enough, your voice will start getting suppressed out as well.

macOS users: If you're on macOS, you may need an extra app to capture desktop audio. This is due to limitations in macOS that provide no direct capture methods for desktop audio devices.

3. Add your sources for video

Next, you'll see that the preview is a black screen. OBS does not capture any video by default. To get started capturing, you need to add a Source. At the bottom of the window is a box called 'Sources'. Click on the + (or right click inside the box) and pick the source you want.

To capture your Powerpoint presentation (or other software window on your computer) Make sure the presentation is open. We’ll use the example of powerpoint here. Select Window Capture. Name the window something recognizable (i.e. “slideshow”). A window with a dropdown menu will allow you to select the presentation window.

In the main OBS screen, you should see the Powerpoint window appear in the recording view screen—it will be outlined by a red line with red circles. You can adjust the size of the window by clicking and dragging on the red circles. If you’d like to crop the window capture window, click and drag the red circles while holding down the ALT key.

Select Video Capture Device for your web camera Within the same scene where you have your “slideshow” source, again click on the + (or right click inside the box) and select “Video Capture Device.” Name it, and click “Ok.” Select your device from the dropdown menu and click “Ok.”

Drag the red circles to change the size of the window to scale. Drag the red circles while holding down the “Alt” key to crop the screen. You can move the video screen around the display as you see fit. That’s it, you’re ready to record!

4. Test your stream and record settings

Check where you’ll be recording your video files to: Settings > Output > Recording > Recording path > Browse (pick the folder you want to save your video file to)

Then, just hit Start Recording. We strongly encourage running a test for a few minutes and checking the video quality to make sure that there are no issues, rather than recording your entire presentation. If you run into any issues, or need further help, take a peek at OBS wiki guides (https://obsproject.com/wiki/), or shoot us an email, so we can help you sort it out.

Once you're satisfied, you can go on to creating a great presentation. At the end, you can convert your video to MP4 format for upload by clicking File > Remux Recordings. Or just send us the file and we can do it for you.