Update: Turns out using Nvidia's NVENC with OBS Studio actually works really nicely.
Something I have been noticing recently is that a lot of games performance dips when you try to record them on Linux, so I am wanting a solution for my other Linux PC to capture the video, what should I be getting?
I should note my budget right now is literally zero, but I am hoping next year I may be in a position to eventually buy something.
What I would like, is recommendations on solutions to capture video/audio from one Linux PC on another, so whatever it is needs great Linux support.
I borrowed my girlfriends Elgato USB device hoping to pipe it into OBS Studio, but it's not even supported by the reverse-engineered open source effort, sadly. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Something I have been noticing recently is that a lot of games performance dips when you try to record them on Linux, so I am wanting a solution for my other Linux PC to capture the video, what should I be getting?
I should note my budget right now is literally zero, but I am hoping next year I may be in a position to eventually buy something.
What I would like, is recommendations on solutions to capture video/audio from one Linux PC on another, so whatever it is needs great Linux support.
I borrowed my girlfriends Elgato USB device hoping to pipe it into OBS Studio, but it's not even supported by the reverse-engineered open source effort, sadly. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I believe the Blackmagic Design Intensity has better OBS support, but I'm not sure - I don't own the hardware for it.
If you're using OBS on Linux, though, does the source machine have an nVidia GPU? Can you not build ffmpeg with NVENC support and get it working with OBS to take the load off the CPU? That's what I do. :)
I'm hoping they'll get AMD VCE support in soon, too, and the VAAPI stuff for QuickSync (which I have gotten working with the command line ffmpeg, but the options are complicated and OBS doesn't have a GUI hook to them yet).
If you can fix the encoding on the first machine to be less CPU-intensive, by using one of those hardware methods, then if you absolutely need to stream it to a second machine, the combo of nginx + rtmp on the target machine (or another server) as your stream target does wonders. That's how you can get multiple computers at, e.g. a LAN party to stream to one central point, and then someone can video mix all their streams in... just another copy of OBS with Video Source filters.
If you're using OBS on Linux, though, does the source machine have an nVidia GPU? Can you not build ffmpeg with NVENC support and get it working with OBS to take the load off the CPU? That's what I do. :)
I'm hoping they'll get AMD VCE support in soon, too, and the VAAPI stuff for QuickSync (which I have gotten working with the command line ffmpeg, but the options are complicated and OBS doesn't have a GUI hook to them yet).
If you can fix the encoding on the first machine to be less CPU-intensive, by using one of those hardware methods, then if you absolutely need to stream it to a second machine, the combo of nginx + rtmp on the target machine (or another server) as your stream target does wonders. That's how you can get multiple computers at, e.g. a LAN party to stream to one central point, and then someone can video mix all their streams in... just another copy of OBS with Video Source filters.
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One other thing that comes to mind - there does seem to be a performance difference between using OBS 'Window Capture' vs 'Screen Capture'. The latter seems to have less impact, at least for me.
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Haven't tried them, but these devices claim to be Linux compatible and are not that expensive:
http://www.magewell.com/usb-capture-hdmi (~240€)
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensitypro4k (~190$)
http://www.magewell.com/usb-capture-hdmi (~240€)
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensitypro4k (~190$)
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I can only reiterate the recommendations given by Kitshop, recompiling ffmpeg and obs with NVENC support should give you a lot better encoding performance and generally a better looking result as well with the right settings.
I am also personally using a Blackmagic Intensity Pro which has great Linux support, the main caveat with Blackmagic right now is that the new line of capture cards that allows capturing 4K at 30Hz and 1080p at 60Hz (previous iterations would only support 1080p at 30Hz) does not seem to feature as good of a build quality and mainboard compatibility.
I had to send my Intensity Pro 4K back since it would crash after about 10 minutes of capturing consistently and I have heard many complaints about faulty hardware in general with the 4K, although once you get a working device it should be about as solid as it gets with super low latency to boot.
The Linux support could be a lot better though, since they officially support mostly only versions of distributions that are a year old or even older and their support isn't very helpful if you do not run any of the specific versions they support but it's about as good of a support as you can hope for when it comes to capture cards on Linux.
I am also personally using a Blackmagic Intensity Pro which has great Linux support, the main caveat with Blackmagic right now is that the new line of capture cards that allows capturing 4K at 30Hz and 1080p at 60Hz (previous iterations would only support 1080p at 30Hz) does not seem to feature as good of a build quality and mainboard compatibility.
I had to send my Intensity Pro 4K back since it would crash after about 10 minutes of capturing consistently and I have heard many complaints about faulty hardware in general with the 4K, although once you get a working device it should be about as solid as it gets with super low latency to boot.
The Linux support could be a lot better though, since they officially support mostly only versions of distributions that are a year old or even older and their support isn't very helpful if you do not run any of the specific versions they support but it's about as good of a support as you can hope for when it comes to capture cards on Linux.
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I didn't honestly think NVENC would change things much, but I managed to find a guide here and wow, what a difference. It made a game go from unplayable while recording to no difference :D
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I have an AverMedia (or something like this) hdmi capture card for sale, if you want. Doesn't work on Linux, though, so I advise against buying from them :D
But yes, the best solution is to have a dedicated capture card, and work from here on another PC.
Maybe a dedicated graphics card or APU could work, too. I would like to hear a word on that.
But yes, the best solution is to have a dedicated capture card, and work from here on another PC.
Maybe a dedicated graphics card or APU could work, too. I would like to hear a word on that.
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Nvenc is the thing that I miss the most when using AMD, I hope that a similar encoder is coming soon on the red side :(
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I recently discovered OBS Studio (http://github.com/jp9000/obs-studio/wiki/Install-Instructions#linux), and i thought it was nice, but you already mentioned it, so... I didn't find anything close to it on Linux, and for free.
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Quoting: liamdaweI didn't honestly think NVENC would change things much, but I managed to find a guide here and wow, what a difference. It made a game go from unplayable while recording to no difference :D
If you want a little bit more 'Ubuntu' (Debian) way, I did write a guide for this on the OBS forums a while back:
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/nvenc-support-for-linux.47023
By using the ffmpeg repo listed when you try to apt-get source ffmpeg, you can use debuild and get proper .deb packages built to install, rather than doing a hard 'make install' and then not getting the package stuff in sync.
Similarly, using OBS' Debian-specific build instructions, you'll end up with an 'obs-studio' entry in dpkg that you can then 'apt-mark hold obs-studio' and prevent it from being overwritten (e.g. by updates to their binaries in the PPA).
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GustyGhost Oct 26, 2016
I can second that OBS is an incredible solution. When I first embraced Linux, I tried Simple Screen Recorder but it had issues with audio desyncing from video.
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