OBS Studio Review: Best Free Screen Recorder For Games

OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software Studio) is perfect screen recorder for games recording and streaming which can produce high quality results with all necessary features for capturing your desktop and webcam without watermark and time limit. It is 100% Free and Open Source.

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Our Review

Recording games has never been an easy task for most of free screen recorders nowadays, except Open Broadcaster Software. It is an open source, free program. You don’t need to pay anything to download and install it on your computer. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux. While many other professional screen recorders are quite pricy and lack of necessary features, OBS is totally free to use and has everything you need for games recording and live streaming. What makes OBS stand out from the crowd? Here are the most common usages of OBS:

Recording games

During our test, OBS shows that it must be the most suitable screen recording software for games. Although, you will need sometime to learn how to use OBS at the first time because its features pack seems too much for simple games capture. You’ll need to dig deeply into the setting function before getting started. After that, you will find this software an amazing free program like we did. Anyhow, many Windows and Mac users are using OBS to record games such as Grand Theft as per below example. I must admit that this is a very detail tutorial video from JESSEeverything that I should learn his way of making a tutorial. So, Watch it and learn how to have the best settings for your game recording.

Live Streaming

Despite the fact that, live streaming is a hard work for most free screen recorder, OBS makes live streaming as easy as its recording capability. It supports almost all streaming platform such as Twitch, Facebook Live, and YouTube live. If you want broadcast your games, recordings online, just go to streaming setting and input streaming key to get it started. Adding logo, text, webcam to your live videos is also possible.

Compared to professional live streaming software like MotionCaster, OBS Studio is no doubt better choice when we look at very expensive price Softworks offers. It’s is $449 for Home license. Honestly, I had to admit that MotionCaster, whether Home or Professional version, is far more professional program than OBS Studio in any circumstances. But….I hate the offer!!!

Creating tutorial videos

OBS is absolutely one of the most reliable screen recorder for making tutorial videos. When watching a tutorial video on YouTube or Vimeo, you can easily recognize OBS symbols on the tool bar of many YouTubers.

∑Pros 

  • Easy to use. Safe to download and install.
  • Record full screen, multiple screen opts.
  • Record audio from external devices, system sound.
  • Record webcam.
  • Add and adjust text, images into recording.
  • Customize video quality and resolution.
  • Various output formats: MP4, MOV, MKV, FLV, ts, m3u8
  • Record games in Windows mode and full screen.
  • Support multiple languages
  • Possible to customize hotkeys.
  • No watermark, no time limit.
  • Support many live streaming platforms: YouTube/ YouTube Gaming, Facebook, Dailymotion, Mixer..and so on.

∑Cons

  • No video editing tools.
  • It’s hard to use for beginners.

Platform: Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 and Win Vista Service package 1/ macOS 10.10 and newer/ The Linux release is available officially for Ubuntu 14.04 and newer. FFmpeg is required. (read download guide before you start)

Download size: 107MB for OBS installer.

Download OBS Here

Latest Version: 20.0.1 Released: August 11th

Our Reviewed date: 27 August 2017

Rating: 9/10.

Category: Free Screen Recorders

Well, I intend to stop my review here because there nothing more about OBS to say when the how-to guide or setting up are too complicated to write in this short review. Added to that, many visitors ask me whether this software is safe to download, easy-to-use or blah, blah. I can not not answer such type of question since this is a free, open source program, I will not know if the developer change something after my “reviewed date”. So, you’ll need to take care of yourselves when downloading the package. I will keep you informed when something new happen. Or you can also comment here and let me know your issue.

By the way, if you are worrying about virus, malware, annoying ads or other things when using an open source program, then you can try an offline free alternative of OBS. Here are the best alternative of OBS you should try, from my point of view!

Best Free alternative of OBS – ActivePresenter

ActivePresenter is more familiar with tutorial video makers or product demos creators than gamers and streamers. Anyhow, it is absolutely the best free alternative of OBS because of its professional video capturing tools and a built-in video editor. I know for sure that this is a safe program because I have been using for years.

ActivePresenter Interface
ActivePresenter provide simple interface with white and blue color and well arranged tools bar on top.
  • Simple to use.
  • Record screen from desktop in full HD quality.
  • Built-in video editor.
  • No watermark and no time limit for recording.
  • Annotation tools are available.
  • Export video into AVI, MP4, MKV, WebM and Html5.

There are many more options in ActivePresenter where you can learn more at the below link.

Learn More ActivePresenter here


Publisher’s Description

OBS Studio Overview

Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Download and start streaming quickly and easily on Windows, Mac or Linux. Share your gaming, art and entertainment with the world.

Features

High performance real time video/audio capturing and mixing, with unlimited scenes you can switch between seamlessly via custom transitions.

Filters for video sources such as image masking, color correction, chroma/color keying, and more.

Intuitive audio mixer with per-source filters such as noise gate, noise suppression, and gain. Take full control with VST plugin support.

Powerful and easy to use configuration options. Add new Sources, duplicate existing ones, and adjust their properties effortlessly.

Streamlined Settings panel for quickly configuring your broadcasts and recordings. Switch between different profiles with ease.

Light and dark themes available to fit your environment.

Full product description from OBS is here

Take a look this full tutorial video from MostlyTech to understand more abour OBS Studio

Bottom Line

OBS Studio gained our trust in term of free screen recording software for games and live streaming program that work constantly on a desktop PC no matter Windows or Mac. If you are a keen gamer, they you should try OBS Studio. We are listening to you. Let’s us know your experience about OBS Studio. Remember to follow us to receive valuable post notifications weekly.

Good luck!

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