Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

OBS Studio 0.14.0 was released today (and 0.14.1 shortly as a hotfix release), adding deinterlacing, full NVIDIA NVENC encoder support, ALSA sound input source on Linux and more.


OBS Studio Ubuntu Xenial

OBS Studio is a free, open source application which allows video recording and live streaming, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. 

The application is popular among game streamers, being used to stream to various popular websites such as Twitch.tv, YouTube, Hitbox.tv, Vaughn Live / iNSTAGIB.tv, DailyMotion, Connectcast.tv, GoodGame.ru, CyberGame.tv, CashPlay.tv along with custom streaming servers.

Among the changes in the latest OBS Studio 0.14.0 / 0.14.1 are:
  • added deinterlacing. Deinterlacing modes can now be used by right-clicking the source and going to "deinterlacing" in the menu to select the deinterlacing options. Deinterlacing only works on sources that support it (video capture device source and media source primarily);
  • added full NVIDIA NVENC encoder. NVENC is supported for windows and linux, and can be used via the simple output mode. (Note: To use NVENC on linux, you must compile or get a version of FFmpeg with NVENC support);
  • added alt-cropping (cropping via the alt-key). This type of crop only affects the specific scene item and does not affect all instances of a source. You can also change the specific crop number values in the source transform dialog;
  • added a 'slide' transition;
  • added a 'fade to color' transition;
  • Added command line parameters: --collection [scene collection name], --profile [profile name], --scene [scene name], --startstreaming, --startrecording;
  • added "snap to other sources" feature (enabled by default, can be disabled in general settings);
  • added "snap to vertical/horizontal center" feature (disabled by default, option to enable is in general settings);
  • Linux: added an option "Use alpha-less texture format" option to window capture that helps capturing certain windows with mesa drivers;
  • Linux: added an ALSA sound input source (currently added like any other source, will be accessible via audio settings as well in the future);
  • various other minor changes and bug fixes.

A complete changelog can be found HERE.

For more information, including how to use OBS Studio to stream to Twitch.tv, see our initial article on OBS Studio.


Install OBS Studio in Ubuntu or Linux Mint via PPA


To be able to use OBS Studio in Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17.x and derivatives, you'll need FFMpeg, which isn't available in the official repositories for this Ubuntu version. You can install FFMpeg backported from newer Ubuntu versions in Ubuntu 14.04 / Linux Mint 17.x by using a PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kirillshkrogalev/ffmpeg-next
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg
OBS Studio depends on the FFMpeg version in this PPA and it doesn't seem to work with newer FFMpeg like the one from THIS PPA.

To add the official OBS Studio PPA and install the application in Ubuntu 16.04, 15.10 or 14.04 / Linux Mint 17.x and derivatives, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt update
sudo apt install obs-studio

OBS Studio for other Linux distributions (unofficial packages): Arch Linux (AUR - git version), openSUSE and Gentoo.

For other Linux distributions, you'll need to build it from source.

Download OBS Studio (includes Mac and Windows binaries)