FOSSPicks
FOSSPicks

Graham reviews the best free software, including OBS Studio 20, Green Recorder 3.0, gtop, Bitcoin Core v0.14.2, Natron, Solarus, and more!
Screen streaming studio
OBS Studio 20
Screen recorders have become almost mainstream with so many people sharing their thoughts and screencasts on the Internet. Which may explain why we're looking at two this month – Green Recorder 3.0 on the next page and this, Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) Studio 20. OBS Studio has considerably more ambitions than simply turning your mouse wiggling into a file, as its name implies, and consequently does far more than simply stream your screen to the Internet. Alongside being completely cross-platform, it offers the kind of functionality you're more likely to find in a nonlinear video editor; you can capture, composite, edit, encode, and stream video content, directly from your Linux desktop.
When the application starts, the size of your canvas can be different from the size of your screen. The canvas size is important because you can add lots of different sources to this canvas, all with their own resolutions, and the final output will always be scaled to your overall canvas resolution. You can even set a different base and output resolution for the canvas, effectively oversampling your output for higher quality, which is an excellent option if you have the system to handle it.
The background organization of a recording or stream is mirrored in the application window layout, especially in the lower panes. Sources, in the bottom left, are the containers for each recording setup, just like presets, allowing you to switch between them easily and save configurations for how you want to use the application. This involves a set of sources, which are listed in the pane to the right. This Sources pane can behave like a clip manager in a video editor, containing image, text, and video files – but, crucially, sources can also be real-time inputs. You can choose different audio inputs and outputs, for example, alongside different video inputs and output, and not just video capture devices – a window or entire screen can be used as an input source, alongside images for overlays and text. In this way you could create a webcam overlay of yourself alongside the screencast, for instance. As with Gimp, these elements are layered, so you'd put the webcam source at the top if you wanted this to sit over a window capture. As you add sources, they appear in the preview window above, where you can rearrange them and resize them for the capture or stream.
However, the real standout feature in OBS Studio is Studio Mode. With this enabled, you can transition between one scene and another, broadcasting or only recording the scene on the right of the window. This is brilliant in live situations as it allows you to line up sections in one scene while performing in the other, switching over seamlessly when ready – exactly as you might in a television studio, and it takes open source screen casting to a whole new level of capability.
Project Website

Screen recorder
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.
-
Vanilla OS Initial Release Is Now Available
A stock GNOME experience with on-demand immutability finally sees its first production release.
-
Critical Linux Vulnerability Found to Impact SMB Servers
A Linux vulnerability with a CVSS score of 10 has been found to affect SMB servers and can lead to remote code execution.
-
Linux Mint 21.1 Now Available with Plenty of Look and Feel Changes
Vera has arrived and although it is still using kernel 5.15, there are plenty of improvements sure to please everyone.