OBS Studio

OBS Studio launched significant updates in Year 5, with the April 3, 2026 patch introducing an overhauled Audio Mixer and various improvements, followed by an August 4, 2026 update that added multiple new features like dynamic bitrate support for multitrack video and a new dialog for the add source dropdown.

• New Features:

  • Copy paste functions were added to the frontend API.
  • A filter to compose SDR into HDR was introduced.
  • Support for .webp files was included in the Image Slide Show source.
  • Plugins gained the ability to set custom icons for new source types.
  • Dynamic bitrate support was added for multitrack video.

• Audio Mixer Overhaul: The Audio Mixer received a complete redesign, improving usability with independent mute and monitor handling and a new layout.

• System Changes: OBS Studio was blocked from running on macOS 12 due to compatibility issues, with a recommendation for users to revert to an earlier version for stability.

• Performance Improvements: OpenGL performance was enhanced on low-end machines, and DLL loading behavior was improved on Windows.

• User Interface Enhancements: Theming for checked QToolButtons was added, along with improvements to the FPS selector UX and minimum width for spinboxes.

Hybrid MOV support arrived in OBS Studio, bringing ProRes support to macOS and an HEVC/H.264-plus-PCM option to all platforms; Hybrid MP4/MOV also became the default output format for new profiles after leaving beta. Multitrack Video expanded to Apple Silicon Macs and Linux, while NVIDIA RTX Audio Effects gained Voice Activity Detection.

• Video pipeline: OBS Studio broadened its recording and streaming capabilities.
  • Hybrid MOV: Added ProRes on macOS, HEVC/H.264 with PCM audio across platforms, improved chapter-marker accuracy, and became the default container alongside Hybrid MP4.
  • Multitrack Video: Added macOS and Linux support, additional canvases, stream delay, TCP pacing, and network optimizations.
  • AMF, VA-API, and VideoToolbox: Added AV1 B-frames for AMF, QVBR rate control for VA-API, and spatial AQ for VideoToolbox on macOS 15 and newer.
  • Default bitrate: Increased from 2,500 to 6,000 Kbps.
• Creator workflow: OBS Studio added tools and rendering options aimed at easier setup and customization.
  • Basic plugin manager: Added a built-in way to manage plugins.
  • UI Appearance Options: Added font-size and density controls for padding and spacing.
  • Metal renderer: Introduced an experimental Metal renderer for Apple Silicon Macs.
  • Preview Zoom Controls: Added zoom controls to the preview.
  • Preview Draw Performance: Improved preview rendering performance.
• Audio, cameras, and capture: Several platform-specific production features arrived alongside notable reliability improvements.
  • NVIDIA RTX Audio Effects: Added Voice Activity Detection to improve speech noise suppression.
  • NVIDIA RTX Background Removal: Added an option to remove chairs.
  • V4L2 Virtual Camera: Added support outside Linux environments.
  • PipeWire Capture: Fixed a Linux freeze involving explicit sync and corrected gamma shifts caused by video filters.
  • Browser Source and SRT: Fixed browser sources breaking after scene switches, SRT reconnection failures, and multiple SRT crash conditions.

Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting added Multitrack Video streaming to Twitch, while Hybrid MP4 brought a more crash-resilient recording format with chapter-marker support. NVIDIA Blur Filter and Background Blur, Amazon IVS, and first-party YouTube Chat broadened OBS Studio’s production toolkit.

• Streaming and recording: Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting, Hybrid MP4, and Enhanced RTMP/FLV Multi-Track Audio and Video delivered the main output upgrades.
  • Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting added Multitrack Video streaming on Twitch, with specific GPU requirements.
  • Hybrid MP4 introduced improved crash resiliency and chapter-marker support.
  • Enhanced RTMP/FLV Multi-Track Audio and Video replaced the older metadata-based VOD Track.
  • Linux NVENC Encoder Support added NVENC AV1 and shared-texture support, while QSV AV1 Screen Content Coding expanded Intel encoding options.
  • Closed-Captions Support for HEVC and AV1 added caption support to those formats.
• Production tools: NVIDIA Blur Filter and Background Blur, Amazon IVS Service Integration, and First-party YouTube Chat added new broadcast capabilities.
  • NVIDIA Blur Filter and Background Blur added GPU-assisted background effects.
  • Amazon IVS Service Integration added Amazon IVS as a supported service.
  • First-party YouTube Chat enabled native YouTube chat features.
  • Preview Scrollbars and Zoom/Scale Indicator improved navigation and scaling in the preview.
• Workflow and encoding: Composable Themes System, Scene Items Use Relative Coordinates, and SDK 12.2 Features expanded customization and encoder control.
  • Composable Themes System made themes easier to create and maintain.
  • Scene Items Use Relative Coordinates changed how scene layouts handled resolution changes.
  • Audio Source Deduplication prevented duplicate audio from repeated source instances.
  • SDK 12.2 Features added split encoding, reference B-frames, CQVBR, and custom NVENC options.
• Platform support: OBS Studio 30.2 Beta, NVIDIA Kepler, and Ubuntu 22.04 defined the main compatibility changes.
  • OBS Studio 30.2 Beta was released as an opt-in Steam build.
  • NVIDIA Kepler GPUs lost NVENC support, while Ubuntu 22.04, FTL, and Legacy YouTube Chat support were removed.
  • D3D12 and Vulkan capture crashes, MP4 Muxer deadlocks, and the Scene Collection Erasure Issue were fixed.

OBS Studio 30.0 Beta became available for testing, marking the window’s biggest version milestone rather than a stable release. Enhanced RTMP added AV1/HEVC streaming, while the March 2024 feature wave broadened AV1 output, HDR, GPU rescaling, and capture options.

• Version previews: OBS Studio 29.1 Beta became available for testing in March 2023, followed by OBS Studio 30.0 Beta in August. Steam users also gained a clearer opt-in route for installing the beta branch.
• Streaming formats and reliability:
  • Enhanced RTMP: Added AV1 and HEVC streaming support, with YouTube the only supported beta service at the time.
  • VA-API: Added AV1 support for compatible hardware.
  • WebRTC/WHIP: Added AV1 output support, alongside fixes for crashes when streaming to WHIP servers.
  • HEVC over RTMP: Enabled HDR streaming.
  • HAGS: Adjusted NVIDIA GPU priority to address freezes and driver crashes associated with NVIDIA Audio Effects filters.
• Recording and audio:
  • Fragmented MP4 and MOV: Added recording options, then became the default recording formats for stable releases in March 2024.
  • Lossless Audio Recording: Added FLAC, ALAC, and PCM options, including 32-bit float.
  • Multiple Audio Tracks: Added multi-track recording in Simple Output and MPEG-TS.
  • Audio Encoder Selection: Added separate encoder selection for streaming and recording, while the FFmpeg AAC default changed to twoloop.
• Production tools and sources:
  • Automatic Cropping to Bounding Box: Added an option for faster source framing.
  • Capture Audio: Added audio capture for Window Capture and Game Capture on Windows.
  • Capture Card Device: Added a dedicated source type on macOS, alongside Video Capture Device (PipeWire).
  • GPU Rescaling: Added rescaling options for streaming and recording outputs.
  • Image Slideshow: Reworked the source to load files asynchronously and avoid looping before displaying every image.

OBS Studio 28.0 delivered the biggest upgrade, moving the app to Qt6 while adding HDR capture and recording with automatic SDR tonemapping, native Apple Silicon support, ScreenCaptureKit, and NVIDIA RTX background removal. AV1, HEVC, and ProRes encoding also expanded across NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and macOS hardware, while obs-websocket became a first-party plugin.

• AV1, HEVC, and ProRes encoding:

  • AV1 hardware encoders: Added AMD AV1 support for RDNA3/RX 7000 GPUs, Intel AV1 support for Arc GPUs, and NVIDIA NVENC AV1 support for RTX 40 Series cards.
  • Intel HEVC Encoder: Added HEVC encoding for Intel Arc GPUs on Windows.
  • macOS HEVC and ProRes: Added native HEVC and ProRes encoders with P010 and HDR support.
  • NVENC presets: Split controls into Preset, Tuning, and Multipass Mode, with the quality scale expanded to P1–P7 and the default Simple Output preset moved to P5.

• OBS Studio 28.0 capture stack:

  • HDR and 10-bit color: Added HDR capture and recording with automatic tonemapping to SDR.
  • Apple Silicon: Added native ARM64 support for macOS, eliminating the need for Rosetta.
  • ScreenCaptureKit: Improved individual window and display capture on macOS 12.5 and later.
  • NVIDIA RTX Background Removal: Added camera background removal without a greenscreen on Windows.
  • Qt6: Upgraded the application framework across platforms, while dropping support for older Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, and 32-bit systems.

• Recording, audio, and streaming tools:

  • Automatic recording splitting: Added time- or filesize-based recording splits across platforms.
  • 3-Band Equalizer and Upward Compressor: Added both audio filters, including a later Knee Width option for the Upward Compressor.
  • SRT and RIST outputs: Added encryption and authentication support.
  • Video Capture Device: Added automatic audio capture for most capture-card brands on Windows.

• Automation and workflow:

  • obs-websocket 5.0 and 5.1: Integrated the websocket plugin as a first-party component and added stream-reconnect events.
  • Windows Virtual Camera: Added source selection, letting users choose which OBS source it output.
  • Browser Docks: Added per-dock inspection and muting controls.