The classic free open source streaming software OBS Studio yesterday released the 28.0 updates, this version marks the 10th anniversary of OBS and ushers in a number of important improvements.
HDR and 10-bit color support (Windows, macOS / Linux)
HDR and 10-bit color can only be encoded using AV1 and HEVC encoders. 10-bit HEVC encoding requires NVIDIA 10 series, AMD 5000 series or newer GPUs. Intel QuickSync and Apple VT are not yet supported.
The recommended settings for HDR are Color Format P010 and Color Space Rec. 2100 PQ.
If you wish to encode 10-bit SDR, you can use Color Format P010 with SDR color space (e.g. Rec. 709, Rec. 601). However, AV1 or HEVC is still required.
Only YouTube’s HLS service currently supports HDR streaming via the HEVC encoder.
Games running in HDR are now correctly mapped to SDR when composited in SDR.
Video capture devices can be used to capture and stream HDR if the device supports it (e.g. EVGA XR1 Pro, Elgato 4K60 Pro Mk.2, AverMedia Live Gamer 4K).
Some filters will not work if the source is rendered using HDR: Apply LUT, Chroma Key, Color Key, Image Masking/Blending, Brightness Key, Sharpness
Limited support for Mac / Linux. HDR previews do not work, several inputs / encoders still need to be updated.
Upgrade to Qt 6
As of May 2020, version 5 of the Qt User Interface Toolkit is no longer in public development and is no longer being updated. 28.0 of OBS Studio has been upgraded to Qt 6, so some old plug-ins for Qt 5 will not be available.
In addition, Qt 6 has dropped support for Windows 7 and 8, macOS 10.13 and 10.14, Ubuntu 18.04, and all 32-bit operating systems. As a result, OBS Studio 28.0 will no longer be supported on these platforms.
Native support for Apple Silicon
OBS now has a native build for Apple Silicon systems. This means that OBS will run in a more optimized manner without x86 emulation. Unfortunately, Apple users running native Apple Silicon builds may not yet have many third-party plug-ins readily available. If users want a broader selection of third-party plug-ins, they can still use the x86 version of OBS, which is not yet available natively on Apple Silicon.
OBS Studio 28.0, which also includes several feature improvements and bug fixes, has been released on GitHub, with more fixes available in the log. The release can be downloaded via GitHub, or you can choose a Beta version for the Steam platform.
