OBS Studio 29.0 launches with AV1 encoder support on AMD and Intel GPUs

OBS Project What is the announcement? Availability of OBS Studio 29.0 for Windows and MacOS. The Linux version is still at 28.1.2 but hopefully that will change soon. The most notable features of this update include AMD AV1 Encoder support for RX7000 series GPUs on Windows, Intel AV1 Encoder support for Arc GPUs on Windows, and Intel HEVC encoder support on Windows. While these are the key highlights, there are many more features, improvements and bug fixes in this update.

OBS Studio 29.0 has been undergoing testing since at least November 23 when beta builds became available for testing. Before getting the final release, OBS Studio went through three beta releases so many issues should have been ironed out over the last several weeks.

The full release notes are as follows:

Features

• Added support for AMD AV1 encoder for RX7000 series GPUs on Windows. [AMD/Jim]
• Added support for Intel AV1 Encoder for ArchGPUs on Windows. [Intel/Jim]
  • Note: CQP is available but not fully supported.
• Added support for Intel HEVC encoder on Windows. [yuriy-chumak/rcdrone/Jim]
• Added an upstream compressor filter. [pkv]
• Added a 3-band equalization filter. [Jim]
• Added support for native HEVC and ProRes encoders on MacOS, including P010 and HDR [Developer-Ecosystem-Engineering/PatTheMav/gxalpha]
• Added support for macOS DesktopView. [Developer-Ecosystem-Engineering]
• Added update channels for Windows to choose to receive beta/release candidate builds. [Rodney]
  • While work is still underway to develop everything on the server side, updating via the built-in updater may not be available until after the OBS 30.0 beta testing period.
• WebSockets was updated to 5.1.0, with a number of bug fixes, UI improvements, and new thread reconnection events. [tt2468]

Adaptations and improvements

• Replay buffer memory limit is now set to 75% of installed system RAM instead of 8GB. [Rodney]
• Added media key support in Linux. [kkartaltepe]
• Various improvements to NVIDIA video and audio filters, including a mask refresh slider and support for temporal processing, which provides better quality masking. [pkv]
• Improved display capture screen name and save on Windows; The indexes should now match regardless of mode, and the reattached display should show the correct monitor. [jpark37]
  • Note: This means that the current display capture sources will remain blank unless manually configured, to avoid showing the wrong display.
• Added support for encryption and authentication for SRT and RIST outputs. [pkv]
• ScreenCaptureKit display and app capture have been disabled on MacOS 12 due to various issues. Users should either update to macOS 13 or use an existing screen capture source. [PatTheMav]
• Removed automatic numbering on multiview labels. [Warchamp7]
• Added ability to mute individual browser docks. [WizardCM]
• Added ability to right-click and inspect individual browser docs. [WizardCM]
• Changed the default simple output NVENC preset to P5 for better compatibility and performance. [RytoEX]
• Added support for higher refresh rates in the video capture device source on Windows. [WizardCM/EposVox]
• Added the Apple VT hardware encoder to the auto-configuration wizard. [gxalpha]
• Improved FFmpeg VA-API capability by using Libva directly to check device capabilities. [tytan652]
• Various minor UX/Accessibility tweaks to the UI [Warchamp7/cg2121]
• Increased the speed at which dynamic bitrate recovers after a drop. [Jim]
• Audio should now be captured automatically for most capture card brands using the video capture device source on Windows. [WizardCM/EposVox]
• Added a slide counter to the source toolbar when an image slideshow is selected. [cg2121]

Bug fixes

• Fixed issues with async filters (like delays) not rendering correctly [jpark37]
• Various performance improvements to Decklink preview output [jpark37]
• Fixed an issue where projector windows would not close when the source was deleted. [cg2121]
• Fixed an issue where cursors would disappear or display incorrectly on screen captures on Windows. [caesay]
• Fixed issues with CQP rate control for SVT and AOM AV1 encoders [flaeri]
• Fixed an issue with CQP rate control for AMD HEVC and H264. [flaeri]
• Fixed Virtual Camera not working with Webex and GoToMeeting. [Jim]
• Fixed capturing UHD/4K YUV on AJA Kona HDMI [paulh-aja]
• Fixed a bug where slideshow sources would not remove cleaned files when removing missing files. [gxalpha]
• Fixed slideshow counter on source context toolbar showing “1/0” when empty, now shows “-/-” instead [cg2121]
• Fixed chroma location for VAAPI [jpark37]
• Fixed a case where macOS’s VideoToolBox HEVC encoder would be parsed as AVC. [jpark37]
• Allow SRT streams to disconnect after a timeout. [pkv]
• Fixed color space is incorrect for some video devices running MJPEG video format on Windows. [jpark37]
• Monitor names are set in the Full Screen Projector and MultiView menus on Windows. [WizardCM]

To start using OBS Studio 29.0, just go to The OBS Project website And download the correct version for your operating system.