How to Fix OBS Black Screen?

OBS Studio is open-source software that allows users to broadcast their content professionally. It is possible to stream gameplay, real-time events, recorded videos, and more with OBS Studio. OBS is a preferred choice of keen gamers as it gives them more control over gameplay sharing as compared to many traditional screen-recording applications. However, ‘black screen’ is a known issue that can make your screen-sharing experience using OBS Studio not so pleasant. Why does this issue occur? How to troubleshoot it? Are there any other solutions? We will try to find out in this article.

What Causes the Black Screen Issue in OBS Studio?

There can be several reasons for OBS Studio to display a black screen when you try to share your content online. Here is a list of some possible reasons for the black screen.

Incorrect Version

OBS Studio has separate versions for Macintosh, Linux, and Windows machines. Likewise, it also has two different versions for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit computers. If a version of OBS Studio is not configured on a machine meant for it, OBS may not function properly, leading to issues such as a black screen.

Dedicated Graphics Interfering

OBS Studio is a graphic-intensive application. To start the software, your computer’s operating system has to allocate a certain amount of either a dedicated graphics card or the integrated graphics processing unit to OBS Studio. The wrong selection of resources can result in adverse effects on the applications that depend on graphics units.

Race for Resources

Other software applications on your computer may also compete for the same CPU and GPU resources. If there are multiple software applications running in the background, OBS Studio may fail to get the required amount of system resources to deliver good performance, resulting in frozen images, buffering, or a black screen.

Administrator Rights

As OBS Studio can be used to share your entire screen, your computer may restrict it from using all its features based on the administrator’s settings.

Compatibility Issues with OS Versions

There can be instances where users have installed OBS Studio on a system with an incompatible or outdated OS version. Reading OBS System requirements carefully and making sure that your operating system is up to date for OBS Studio installation can help.

Software Conflicts

Having more than one display capture software applications installed on the same computer can cause software conflicts, leading OBS Studio to malfunction.

Display Capture Settings

OBS allows you to make changes in the settings to capture a specific window, full screen, and more. The right display capturing settings must be in place when sharing the computer screen.

What Can You Do to Fix the Black Screen Issue in OBS Studio?

There can be different solutions to prevent OBS Studio from rendering a black screen depending on the real cause of the problem. If you are using the software on a Windows machine with two graphics options, setting up OBS Studio on a specific GPU may solve the problem. If the problem is associated with administrative access, you may need to start the software with administrative access. Stopping any other software from running so that it leaves enough resources for OBS Studio to scale freely can also help to some extent. However, most of the culprits causing OBS Studio to stream a black screen can be eliminated with the help of cloud hosting.

How Does Cloud Hosting Help You Improve OBS Studio’s Performance?

Cloud hosting provides OBS with a suitable environment to render Full HD videos whenever you go live. It eliminates all the problems associated with limited physical resources such as storage disks, processing units, graphics cards, and more. It also helps you access your software on various devices regardless of what OS they operate on. When plenty of cloud resources and a dedicated GPU are available for your OBS Studio, you experience a huge drop in all types of streaming issues.

Apps4Rent Can Help You Host OBS Studio in the Cloud

OBS Studio combined with cloud hosting can perform as a professional video production studio for you. You can start streaming from anywhere and connect with the world within seconds. Hosting extends the capabilities of your software and allows it to scale up as required, remain highly available, and perform way better. Apps4Rent can host OBS Studio on a virtual machine running in robust data centers and Azure. Our cloud servers use NVIDIA GPU to ensure you have a seamless experience while streaming with OBS Studio. Our hosting experts are available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email to assist you. Contact us today.