Live Streaming and Recording Zoom With OBS Studio Simplified

Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing apps. The best part is that you can live stream on Zoom using OBS Studio and even record your Zoom meetings using OBS Studio.

Today, we will show you how to properly connect OBS Studio to Zoom using a virtual camera approach or using NDI 4 tools so that you can

• use OBS Studio as input for Zoom
• use OBS Studio to record Zoom meetings

But first, make sure you’ve installed both Zoom and OBS Studio on your computer.

If you don’t know how to install OBS Studio, then check out our tutorial on installing OBS Studio for Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu. Also, make sure you read our tutorial on setting up OBS Studio for recording.

If you’ve completed the installation, then read on!

Check out our Top 12 Tips to Improving the Quality of your Live Video Streaming now and beat your competition!

How to Live Stream on Zoom using OBS Studio

To connect the programs, we will have to create a virtual webcam used by Zoom as its input. The output of the virtual camera is OBS Studio. We can do this in 2 ways.

1. Use OBS VirtualCam plugin
2. Use NDI 4 tools

Both programs have different strengths. While VirtualCam is more intuitive to set up, NDI offers a slightly better video quality. You might want to try both and see which one you prefer.

Using VirtualCam Plugin

Go to the OBS Project to download the latest version of the plugin for Windows.

Installation manager will ask you for the number of virtual cams, so just select one.

Next, open OBS Studio and go to Tools > Virtual Cam to open the properties.

Make sure that Target Camera is set to OBS-Camera and click start.

Now, it’s time to open the Zoom app.

Create a meeting,and for your video source select OBS-Camera. If nothing happens, try clicking on Start Video.

Congratulations, you’ve successfully connected OBS Studio with Zoom. From now on, every change you make in OBS Studio will be visible in Zoom.

Now, let us see how to use NDI to connect OBS Studio and Zoom.

Using NDI 4 Tools to Capture Zoom

The first step is to visit NDI‘s website and download their tools for free.

This app comes with a lot of useful additional features, but for our purposes, we only need a Virtual Input. So, make sure you’ve selected it in an installation window.

You will also need a ndi-obs plugin to bridge the gap between the two programs. Go here and click Download.

On the next page, choose Installer.exe from the assets.

Make sure you’ve selected Full Installation. After you are done, open OBS.

Go to Tools> NDI Output Settings.

 Tick the Main Output box on the left and click OK.

Now, launch NDI’s Webcam Input app.

On the right side of your toolbar, you will find NDI’s Virtual Input icon. Right click on it, then go Computer Name> OBS.

Now, it’s time to start Zoom. Start a meeting for a video source choose NewTek NDI Video. Click start video and you’ve successfully connected Zoom’s video to the OBS Studio.

In the next section, we’ll learn how to record a Zoom meeting using OBS Studio.

How to Record a Zoom Meeting with OBS Studio

Okay, now that Zoom and OBS Studio are connected, it’s time to start recording.

First, you should go to the OBS Studio and create a scene.

Next, go to Source and choose Windows Capture.

This will open a dialog box where you need to select the window you want to capture. Choose Zoom and click OK.

Now simply click start recording in the bottom right screen in OBS Studio.

And that is all there is to it.

If you followed this tutorial, you should be able to use your OBS Studio to Live Stream to Zoom and also use OBS Studio to record your Zoom meetings.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and see you soon!

Check out our Top 12 Tips to Improving the Quality of your Live Video Streaming now and beat your competition!