Computer and Capture Devices

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This is an updateable recommendation page, not a course article — it includes device models and price estimates that should be checked before buying. The reasoning for why the computer and capture device matter is covered in the article “How Does Video Signal Travel From Camera to Viewer?”; this page focuses only on what to buy.

The computer and the capture device are the core of an OBS-based streaming system — every Sunday’s broadcast passes through them, but it is also easy to either spend too much money on them or choose something that cannot stand up to repeated use. This page describes which features are worth requiring and which example models are currently available, at two levels: what the system needs at a minimum to work reliably, and what is worth considering if there is some room in the budget. This page does not explain why the computer and the capture device are part of the chain in the first place — that has been covered in the article “How Does Video Signal Travel From Camera to Viewer?”, and that reasoning is not repeated here.

OBS can encode (compress) the outgoing picture using either the processor’s (CPU) computing power or a hardware encoder. The latter is almost always the better choice for this purpose, because it loads the computer much less than CPU-only encoding. OBS supports more than one hardware-encoding route equally officially: Intel’s built-in Quick Sync, AMD’s equivalent integrated solution, or a separate NVIDIA NVENC graphics card. In practice this means the computer needs one of these OBS-supported hardware encoders — it can be the processor’s integrated graphics or a separate, sufficiently recent graphics card; either works. The actual performance requirement also depends on the chosen resolution, frame rate, and the complexity of the OBS scene (how many sources are active at once), not on core count alone. This course’s recommended minimum requirement is 4–6 cores, 16 GB of RAM, an SSD drive, and a built-in Gigabit network port. The network port is best connected by cable directly to the router, for the same reason as the camera cabling: a wired connection’s failure modes are more predictable than a wireless one’s.

A used business desktop computer (for example a small “tiny”-class model) often meets the minimum requirements just barely, at a clearly lower price than a new computer, and such computers are available refurbished in most countries. The margin, however, stays small — if the budget allows, a somewhat newer computer leaves more room for later expansion, such as a second camera or graphics. Both levels are enough for the use case described in this course (OBS, 1080p, one or two cameras, a continuous broadcast of 1–2 hours, a few dozen uses per year) — the difference is not “does it work or not,” but how much margin the computer has for future expansion.

[UPDATE REQUIRED: the price level of used computers varies far more by country than that of new ones — check the local price level before buying.]

The capture device’s job was explained in the previous article: it converts the camera’s picture into a form the computer recognizes. The most important selection criterion is that the device is recognized directly as a so-called UVC-class device (Universal Video Class), without a separate driver. This applies especially to devices from well-known AV and streaming manufacturers (for example Elgato, AVerMedia, Magewell), which are designed specifically for the camera-source → USB → computer use case.

A warning about unknown budget brands: Online stores carry plenty of very cheap, unbranded HDMI capture dongles. Some of them work, but there is often no reliable, independent confirmation of their UVC compatibility or driverlessness — and a device that needs a driver is exactly what, in the example mentioned earlier (see “How Does Video Signal Travel From Camera to Viewer?”), causes repeated broadcast dropouts. This course recommends choosing a model from a known manufacturer even if it costs somewhat more than an unbranded alternative — the difference of a few dozen euros is small compared with the risk of the stream stopping in the middle of a worship service.

Minimum-level models work well for streaming a single fixed camera in the use case described in this course. The recommended-level model is a valid later upgrade path if you want to remove the last bit of unreliability risk from the capture device — it is not a first purchase on a tight starting budget.

[UPDATE REQUIRED: check the models’ availability and exact price level in your own country before buying — prices vary by retailer and by date.]

Once the computer and capture device have been chosen, the next decision concerns audio: which audio interface or connection fits your own mixer and architecture. See: U6 — Audio interfaces.