OBS Studio 28.0 beta released, set to be an “enormous release”

The first beta build of OBS Studio 28.0 – a live-streaming and video recording program – has been released. OBS Studio Forum admin, dodgepong, described the upcoming version as an “enormous release” with important new features being readied. With this being a beta product, you shouldn’t really be using it for production uses due to bugs. If you do decide to test it out, though, be sure to give feedback through the #beta-testing channel on Discord.

The release notes for this update are as follows:

• HDR and 10-bit color support (Windows, macOS/Linux support limited)
• Native Apple Silicon Support (macOS)
  • Note that many third-party plugins will need to release Apple Silicon versions of their plugins in order for them to work on Apple Silicon builds of OBS
• Upgrade UI framework to Qt6 (All platforms)
  • NOTE: Unfortunately, this means OBS Studio can no longer support the following operating systems:
    • Windows 7 & 8
    • macOS 10.13 & 10.14
    • Ubuntu 18.04
    • All 32-bit operating systems
  • Additionally, many third-party plugins that depend on legacy Qt5 components may not work until they are updated.
• obs-websocket 5.0 plugin native integration. Read more here! (All platforms)
• Updated AMD Encoder implementation (Windows)
• Support for ScreenCaptureKit on macOS 12.5+ for significantly improved capture performance (macOS)
• Significant improvements to Apple VT encoder (macOS)
• Application-specific audio capture (Windows)
• Integrated NVIDIA Background Removal (Windows)
• Automatically split recordings by time or filesize (All platforms)
• New default theme, Yami (All platforms)
• And much, much more!

To download the beta or read the full release notes, head over to the OBS Studio GitHub page. Right now, you can download the beta as an .exe, .dmg, or grab the source code. A Flatpak and Ubuntu PPA will be coming soon, but are not ready yet. If you’re using OBS Studio through Steam, you can access the beta by right-clicking OBS Studio in Steam, selecting Properties…, then going to Beta and selecting “beta” from the drop-down.

The Flatpak installation instructions will be as follows (don’t type the dollar sign):

$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub-beta https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepo

$ flatpak install flathub-beta com.obsproject.Studio

To use the Ubuntu PPA, you’ll need the following commands:

• Install

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio-unstable

$ sudo apt install obs-studio

• Uninstall

$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:obsproject/obs-studio-unstable

$ sudo apt remove obs-studio

If you plan on beta testing, be sure to look out for subsequent betas and release candidates, as these will fix any issues that are discovered.