OBS Studio 27.1 Released! The OBS Studio Team and community have released version 27.1 of OBS Studio. Should you upgrade? Well what is new?

Features:

• Added YouTube integration
  • Allows the ability to connect your YouTube account without using a stream key
  • Adds various features when setting up your stream that allows you to set settings for each stream: your stream title, description, privacy settings, scheduling streams, and more
  • YouTube streams are created and managed via a new “Manage Broadcast” button next to “Start Streaming”
  • Also features a chat dock for public and unlisted broadcasts (currently read-only) 
  • Bandwidth testing is now supported in the Auto-Configuration wizard when logged in
  • Special thanks to the developers at YouTube for working with us directly on the initial implementation of this feature and helping to make it a reality
• Added an 18-scene multiview option
• Added a “Mask Only” option to the stinger track matte
• Added a feature to browser sources to allow limited control over OBS, which must be explicitly granted by the user
• Added an option to draw safe areas in the preview (same as the safe areas in the multiview)

What modifications did they make?

• Added performance fixes for Windows 11 and Windows 10 Insider builds
• Names for displays on macOS Display capture are now human readable names 
• Auto-Remux now works with Replay Buffer
• Optimized the media source, reducing unnecessary CPU usage
• The missing files dialog will now detect missing files for stingers as well
• Remove “Enter Fullscreen” from the menu on macOS because macOS already has a builtin fullscreen mode interface option
• Sources that are invisible/hidden will now have their text dimmed as well in the source list
• Added a “Missing Files Check” menu item to the “Scene Collections” menu
• Added source icons to the source toolbar
• Image sources that use gif files now will animate in preview when using studio mode
• Enabled Alpha option in the Freetype 2 Text Source’s Font dialog
• Added the ability to disable the Missing Files dialog using a startup flag
• Added Ctrl+R on Linux and Cmd+R on macOS to reload browser panels
• Re-enabled drag & drop for scenes & sources on Linux
• Minor UI improvements to various areas, including Source Toolbar, Transform dialog and more
• Improved internal behaviour in the game capture source to avoid unnecessary re-hooking
• Wayland capture sources are now available without having to pass custom parameters to OBS from the command line

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug on Wayland on Linux where the cursor would capture slightly mispositioned
• Fixed a bug with Dynamic Bitrate that would cause it to malfunction when used with hardware encoders
• Fixed a bug on Wayland where capture methods (ie window/desktop) that weren’t fully supported would appear anyway
• Fixed a variety of colour-related bugs in window capture and browser source
• Fixed a bug where track matte stingers would flash previous frames sometimes
• Fixed an issue where the projectors would list incorrect resolutions for DPI-scaled monitors
• Fixed a crash on exit that could occur when using 3rd party plugins that hold references to sources with audio monitoring enabled
• Fixed a bug where the Game Capture source would occasionally still capture overlays with the “Capture third-party overlays” option disabled
• Fixed a bug where keyboard interaction did not work correctly on macOS
• Fixed a bug where the replay buffer could crash when plugins interact with it 
• Fixed an issue where the mask/blend filter looked incorrect on version 27 
• Fixed a bug where deleting a scene that’s used as a source wouldn’t Undo/Redo properly 
• Fixed a bug where the Auto-Remux would pop up blank sometimes
• Fixed a bug where performing a redo for creating sources would cause sources to be created in the wrong scene
• Fixed the “Deactivate when not showing” option in the Decklink source not working properly
• Fixed a bug where themes were unable to use previously defined palette variables
• Fixed log viewer taking up unnecessary extra memory when closed
• Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting OBS with decklink output active
• Fixed an issue where saving screenshots or the replay buffer would fail if the output filename format contained a directory path
• Fixed a crash that could occur when a connection was dropped during the Auto-Configuration Wizard’s bandwidth-testing stage
• Disabled “Network Optimizations” when using RTMPS because of incompatibility
• Fixed an issue where setting a zero second auto reconnect delay would cause OBS to stop responding if disconnected

Our Recommendation

This is a minor update with some new features and modifications that many people will benefit from by installing. If you see a feature of modification you like, then certainly upgrade. Many will like the better YouTube integration.

We recommend testing your live configuration as a Portable OBS Install with the newer version before going live. Please let us know if you would like instructions on create a Portable Version of OBS for testing of updates and PlugIns.