How to Resolve OBS Won’t Record-Window Capture Black Screen

Complains about OBS Window Capture Black Screen have begun to trickle out of the OBS community.

Having such an issue, OBS won’t record a video successfully when you use the OBS Window Capture feature to record an app window like Chrome, VLC, and gameplay. Instead, OBS will display a black screen on the interface.

To help you get rid of the Window Capture Black Screen issue, the bulk of this text is essentially a combination of reasons and solutions for the issue. You will know why this issue will happen to you and how you can fix it.

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1. Disable Hardware Acceleration in Chrome

If OBS works fine to record other windows, like VLC, Photoshop, or some games, and the black screen issue only happens when you record a Chrome tab, then, your OBS is likely incompatible with Chrome.

It’s very easy to fix it though, you just need to uncheck one option in your Chrome to regain the compatibility.

On your Chrome, enter Settings and choose Advanced from the Settings window. Scroll down and find an option named ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’, uncheck it.

Now, relaunch your OBS and Chrome to start your recording. It should record properly.

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2. Adjust the graphics settings for OBS

When your computer is installed with 2 graphics cards, both graphics cards will likely work to draw and encode the OBS recording together. You may think it’s good for your OBS recording efficiency, which on the contrary, with both graphics processors working simultaneously, your OBS will only be stuck in disorder and doesn’t know which processor it should respond to.

Such disorder will lead to one serious problem which is that your OBS will display a black screen and record absolutely nothing.

To sum up, OBS must run under the support of a single GPU. Now, let’s modify the GPU settings for your OBS to fix the black screen issue.

HOW:

First, right-click on your desktop and choose Display settings from the drop-down list. Then, on the Display settings window, scroll down and click on the Graphics settings option.

On the new Graphics settings window, you need to add OBS on the list to modify its graphics settings.

Click Browse and search for the location of OBS, go to This PC > C:// > Program Files > obs studio > bin > 64bit. On the 64bit folder, select obs64 and click Add to complete.

Next, click Options and check High Performance, click OK to apply.

Finish all these steps, your OBS recording will be processed by a specific graphics card and you won’t have the black screen issue anymore.

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3. Run your OBS as administrator

OBS is a heavyweight screen recorder, it’s programmed with multiple features. But some features will be restricted when you launch OBS regularly by double-clicking the desktop app.

To let OBS work as total to record a video, you need to right-click on the app and choose Run as administrator.

Then, you can adapt to OBS Window Capture to record a video with your preference.

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4. Downgrade OBS

Whenever there is a new version of OBS, there are always people saying that OBS won’t record after making an upgrade. If you are in the same situation, probably:

In this case, the easiest way to fix the OBS Window Capture not recording issue is to downgrade your OBS. However, this is just a stopgap since you cannot enjoy the latest services of OBS.

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5. Try an OBS alternative to record your window

If none of the previous methods help you solve the problem, you’d rather not spend all your time figuring out why and how just apply to another screen recorder to record a video.

An OBS alternative – Aiseesoft Screen Recorder will help you create a decent video with less effort and less possibility of having errors.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder is a great screen capture program that allows users to record all on-screen content along with microphone and system sound.

Also, you don’t need to worry about lags during the recording since it supports hardware acceleration.

Moreover, the program offers multiple adjustable configurations, you may decide the hotkeys for activating a recording, format, and other details of a video, mouse movement, etc.

Now, let’s take a look at how to use Aiseesoft Screen Recorder to record a window.

Step 1 Download Aiseesoft Screen Recorder for free on your computer

Step 2 Set up for recording

Launch the program and choose Video Recorder on the interface.

On the Video Recorder window, you need to decide the recording area and the audio source of your video.

• First, you can click Full to record the entire screen or click Custom to record a certain area. You may click Advanced Recorder, then, choose the Lock and record window option to record a certain app window.

• Next, turn off the Microphone when you don’t want to voice be recorder through a microphone device. And leave System Sound on to record the computer sound.

Finish all these setups, minimize the app.

Step 3 Start recording

Launch the content you’re about to record and press the default hotkey ‘Ctrl + Alt + S’ to initiate a window capture.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder will activate a floating bar to display the real-time length of the video, you can pause the recording and take a break by clicking the Pause button.

To end the recording, press ‘Ctrl + Alt + S’ or click the Stop button on the panel.

A window will then pop out and display the captured video for you, you can preview it and trim it if you need to.

Click Save to export the file to a default folder. Click the Recording history option on the interface to locate your recordings.

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These are all the effective solutions for your OBS Window Capture Black Screen issue, you can try the first 4 methods before you switch to the OBS alternative – Aiseesoft Screen Recorder. Hopefully, you can create a perfect video in the end.