OBS Studio, a widely adopted free and open-source broadcasting and recording software, has just released its latest version 32.0, introducing several notable new features and performance improvements.
One of the headline additions is the new plugin manager, making it easier for users to manage and load third-party plugins without relying on manual setups.
Another significant change is the introduction of opt-in automatic crash log uploads on Windows and macOS, designed to simplify debugging and help the development team address issues faster.
For NVIDIA RTX users, this update integrates Voice Activity Detection into the NVIDIA RTX Audio Effects suite. The feature enhances noise suppression for speech and includes further optimizations for RTX-powered effects.
Additionally, OBS now supports a chair removal option in NVIDIA RTX Background Removal, extending its background filtering capabilities.
On Apple Silicon systems, OBS 32.0 introduces an experimental Metal renderer, laying the groundwork for improved performance and efficiency on modern Macs. Another widely requested addition is Hybrid MOV support, which enables ProRes on macOS and provides cross-platform compatibility with HEVC/H.264 video plus PCM audio.
This release also changes several defaults to reflect current usage trends. The default bitrate has been raised from 2500 Kbps to 6000 Kbps, and Hybrid MP4/MOV is now the default recording container for new profiles. Improvements extend to AMD encoder defaults, audio deduplication logic for nested scenes and multiple canvases, and more accurate chapter markers in recordings.
The update further prepares OBS for upcoming UI changes by adding support for custom widgets. Meanwhile, plugin compatibility rules have been tightened: plugins built for newer OBS releases will no longer load in older versions, a step aimed at preventing future breakage.
On the bug fixes front, version 32.0 addresses a broad range of issues across platforms. On macOS, crashes related to window resizing and screen capture above 60fps have been resolved, along with hotkey and focus handling problems. For users relying on SRT, multiple crash scenarios and reconnection failures have been fixed.
Hybrid MP4/MOV handling has also seen attention, with fixes for splitting errors and memory leaks when saving to non-writable locations. Other notable fixes include improved PipeWire video capture reliability, proper handling of AMD AV1 encoder color range properties, and prevention of latency increases after temporary encoder stalls.
For more information, refer to the changelog.
