The Issue with OBS Image Slide Show and High res images

Are you someone who has experienced technical difficulties with the image slide show while running a live show or presentation using OBS? If so, you’re not alone. OBS, the popular open-source software for live streaming and video recording, can present a number of challenges if you’re not careful. In fact, during a recent live show, I ran into an issue with OBS that caused my image slideshow to suddenly stop working. However, after some research, I discovered the root cause of the problem and some simple solutions to avoid it in the future.

The Issue

One potential issue with using OBS for an image slideshow is the 250 MB limit for images. Accourding to my calculations the limit is more like 325 or 350 MB. This limit can be quite problematic, especially if you’re planning on using high-quality images for your slideshow. However, it’s not the displayed file size that counts, but the images in raw data. To give you an idea of how the calculations for that work, 4000 x 2250 pixel images with 3 bytes per pixel (24bpp), and 12 images in your slideshow, will add up to 324 MB of raw image data. This was a detail I only found buried deep in an OBS forum, and not mentioned in official documentation or in videos on YouTube.

How to avoid it?

To avoid this issue, one solution is to make a video from the images and play that instead of using an image slideshow. Another option is to resize your images to a smaller size, such as 1280 x 720. This will give you 1.76MB per photo, allowing you to have 90 slides with a 250MB limit, or 126 slides with a 350MB limit. If you’re using OBS for a slideshow, it is recommended that you keep the resolution of your images under 1920x1080 pixels and the size of all the files under 100-150 MB.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you’re using OBS for your live shows or presentations, make sure to be aware of the limits for image slideshows and the importance of raw image data. By keeping your resolution and file size under the recommended limits and using the solutions mentioned above, you can create a beautiful and engaging slideshow without any issues. Don’t be afraid to do some digging if you run into any issues – it might just save you from a lot of frustration in the future!