OBS Studio

The best screen recording software in the game. Add different audio sources, change backgrounds accordingly, livestream with ease... you got it all in one with OBS Studio. Connect any of your favorite social media platforms to use livestream and you'll be totally impressed with what you get, no other software does it better.

I honestly have no qualms or cons against this software, I have yet to find any.

I started using OBS while doing a film series in my city, the project was open to the public, but the pandemic forced me to turn the thing into an online project. I used a lot of streaming software at first, skipping OBS for no reason, but when I tried the software I was in awe. The whole package its free to use, while limited sometimes, if you learn how to set it up (Wiki and guides are really useful on the official website), you're good to go. I like to think about OBS as a solution for basic or minimalistic projects. On audio, you can set different audio tracks, separate them and record them. About video, the settings for streaming are useful if your internet connection it's not too good or if your PC/laptop it's not the most powerful out there. The software was using a lot of ram on my laptop at first, but after tweaking the settings a bit, it became really lightweight. You can add a capture device, you can capture your own desktop, a window, you can even add GIFs, images and videos and resize them or drag them through the screen. And yes, you can record on .H264, and that's one of the best things about it. Rookie streamer, if you're reading this and want to take a challenge, download and install OBS right now, it's the best solution for your project if you're on a tight budget.

As said, sometimes it lags the computer a bit if you didn't set up the whole thing correctly.
The instructions guide it's really extensive and things are kind of hard to understand if you're a novice (YouTube tutorials can help you a lot on this).

IT IS FREE. May all of my complains and frustrations with this software be safely tucked under the umbrella of a customer who is pleased at the end of the day with a product that is reliable and costs him nothing. That is a miracle and I believe that it is getting easier and easier to use. I love the fact that once I have everything set up in the back end of the program, I can get going with one click. I use this program to record and live-stream our Sunday morning services at Church. On the off-chance that the wifi goes down or something, the ability to continue recording to an external drive has saved us on more than one occasion. It handles the basics such as screen sharing, adding logos, and even some basic audio input options very well. Overall, I am extremely pleased and it made the ability to live-stream in a church of 200 people affordable and attainable.

Set-up was a long process of educating myself with very little reward and no long-term application for the knowledge that I gained. There seems to be certain settings that you need to select for different types of streaming. Having to wade through numerous youtube videos in order to find what I needed specifically, was not fun. I would love for this software to develop presets for different purposes. Most all gamers tend to used the same presets with some variation depending on their individual internet speeds. Why not have a preset for gamers and another preset for bloggers, or live-streamers? I don't think it would take much and with a few basic questions, the program could do a lot of the heavy lifting that makes the back end of OBS a pain to work with.
Additionally the interface, while more intuitive than most open-source programs, does leave something to be desired. I often have to click through all of the setting options in order to find specific settings that need adjustment. Also, I have been running into issues with syncing external audio with the video during live streaming. The video buffer seems to be inconsistent, so the audio and video will start out synced and randomly get out of wack.

For live streaming our services, this has become the most valuable software we have ever used in our church and in recording videos. It was simple to set up, easy to use, and other than the occasional user error in the sound room at our church, we have had ZERO problems with this software.

There are features that I would love to be able to use on the software, but not having too many technology inclined people in the church has made some of the features for us useless, but that isn't a negative on your part, it just isn't something we can use at this time.

Sin duda es el mejor software para transmitir y/o crear secuencias audiovisuales en tiempo real, la posibilidad de mezclar diversas fuentes, cada vez más variadas, tanto de audio como de video, la incorporación del editor en tiempo real (como un director de cámara), la transmisión en distintos medios con calidad y codecs completamente configurables, filtros y transiciones en tiempo real. Y además totalmente gratuito y open source!

Solo puedo hacer una leve objeción respecto a la complejidad de la configuración y la interfaz para un usuario principiante, pero realmente esa crítica queda atrás frente a la cantidad de opciones y el funcionamiento del programa.