This post covers what you need to know if you are using Sony’s PlayStation 5 (PS5) and want to record game footage externally on Open Broadcaster Software (also known as OBS Studio or simply as OBS) that is running on a separate computer (PC) for this purpose. This applies to all screen and audio capture on the console, regardless of whether you seek to capture regular flat screen footage or virtual reality (VR) footage on the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2) head-mounted display (HMD).
In practice, what you need is a PS5, two HDMI cables, a computer that can run OBS and an HDMI capable external capture device or an internal capture card. This is the minimal list of items that you need. You may also need a male-male 3.5mm audio cable, which is also commonly referred to as an auxiliary or AUX cable.
Hardware Setup
You then need to connect your PS5 to your capture device or card with an HDMI cable, as well as connect your capture device or card to a screen with another HDMI cable.
You may also opt to connect a DualSense controller to your capture device, card or directly to your computer with a male-male 3.5mm audio cable.
If you are using an external capture device, it needs to be connected to your computer, typically to one of its USB-ports. If it has a USB connector, you simply plug it in. If it does not have such, you need to connect it with a USB cable. If you have a capture card that is already connected to your computer, you can ignore this.
If you end up having problems with an external capture device, it may be that you have plugged its USB cable improperly. Unplug and plug again. You may also have plugged the cable to a USB port that is not fast enough or it is faulty. Try another port. It is also possible that you have multiple USB ports in use and they together they transfer so much data that the ports simply cannot handle it all. This may happen if you have multiple inputs from video cameras. A dedicated capture card might be a better option then.
Digital or Analog Audio?
Before configuring your setup in OBS, there are three key things to be aware of to avoid having to address these once you are in OBS. I will go through them, one by one.
Firstly, you need to disable High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) on the PS5. This can be found in Settings -> System -> HDMI -> Enable HDCP. This specific setting needs to be turned off.
Secondly, you need to be aware that the PS5 uses either an HDMI cable or a 3.5mm cable to send the audio, but not both. To be absolutely clear about the terms, the input is either digital or analog, but not both.
The digital option involves transferring the audio from the PS5 to your computer, by connecting the PS5 to a capture device or a card with an HDMI cable. That is your input. To see that input also on your screen that use for the PS5, you also need connect the capture device or the card to the screen with another HDMI cable. That is your output.
Note that you cannot use wired headphones by connecting them to a DualSense controller, nor wireless headphones that are connected to your PS5, because the audio is sent digitally to the computer, just like it would be sent to a TV or a computer screen that has integrated speakers. It would make little sense to send it to the TV or the computer screen and also use the headphones.
The analog option involves transferring the audio from a DualSense controller to your computer, by connecting the controller either to a capture device or a card that has analog audio input port. For this, you need a male-male 3.5mm audio cable.
Alternatively, if your capture device or card does not have the necessary port, you connect the controller to your computer with a male-male 3.5mm audio cable. The computer must then have an analog input port. Note that the 3.5mm audio input is known as line-in port. It is not the same as a mic port for a microphone, nor as a line-out port that is meant for speakers and headphones.
If the capture device, the capture card or the computer do not have the necessary port, you can use a USB line-in adapter or a separate sound card that has an analog 3.5mm input and a digital output. In this case it is also important to check that the adapter or the sound card is for audio input, not for microphone input, nor for headphone or speaker output.
You may also need to configure your capture device or card to utilize the analog audio input, instead of the digital HDMI input. It is no use to you to connect the controller and the capture device or the card, if you the device or the card is set to pass the audio to your computer via HDMI.
It is also worth noting that the DualSense controller has a limited battery life. This can be countered by plugging in to a USB port, for example in the PS5, but it may result in faint humming in the audio as the controller is then in a charging mode. The battery life is not a major issue though as one needs to recharge the controllers every now anyway in regular use.
Thirdly, both the digital and the analog option requires you to connect your headphones to your computer, while running OBS, because in both cases the audio is being transferred from the PS5 to the computer, but not from the PS5 to your headphones. You can use both wired and wireless headphones, as long as they are connected to your computer.
It is also possible to use a male-female-female cable splitter that allows you to use your wired headphones that have a male 3.5mm audio plug and a male-male 3.5mm audio cable running to the capture device or card.
If you prefer a fully wireless solution, it is possible to use a secondary DualSense controller as the analog audio source that is then connected to a capture device, capture card, or the computer that is running OBS. This way you can use your primary DualSense controller without the 3.5mm audio cable getting in your way.
Delay
The digital and analog options should work the same and give you the same results. In my own experience, the analog option is better than the digital option as I keep running into a slight delay in running the audio through HDMI, whereas I do not notice such when running the audio through a 3.5mm auxiliary cable.
While audio delays can fixed by syncing the audio and the video, or by making small adjustments in OBS, it makes sense to avoid such in the first place. I therefore use analog audio input instead of digital audio input.
VR
It is also important to remember that you do not connect wired headphones to the PSVR2 HMD, if you are capturing VR footage. Instead, you connect them to your computer. This is not a major issue as the PSVR2 is connected to the PS5 with a cable. It does, however, add an extra cable in the mix, which is hardly ideal. It is simply more convenient to use wireless headphones when capturing VR footage.
Configuring OBS: Basics
The various audio and video inputs are called sources in OBS. I will list only the ones that are needed.
You will need just one source: Video Capture Device. That is an external capture device that is connected to your computer with a USB cable or an internal capture card that is connected to your computer motherboard via PCI Express (PCIE).
It is also important to check the audio settings. Located at the bottom, in the middle of the screen, there is Audio Mixer. Right click on it. Select Advanced Audio Properties:
A) The Video Capture Device should be set to Monitor and Output.
This setup A) is as simple as it gets. The audio comes from the source and you listen to it simultaneously.
For this setup, the Desktop Audio for OBS should be set as muted in the Audio Mixer or disabled as you do not need to hear everything twice. This can be configured through Settings -> Audio -> Global Audio Devices.
If you run the audio from a secondary controller to the capture device, the capture card or the computer and connect wireless headphones to your computer, it is possible to have a wireless setup. If you use this setup with the PSVR2 and the Sense Controllers, you do not need a secondary DualSense controller as you are not using it in VR.
Alternatively:
B) Desktop Audio should be set to Monitor Off.
The Video Capture Device should be set to Monitor Only (mute output).
This setup B) is not as simple, but it works the same way. The audio input comes from the source, but it is not output on the video file the same way. Instead, it is output through the Desktop Audio.
For this setup, you also need to have the Desktop Audio active. This can be configured through Settings -> Audio -> Global Audio Devices.
If you use an audio splitter:
C) The Video Capture Device should be set to Monitor off.
This setup C) allows you to plug your wired headphones to your controller.
If you are not hearing anything, it might be that you have configured the audio settings the wrong way. If you are still not hearing anything, it might be that you need to restart OBS. It might not be picking up the headphones you connected to the computer.
What matters is that in both cases you hear the game audio and it gets recorded on the video file. You may want to test the settings first, to see if there are any audio delays. You will notice if you have delay. For example, you will notice if character’s mouths move before you hear them speak. In my case, it was remedied by opting to use analog audio instead of digital audio.
I also recommend checking the audio level and adding a gain filter either to the Video Capture Device in setup A) or to the Desktop Audio in setup B), if the volume seems too low. At least in my own tests the analog routing of audio results in a lower volume, so it is worth checking and adjusting in OBS, if necessary.
Configuring OBS: More Sources
Once you have everything running without noticeable audio delays and the video quality is to your liking, you can add more sources.
For example, if you are working with game footage, you may want to add a view of yourself. For this you a need a video source.
The simplest option is to use a USB-webcam. Just connect it to your computer, check if there is any delay and adjust the audio levels accordingly in OBS. The downside is that most models do not have a slot of for a memory card and therefore they do not allow you to record a backup copy on a memory card.
The more complex, but customizable option is to use a dedicated video camera, such as a camcorder that has an HDMI or a mini-HDMI line-out port, and plug it into a computer with an HDMI-USB adapter. This option typically includes the possibility of recording also to a memory card while using the video camera as a source in OBS.
A dedicated video camera typically also has a microphone port. This allows you to use a separate wired microphone that plugs into the video camera with a 3.5mm audio cable or a wireless microphone, which has a receiver that plugs into the same place with a short 3.5mm audio cable.
It is, of course, important to check if there is any audio delay and adjust the audio levels accordingly in OBS. Alternatively, you can plug the wired microphone or the wireless microphone receiver directly to your computer, to the microphone (mic) port, and add an audio source in OBS. Again, you have to check if there is any delay and adjust the audio levels accordingly.
Checking the audio mix and adding filters is highly recommended. Firstly, you may not want to be monitoring the audio from video camera feed. Secondly, you may want to check the that the audio from that feed does not make it difficult to hear the audio from PS5 feed. Thirdly, you may want to add filters. For example, a high-pass filter can be useful, because it allows you to get rid of low-frequency background noise, such as humming of computer fans. Using a separate microphone or microphones does, of course, also mitigate such audio issues, but this does add layers and layers of complexity and extra costs to the final mix.
It is also highly recommended that the webcam or video camera footage is properly lit. I would not use the room lighting as, coming from above, it tends to casts shadows on one’s face. Instead, I would place two light sources, such as LED panels, one to each side of the screen that is used to play games on your PS5. They can be mounted on separate floor stands or on table stands, depending on what the screen is mounted on and how floor space there is.
It is also possible to use XLR capable equipment, but this setup is more complicated and more costly. This level of sophistication makes little sense, unless you already have all the necessary audio hardware for it.
If you want to bring in your heart rate, you need a heart rate monitor. It is typically connected to your computer wirelessly via Bluetooth or ANT+. You also need software that can visualize this. For example, I have used HeartRate developed by Joseph Lennox. It is lightweight and works well for this purpose.
Configuring OBS: Changing the Canvas
You can alter the size of the canvas and the primary source, which is the captured screen. You can also do the same with other sources, such as the video feed and the heart rate feed.
This major benefit of this is that this way the footage is synchronized, whereas saving the screen capture and the room video feed as separate video files requires additional work to subsequently synchronize the footage.
There are some workarounds that allow synchronizing the footage, while saving it to separate files. However, if one wants to watch the footage, one must run two separate files simultaneously, side by side.
It is also possible to alter the canvas, you can, for example, create a dual screen setup by doubling it horizontally (e.g. 1920×1080 -> 3840×1080). This allows watching both the screen capture and the room video feed in high resolution, alongside one another.
The single screen option requires less from the recording hardware, whereas the dual screen option requires more from the recording hardware, unless the single screen option involves a higher resolution than the dual screen option.
The most obvious difference is that the single screen option works the best when viewed on a single screen, whereas the dual screen option works the best when viewed on a dual screen setup, or on an ultrawide screen.
References
- Lennox, J. ([2017] 2022). HeartRate (computer software). https://github.com/jlennox/HeartRate
- OBS Project ([2012] 2025). OBS Studio (computer software). https://obsproject.com