Webcams are great for face-to-face meetings and for catching up with friends and family.
But what if you want to use your webcam to live stream an event, create a time-lapse, monitor an area for security, or otherwise record for a longer period of time?
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For How Long Can A Webcam Record?
You can set up a webcam to record indefinitely provided your computer remains on and you have enough storage available to save the recording.
There isn’t a time limit on how long you can record for when you use software like OBS Studio to use your webcam as a capture device, but the longer you record for, the hotter your device is going to get and the more hard drive space you’re going to need.
You can also use an output timer to tell OBS Studio how long to record for before automatically stopping.
Depending on resolution, frame rate, colors, how you compress the file, and other factors, you may need between 15GB and 50GB of storage to save around 24 hours worth of a webcam recording.
OBS is free and open-source software.
To download it go to obsproject.com and select Mac or Windows.
How To Record With Your Webcam Using OBS Studio
First, open OBS Studio and add your webcam as the source for video.
There’s more than one way to set up OBS Studio to record your webcam but the easiest is to connect your webcam via USB to the computer and in OBS Studio click the “+” button near the bottom of the sources box.
Next, choose the option “Video Capture Device“.
A new window will open and your webcam should be visible as a source under “Device“.
Improving Picture Quality
The picture quality might be good enough for you from the get-go, but if it isn’t, you can try adjusting a few settings.
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Adjust Video Settings
Double click on your camera in OBD Studio and from the dialogue box select “Configure Video“.
The property box for your camera will open up.
There will be auto checkboxes along the right-hand side of the window and sliders to adjust brightness, contrast, etc.
The first thing you’ll want to do is uncheck the auto checkbox for “White Balance” and turn it up to about 5,000 at first to see how it looks.
You may need to slightly adjust the white balance up or down from here depending on your lighting situation.
Just mess around with it a bit and you’ll find the sweet spot soon enough.
Next, click on the “Camera Control” tab and uncheck the box next to focus.
This will stop your camera from constantly trying to zoom in and focus on objects in its view.
Now uncheck the checkbox for “Exposure” and drop it down slightly.
When this box is checked it usually overexposes the video.
Set the exposure so that your picture is bright enough while not having to sacrifice too much of a drop in frames.
Tweak The Colors
Right-click on your camera inside of OBS Studio and select “Filters“.
Click the “+” at the bottom of the effect filters area, choose “Color Correction” and hit “OK“.
This will open up a box with a bunch of sliders that you can adjust.
There will be sliders for gamma, contrast, brightness, saturation, etc.
Go down through them one by one and move each slider very slightly to see if you can get an improvement in your picture quality.
Set Resolution And Frame Rate
Set the resolution and frame rate to be as high as your computer can handle.
You will usually get the highest quality output when you don’t scale.
Set your camera to record at 1080p or 720p, then set OBS canvas and output to the same resolution.
Then you’ll need to find a bitrate that can be sustained while providing a quality recording at your chosen resolution and framerate.
Are There Any Issues Recording For Extended Periods With Your Webcam?
Extended use of your webcam will also mean that your computer will need to remain on and that can cause your device to become hot and components to wear out faster.
That additional heat also increases the chances of the RAM or hard drive becoming damaged and your data from being corrupted.
You are going to need lots of spare storage to save the recording and there’s also the additional cost of electricity to consider.
Running at 100w, you’ll be using somewhere in the region of 73 KWh per month and that could cost you well over $100 per year depending on where you live.
