Problem using OBS to record UK television from my screen

If I've posted this in the wrong section, please could a Mod move it to where it should be.

For a long time now (years) I've been recording UK TV programmes using a VPN and OBS. I've recorded from all the UK channels successfully in the past.

Back in mid November I successfully recorded some programmes from All4, BBC and ITV. My next attempt to record was in early December. This is when it got strange with All4. Everything starts off okay, and I can record the ads that are before the programme. But as soon as the programme itself starts, I get audio only, and a black screen. I get the same result from ITV.

If I try to record off the BBC, which has no ads, I can still do this successfully. I only lose the video when I am on a channel that carries ads.

I have not changed any settings anywhere. I have had updates to OBS and Windows recently but have no idea if these did anything to create this situation.

I did have a problem with an update to my VPN, and had to reinstall it, but since things work fine on some channels and with the ads, I can't see how this can be the problem. Particularly as I can actually watch the programme without any problem, it's just when I record it that I have the issue.

I don't think that OBS itself is the problem, as that too works perfectly well except when recording a programme with ads. I've watched some videos related to blackscreen issues with OBS, and my settings on the app seem to be okay, and as I said these haven't been changed by me at all.

I've using both Firefox and Chrome, and even tried a different VPN to my usual one. It's always the same result - fine on BBC, problems on All4 and ITV.

I'm starting to wonder if some sort of code has been embedded in the programmes on these channels that detects when they are being recorded, and cuts the video to prevent this, but it does seem quite far fetched.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Or does anyone have any suggestions on how I might resolve this?

Is it possible that the BBC online app asked you to put in your TV licence number at some stage in the past and that's why it keeps working for you?

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You could try narrowing down the cause of the problem by using an alternative to your OBS.

I use the free edition of ActivePresenter for this job. This can record video and audio [or just audio on its own if required].

I found these links useful in getting to grips with it -
Tutorials - ActivePresenter - Screen Recording & Interactive ELearning Authoring Software
ActivePresenter Community

Denis

Thanks for the BBC suggestion, but I've never input a TV licence number, just a postcode to all the sites.

And thanks for the link to ActivePresenter. I will check this out. If there is still a problem, then, having tried alternative VPN and recording software, I would probably have to conclude that it's the channels themselves who have done something, so fingers crossed for ActivePresenter.

Speaking of "but it does seem quite far fetched" I'd go out on a limb and guess that maybe the feed/source is combining two different sources for the ads and content which me have separate video and audio and you are getting only one part of the actual program. I don't think broadcasters are using fully-taped shows anymore.

Okay, some updates.

Firstly I installed the ActivePresenter software and tried this:

with my current vpn (cactus) using both firefox and Chrome and an alternative vpn (touch) using just Chrome.

The result is the same, I can record the ads but not the programmes.

Then I tried on another laptop, using cactus vpn, ActivePresenter and firefox. On this I can record both programmes and adverts as I could before.

This laptop has an earlier version of cactus vpn, so one thing I am going to pursue is whether the issue is with my version of the vpn, though since I also have the problem on my laptop with a different vpn, this only makes sense if the new version did something that would affect other vpns too.

Alternately, the problem could be with OBS, maybe the feed/source combining issue mentioned above by Berton. Can anyone suggest how I might go about investigating this further. I don't think I have upgraded OBS in the timeframe where the problems began as I usually ignore the upgrades as I use so few of the features.

My final option is to try either an uninstall of cactus and reinstall an earlier version, or to do a repair install of Windows 10 and see if that works.

Any suggestions (in simple language please, I'm not that techie) would be gratefully received.

Your problem could be related to digital rights i.e. you are not allowed to copy certain programs and TV companies put certain info in programs that prevent recording. It is a grey area whether ot os legal to record programs but I take view it is same as using a vcr. The way round this is to run video program in a virtual machine and record the VM.

Regarding digital rights - I can't see that this is the problem given it works on one laptop and not the other, unless the companies are targetting me alone . And it worked fine for me until a few weeks ago. But thanks for the suggestion of using a VM, definitely something to consider. I think my next step will be to uninstall OBS and see if that changes anything.

I'm closing this thread as I have solved my problem. I uninstalled OBS and reinstalled a version from 2019, which I had fortunately kept on file. This works fine, so clearly something changed on OBS.

Thanks for the input.