Introducing Pixelview Desktop ​

Pixelview Desktop is our own app for macOS. It replaces the OBS Studio setup most rooms use today with something much shorter: install, pair, pick your capture card, start.

It can also receive a Pixelview session and play it out over SDI through a Blackmagic DeckLink or UltraStudio device, which OBS cannot do.

Download for macOSRead the docs

Why we built it ​

OBS Studio is a great broadcaster's tool, and Pixelview Desktop is built on it. But a review session needs only a small part of it, and the rest is where setups go wrong: a stream key pasted into the wrong field, AAC instead of Opus, B-frames left on, a color format that does not match.

Pixelview Desktop keeps the OBS capture, encoding, and output engine and removes the rest.

What's new ​

  • You pair the app instead of pasting stream keys. Create a one-time token in Admin under Pair Desktop, paste it into the app, and the Mac is linked to your encoder. Pixelview hands the app its streaming connection each time you start.
  • The encoding is preset for Pixelview: hardware HEVC, Opus audio, one-second keyframes, and no B-frames, without opening a settings dialog.
  • Admin shows which desktops are paired, whether they are online and streaming, and what settings they report. You can revoke one with a click.
  • The app can join a session with its ID and password and play it out to a reference monitor, projector, or facility router through a DeckLink output. The output mode you choose sets the frame rate, so 23.976, 24, and 25p play out at their native cadence.
  • Updates come from Pixelview, signed and automatic.

What about OBS? ​

OBS Studio stays fully supported, and the OBS guides stay up to date. Keep using it if you like having one app for everything, if you stream from Windows, Linux, or an Intel Mac, or if you need HDR beta, NDI, or screen-capture sources. Pixelview Desktop currently handles SDR Rec.709 at up to 1080p from Blackmagic devices on Apple Silicon Macs.

Both apps can live on the same Mac. Pixelview Desktop never touches your OBS settings.

Get started ​

  1. Set up Pixelview Desktop and start sending
  2. Receive a stream and play out over SDI

Pixelview Desktop is open source under the GPL. The source is at github.com/pxlview/pixelview-desktop.