How to Record Ultrawide in 16:9 in OBS Studio

Recording or streaming from an ultra-wide (21:9 or 32:9) monitor to a standard 16:9 canvas in OBS Studio often results in unsightly black bars at the top and bottom of your video. This article provides a direct, step-by-step guide on how to capture your ultra-wide display and fit it perfectly onto a 16:9 canvas in OBS Studio. You will learn the three best methods to achieve this: cropping the edges, playing in a 16:9 window, or utilizing a blurred background effect.

Method 1: Crop the Sides of Your Ultrawide Capture

This method is best if you want to play in full ultrawide mode but only broadcast the center 16:9 portion of your screen.

  1. Open OBS Studio and ensure your canvas resolution is set to a 16:9 ratio (e.g., 1920x1080 or 2560x1440) in Settings > Video.
  2. Add your Game Capture or Display Capture source to your scene.
  3. Select the source in the preview window.
  4. Hold down the Alt key (Option on Mac) on your keyboard, click the left bounding box handle, and drag it inward to crop the left side.
  5. Repeat this process for the right side while holding Alt.
  6. Once the sides are cropped to a 16:9 proportion, release the Alt key.
  7. Right-click the source, go to Transform, and select Fit to Screen (or press Ctrl + F).

Method 2: Play Your Game in a 16:9 Resolution

The cleanest way to avoid losing any part of your game’s field of view in the recording is to force the game to run in a 16:9 aspect ratio.

  1. Open your game’s video/graphics settings.
  2. Change the resolution to a 16:9 aspect ratio (such as 2560x1440 or 1920x1080).
  3. Set the display mode to Windowed or Borderless Windowed.
  4. In OBS, add a Window Capture or Game Capture source and target the game. It will now fit your 16:9 canvas perfectly without any black bars or cropping.

Method 3: Fill the Black Bars with a Blurred Background

If you want to show your entire ultrawide screen but hate the empty black bars, you can use the dual-source blur method popular among professional broadcasters.

  1. Add your ultrawide capture source to your scene and center it. You will see black bars at the top and bottom.
  2. Right-click the source in the Sources list and click Duplicate (or copy and paste it as a clone).
  3. Select the bottom copy of the source, right-click it, go to Transform, and select Stretch to Screen. This will stretch the background image to fill the 16:9 canvas.
  4. Right-click this stretched background source, select Filters, and add a Scaling/Aspect Ratio filter. Set the scale filtering to Bicubic or add a third-party blur filter to make the background less distracting.
  5. Ensure the original, unstretched source remains layered on top of the blurred background.