How to Record Disney Plus with OBS: Expert Tips to Bypass Black Screen

I love watching shows and movies on Disney+, but sometimes I also want to save content for offline viewing. OBS is an open-source screen recording tool that already records games and desktops, so I figured it would be no problem recording Disney+.

However, my first attempt failed and I encounter a black screen issue. The video wouldn't be recorded at all, only the audio. Sometimes, even worse, the video would be completely black with no audio. I later discovered that this issue was related to Disney+'s DRM encryption. To address this, I tried disabling hardware acceleration in my browser and installing an audio capture plugin on my Mac, which barely allowed me to record. This article mainly shares my experience of using OBS to screen record Disney+.

Preparation of Recording Disney Plus With OBS

If you don't do some preparation when recording Disney+ on OBS, you'll almost certainly run into problems. My first time, I didn't adjust the settings, so I ended up with a black screen. I later summarized a few essential preparation steps.

1. Disable Browser Hardware Acceleration

I use Chrome. Go to Settings → System, turn off "Use hardware acceleration when available," and then restart the browser. This step is crucial; otherwise, Disney Plus protected content license will obscure the image, leaving the recording black.

If you don't know how to find the Settings, follow the detailed guide below:

•  Open Chrome, tap "⋮" in the upper right corner, and select "Settings" from the drop-down list box. The global configuration page is displayed
•  In the left menu bar, swipe to the bottom and click the "System" button. This section contains the core functionality Settings for the browser to interact with the operating system.
• On the "System" page, find the "Use Graphics Acceleration when available" option and click the switch button on the right to turn it off. At this point, the browser will prompt "relaunch" to apply the changes, and Chrome will automatically restart when clicked.

2. Install OBS and Audio Capture Tools

• OBS Studio: Make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest version of OBS. It is easy, just go to the OBS official website and install the software.
• Audio Capture Software: OBS may not capture Disney+ system audio by default, and macOS users may need to install an additional audio capture plugin. So if the system version is earlier than macOS 10.13, you need to use a third-party plug-in to achieve audio capture. Detailed tutorials can be found at: macOS Desktop Audio Capture Guide.

3. Ensure a Stable Network

Don't forget, recording is actually saving as you play. If your connection is unstable, the video will stutter and the recording won't be smooth. I specifically switched to a wired connection to ensure smooth 1080p recording.

How to Record Disney Plus with OBS

OBS provides several different recording methods. I mainly tried Window Capture and Display Capture.

1. Window Capture

• I added a Window Capture in the “Source” and selected the Chrome window that was playing Disney+.

• While recording, the screen capture is fine, but I noticed a problem: if I opened another tab or switched windows, OBS would continue recording the entire browser window. To avoid recording the browser menu bar, I had to manually crop the screen.

• Select the appropriate video file format, storage path, recording quality, and video encoder. I chose save Disney+ videos to MP4 format, 1080p resolution, and 6000kbps bitrate. The actual recorded image quality is a little blurrier than expected.

2. Display Capture

• Another way is to capture the entire screen directly. I added Display Capture to the "Source" and then played Disney+.

• In the Create/Select Source window that pops up, name the new source and confirm.

• Select the appropriate capture method and display device (select the Disney+ screen for multiple screens). This method will not miss anything, but the disadvantage is that the entire desktop will be recorded, such as notification pop-ups and mouse movements, which will leave traces.
• I recorded a 20-minute animation and the exported file was about 1.8GB. The image quality was okay, but because it was recorded directly from the screen, the colors looked darker than the original film.

3. My Experience

Both methods can record video, but they're not very user-friendly for streaming. Window Capture crops the image, while Display Capture includes irrelevant content. The most problematic aspect is the audio. While Windows captures the original sound, Mac only records the microphone, completely failing to reproduce the original sound quality of Disney+.

Finally, I had to re-enable Chrome hardware acceleration after recording, otherwise the video would become laggy.

Best Alternative to Recording Disney Plus with OBS

While OBS does allow you to record Disney+ videos, it's quite a hassle, requiring you to disable hardware acceleration, install plugins, and adjust settings. Furthermore, the resulting video quality is merely "watchable" at best, far from the original clarity of Disney+. The audio experience is particularly poor on a Mac.

Luckily, I've found a more friendly method:

StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader

Instead of recording the screen, directly download the Disney+ video source and save it as a lossless 1080p/720p quality MP4 or MKV file.

Win Download

100% safe&clean

Mac Download

100% safe&clean

1. Comparison of StreamFab and OBS

Comparison Table: StreamFab vs OBS

Ease of Operation

• As an open source recording tool, OBS Studio requires users to manually configure the video source (such as window capture or display capture), adjust the resolution, set the audio input (additional plug-ins are required to solve the system sound capture problem), and even turn off browser hardware acceleration to avoid black screen problems. This series of operations is extremely unfriendly to non-technical users, especially when it comes to DRM-protected content, and the success rate fluctuates greatly.
• In contrast, StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader is designed for Disney+, allowing users to simply log in and select a video and download it locally with one click, without having to interfere with coding parameters or deal with compatibility issues.

DRM Compatibility and Stability

• Disney+ uses strict digital rights management (DRM), OBS often fails to bypass the protection mechanism during recording resulting in a black screen or silence, even with temporary solutions such as disabling hardware acceleration, there is still a risk of failure after the update.
• StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader has advanced decryption technology built in, which can legally bypass DRM restrictions (based on the user's personal use authorization), and guarantee a download success rate of nearly 100%.

Video Quality and Integrity

• The recording quality of OBS is limited by the screen resolution and real-time compression algorithm, even when recorded at 1080p, the actual output picture quality may be blurred or color blocked due to dynamic bitrate adjustment, and the audio may lose 5.1 surround sound effects due to system mixing.
• StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader parsed Disney+ streaming source files directly to download raw 1080p video and Dolby Atmos (including multilingual options), ensuring full preservation of every frame and cinema-quality sound.

Download/Record Speed

• OBS Studio is limited by computer configuration and network bandwidth, and high resolution recording may cause delays, requiring a lower bit rate (e.g. 4500-6000kbps for 1080p Settings) to balance speed and quality.
• StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader supports multi-threading technology, takes full advantage of bandwidth resources, and optimizes coding efficiency through hardware acceleration (GPU). download streaming videos at superfast speed, within 15 minutes per title.

In addition, StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader has a number of features:

1. Support batch download of whole season episodes. You can choose multiple episodes or full season content at one time and watch disney plus offline.
2. Provide queue management, allow to pause/resume tasks, flexible control of the download process.
3. Unique ad removal function, so that you are free from ads.
4. Support multi-language subtitle embedding, which can be saved separately as SRT files or embedded in videos.

My conclusion: OBS is more suitable for live broadcast recording or tutorial demonstrations, while StreamFab is a tool specifically prepared for Disney+ video offline watching and archiving.

2. How to Download Disney Plus Videos with StreamFab

Step 1: Install and launch the software from the official.

Step 2: Go for the VIP Services on the left panel and select the Disney+ site.

Step 3: Sign in to the Disney+ streaming site and then search for a video you want to keep offline. When you begin playing it, StreamFab will automatically start analyzing the content.

Step 4: After you customize your video, add it to the downloading queue.

Conclusion

OBS isn't the ideal tool for recording Disney+. While it theoretically works, you'll have to disable hardware acceleration, install additional plugins, tweak settings, and endure black screens, silence, or blurry video quality. Recording a one-hour movie means spending an hour staring at your computer—it's incredibly laborious.

In contrast, StreamFab Disney Plus Downloader downloads directly from the source, preserving the original 1080p/4K resolution and Dolby Atmos audio. It also allows you to batch download entire seasons, automatically catch up on new episodes, and remove ads.

So if your need is to make tutorials or record screen demonstrations, OBS is still very useful; but if you just want to save Disney+ movies and TV shows for offline viewing, then I would recommend StreamFab without hesitation.