Cozy
How to Add a Looping Background in OBS
Set up a looping video background in OBS Studio with a Media Source. Tick Loop, untick Restart playback, fit it to the canvas, and lock it in place.
A looping background is one video file that plays on repeat behind everything else in your scene. OBS Studio handles this with a Media Source. The setup takes a few minutes, and two checkboxes decide whether it plays smoothly or jumps.
Before you start
Check your canvas size first. Open Settings, then Video, and look at Base (Canvas) Resolution. Most streams use 1920x1080. A 1080p loop fills that canvas exactly, so there is no scaling and no soft edges. Save your MP4 somewhere it will stay, because OBS reads the file from that path every time it loads the scene.
Add the loop as a Media Source
Select the scene you want the background in. Then follow these steps:
- In the Sources dock, click the + button and choose Media Source
- Pick Create new, give it a clear name such as Background Loop, and click OK
- Leave Local File ticked and click Browse to choose your MP4
- Tick Loop so the video starts again when it reaches the end
- Untick Restart playback when source becomes active, so the loop carries on rather than jumping back to the first frame each time you switch scenes
- Tick Use hardware decoding when available to take load off your CPU
- Click OK
Fit it and lock it
If the video does not fill the preview, right-click the source, open Transform, and choose Fit to screen. Then drag the source to the bottom of the Sources list. OBS draws the top of the list in front, so the bottom item sits behind your camera, alerts and text. Click the lock icon next to the source so a stray click in the preview cannot move it mid-stream.
Sound and performance
If the file carries audio you do not want, mute that source in the Audio Mixer. Your music and mic stay unaffected. One looping 1080p background is light work for a modern PC. If you reuse the same file across several scenes, add it once and then use Add Existing in the other scenes, rather than creating a new Media Source each time. Every copy then shares the same settings.
Check the loop point
Watch the preview through two or three full cycles before you go live. A clean loop shows no jump or flash where the end meets the start. If you see a pause at the loop point, confirm Loop is ticked and that the file is a local MP4, not a link to a streaming page.