First check whether you are trying to repeat a saved gaming video or capture live gameplay. OBS can loop a local file or playlist, but a Game Capture source is a live feed and has no finished file to replay.
For one saved video, use a Media Source and enable Loop in its properties. For several saved videos, use VLC Video, install VLC with the same 32-bit or 64-bit architecture as OBS, and enable Loop Playlist. If OBS itself loops correctly but YouTube viewers see an interruption, troubleshoot the encoder and stream connection separately.
Identify what you are trying to loop
The wording “gaming video” can describe two different OBS jobs. You may have recorded gameplay as an .mp4, .mkv or another local file and want it to play repeatedly. Alternatively, you may be opening a game now and sending the live screen to YouTube through Game Capture or Display Capture.
Only the first job is file playback. A saved recording reaches an end, so OBS can start it again. Live gameplay does not reach the end of a media file. It continues while the game is running and stops when the capture source, game or stream stops. There is therefore no Loop setting that can make a live capture replay itself.
| Situation | OBS source or control | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| One saved gaming video | Media Source → Loop | Select the correct local file, enable Loop, and keep the source visible in the live scene. |
| Several saved videos | VLC Video → Loop Playlist | Install VLC, match its architecture to OBS, add the intended files, and check playlist visibility. |
| Live gameplay | Game Capture or another capture source | Do not look for media looping. Use a saved recording as a Media Source if you want repeated playback. |
| OBS preview loops but YouTube appears interrupted | Encoder and YouTube delivery | Check the encoder output, local recording or archive, stream health and outbound connection. |
| Preview and stream stutter during gaming | OBS rendering performance | Check GPU pressure, then consider limiting the game frame rate or enabling V-Sync. |
This distinction also prevents a common detour. Changing YouTube latency, DVR or other live-stream settings will not make an OBS media file repeat. Those settings affect delivery and viewer interaction, while the repeat instruction belongs to the OBS source that plays the file. You can review YouTube’s current encoder guidance in its official live-streaming documentation.
If your aim is a continuous channel made from prerecorded material rather than a live gaming session, first decide whether one long file is enough or whether you need a playlist. That choice determines which OBS source and which loop control you need.
Enable Loop on a Media Source
Use Media Source when you want one local video file to repeat. In OBS, select the scene that should appear on YouTube, then select the relevant Media Source in the Sources panel and open its properties. Confirm that the file path points to the intended recording and enable Loop.
The OBS Project documents Loop as the setting that determines whether the file plays again after playback has completed. Its documented default is Off, so a newly added source may play once and then stop. The exact wording and arrangement can differ between OBS builds, but the setting is part of the Media Source properties rather than YouTube’s stream dashboard. See the OBS Media Sources documentation if the source properties do not match these labels.
For a simple test, use a short recording rather than waiting for a long gaming session to finish. Start the source from the beginning, watch the final moments in the OBS preview, and confirm that the first frame appears again. This test checks the loop itself before you add YouTube’s delivery path to the diagnosis.
Do not confuse Loop with Restart playback when source becomes active. Restarting playback when a source becomes active tells OBS what to do when the source is activated, for example when you change scenes or make the source visible. It does not replace the instruction to repeat a file after it reaches its end.
Likewise, Show nothing when playback ends is a separate control. If Loop is off and this option is enabled, the source can disappear when the file finishes. That can look like a failed loop, although OBS has simply reached the end of the file and followed the end-of-playback behaviour. For diagnosis, check both settings rather than assuming that a source disappearing means the file is corrupt.
Also confirm that you are editing the source used by the active scene. OBS can contain several sources with similar names, and a source may exist in one scene while another scene is being sent to the stream. A loop can work perfectly in a scene that is not currently live.
A Media Source is intended for one file at a time. If you want a sequence of separate gaming recordings, do not expect the Media Source’s Loop checkbox to become a playlist manager. Use the VLC Video source described next, or create one combined file if that better suits your workflow. The internal guide on joining multiple videos into one file for a YouTube live stream is relevant when you prefer one tested asset instead of a playlist.
Use VLC Video for several files
Use VLC Video when the intended playback is a playlist of local files. This is different from adding several Media Sources and hoping one source will move through the others. VLC Video is the OBS source designed to use a playlist, provided VLC is installed and available to OBS.
Add or select the VLC Video source in the scene, then open its properties. Check that the playlist contains the files you actually want to play and that their paths still work. A playlist can appear correctly configured while pointing to a moved, renamed or disconnected file, so test each item where practical.
The playlist might contain saved gameplay recordings, intro material, a holding screen or other media you have permission to use. Keep the first test small. Add two known-working local files, confirm that the first moves to the second, and only then add the larger set. This separates playlist configuration from a problem in one particular recording.
For a channel that needs a changing title or track label, playback and metadata are separate jobs. The file can move through a playlist while your YouTube title remains unchanged. If that matters to your format, the workflow described in how to add a changing track title to a 24/7 YouTube music stream covers a related presentation problem, but it does not replace the VLC playlist setting.
Enable Loop Playlist
For a VLC Video source, enable Loop Playlist in the source properties. This is the control for repeating the playlist after its items have played. It is not the same as the single-file Loop property on Media Source.
After enabling it, verify the expected order. If the playlist contains three recordings, the useful test is whether playback moves from the first to the second, from the second to the third, and then returns to the first. If it stops before that point, note which item was playing. A failure on one file may be a path or format problem rather than a failure of the playlist loop.
Check the source’s other playback behaviour as well. Restart playback when source becomes active concerns activation, not the end of the playlist. Show nothing when playback ends concerns what OBS displays if playback finishes without looping. Neither label is a substitute for Loop Playlist.
Visibility matters here too. The VLC Video source must be in the scene that is currently live, enabled in the Sources panel and not covered by an opaque source above it. If you can hear audio but see an unexpected image, inspect source order and transforms. If you see the video in the preview but hear no audio, inspect the source’s audio handling and the OBS mixer separately from the playlist loop.
A playlist is useful when you want to preserve separate files, but it creates more places for a night-time failure: a missing path, an unsupported item, an unexpected file order or a source that is not active in the live scene. A single combined file can be easier to test and hand over, while a playlist is easier to update one item at a time. Choose based on how often you change the content, not on the assumption that one method is universally more reliable.
Check VLC installation and matching bitness
OBS’s VLC Video source depends on VLC being installed. If VLC Video is missing, unavailable or not behaving as expected, check the installation before changing stream settings. The OBS Project’s Media Sources documentation states that VLC is required for this source and that 64-bit OBS requires 64-bit VLC.
“Matching bitness” means matching the architecture, not merely having VLC somewhere on the same computer. A 64-bit OBS installation needs 64-bit VLC. If the architectures do not match, OBS may not expose the source correctly or may fail to use it as expected. Check whether your OBS installation is 32-bit or 64-bit, then install the corresponding VLC build from the official VLC site, rather than relying on an unrelated download page.
Close OBS before installing or changing VLC, then reopen OBS and check whether VLC Video is available. If it was already open during the installation, restarting it gives OBS a clean opportunity to detect the media component. You do not need to install VLC to loop one file through Media Source; this requirement applies to the VLC Video playlist route.
Test VLC itself with the same files before testing it through OBS. If VLC cannot open an item locally, OBS is unlikely to solve that file’s playback problem. If VLC opens it but OBS does not, check the source path, architecture match and source properties.
The OBS documentation lists common local video formats including .mp4, .ts, .mov, .flv, .mkv, .avi, .gif and .webm, as well as common audio formats. That does not mean every file with one of those extensions will behave identically. A file can have a supported container but still contain a codec, audio track or damaged section that causes trouble. Use a known-working file for the first loop test.
Verify that the source reaches OBS output
Before involving YouTube, decide what you can actually see in OBS. If the preview stops, goes blank or changes to another scene when the file ends, stay with the source diagnosis. Recheck the source type, the correct loop control, the file or playlist path, source visibility and the end-of-playback setting.
If the preview continues from the beginning but viewers report a stop, the loop setting is probably not the first place to look. OBS has already demonstrated that the local source can play again. Investigate the path from OBS’s output to YouTube instead.
Start by watching the encoder output and the OBS statistics while the test runs. YouTube’s troubleshooting guidance recommends checking what the encoder is sending, looking at CPU load or a local archive when quality is poor, and then checking the outbound connection if the encoder output is healthy. You can also use the detailed YouTube live-stream troubleshooting page for current platform guidance.
A local recording or archive is useful because it tells you whether OBS produced the intended programme output. If the archive contains the repeated video but the YouTube playback appears interrupted, compare the timing and inspect stream health. If the archive itself has a gap, freeze or scene change, return to OBS rather than treating it as a YouTube buffering problem.
A gaming computer adds another possible layer: rendering load. A game, OBS preview, browser panels and scene sources can compete for GPU resources. OBS’s encoding and performance troubleshooting guidance recommends limiting the game’s frame rate or enabling V-Sync when GPU overload is causing rendering problems. That can help with stutter, but it does not enable a missing Loop or Loop Playlist setting.
If OBS reports no dropped frames but some viewers see buffering, do not immediately conclude that the local media source has stopped. Viewer networks and devices can produce different playback results. Check the stream delivery indicators and ask whether the interruption occurs for everyone or only some viewers. The OBS guidance on stream buffering troubleshooting explains this distinction.
For a long-running channel, write down which layer failed: source playback, OBS rendering, encoder output, outbound connection or viewer playback. That one note is more useful than repeatedly changing settings at random, especially when the stream is unattended overnight.
Retest the YouTube livestream in stages
Once the source loops in OBS, run a controlled YouTube test. You do not need to wait for a full-length gaming recording. Use a short, known-working file or a two-item playlist and watch it through one complete repeat in the OBS preview first.
Then start the YouTube broadcast and check the stream from a separate device or browser. Keep OBS visible on the originating computer so you can compare the local preview with what YouTube is delivering. If the two views diverge, note the approximate point of divergence and whether the OBS statistics show dropped frames, rendering lag or encoding strain.
Do not change several variables during this test. If you replace the file, alter the scene, install VLC and change encoder settings at the same time, you will not know which change mattered. Test the source, then the output, then the delivery path.
For a 24/7 channel, the practical question is not only whether the file loops once. It is whether the whole arrangement can recover when your computer sleeps, reboots, loses internet access or OBS stops. A local OBS setup leaves those operating tasks with you. The guide on how to make OBS restart streaming after a PC reboot covers one part of that maintenance problem.
If you do not want to leave a personal computer running for a prerecorded YouTube channel, StreamNeo removes the specific burden of keeping the playback computer on: upload the video, add your YouTube stream key, and the broadcast runs with automatic monitoring and restart when a drop occurs. It is intended for YouTube-only playback, so you should still check your content, stream settings and channel requirements yourself.
Before committing, compare the operating options on the pricing page. When the file and channel are ready, start free — 24-hour trial, no card.
FAQ
Can Game Capture loop a recorded gaming session?
No. Game Capture sends the current game output to OBS; it does not replay a finished recording. If you want recorded gameplay to repeat, save it as a local file and add it as a Media Source, or use VLC Video for a playlist.
Why does my Media Source stop after one video?
Open the Media Source properties and enable Loop. Also check that the source is visible in the active scene and that Show nothing when playback ends is not making the source disappear and appear broken.
Why cannot I find VLC Video in OBS?
VLC Video requires VLC to be installed. The OBS Project states that 64-bit OBS requires 64-bit VLC, so check that both installations use the same architecture, restart OBS after installing VLC, and test the files in VLC itself.
OBS loops, but YouTube viewers see buffering. What should I check?
First compare the OBS preview, encoder output and a local archive with the YouTube playback. Then inspect stream health, CPU or GPU load and the outbound connection; viewer-specific buffering can also depend on their network and device rather than your local loop source.