Best Magewell NDI Encoder for OBS Studio

What is NDI and why does it matter for OBS?

NDI (Network Device Interface) is a royalty-free protocol by NewTek that lets video devices share streams over a standard IP network. OBS Studio supports NDI as a source — meaning you can bring in a camera or encoder feed from anywhere on your network without a physical cable run.

Magewell's Pro Convert and Ultra Encode product families are the gold standard for NDI encoding in professional workflows. They convert SDI, HDMI or USB sources to NDI over Ethernet — and OBS can receive those streams as NDI sources instantly.

Which Magewell product for NDI + OBS?

OBS NDI Setup — Quick Workflow

Do I need an NDI licence?

Magewell Pro Convert devices include full NDI encoding — no separate licence required. OBS NDI plugin is free and open source.

What latency should I expect?

Pro Convert devices typically achieve 1–3 frames of latency over a local gigabit network. For camera confidence feeds, this is imperceptible.

Do I need PoE+ switches?

Pro Convert devices are PoE+ powered — a PoE+ switch or injector eliminates the need for a separate power supply. Standard PoE (15W) is not sufficient.

Can I use NDI HX to reduce bandwidth?

The Ultra Encode AIO supports NDI HX — a compressed variant that uses less bandwidth, useful over Wi-Fi or WAN links. Pro Convert uses full-bandwidth NDI.