# Need to reduce video file size



## BlitzGirl (Jun 14, 2020)

I've been using OBS Studio to record gameplay (creating my own "let's plays"), but my internet upload speeds are garbage (gotta love living in the USA), so any video that is 2gb or larger can easily take 12+ hours to upload. A video that is under 2gb can take 6-8 hours, but that's easy to do in the background while I have been needing to work from home during the Covid-19 quarantine. This has been extremely frustrating, as I don't enjoy leaving my laptop on for days on end without a restart. Here is a screenshot of what my Recording settings in OBS are - They are the highest settings that prevented the "encoder overloaded" message that can appear in OBS. 

's worth noting that my framerate is locked at 30fps, and in Video settings I have it downscaled to 720p.

NOTE: My CQ level has been at 25 this whole time - I only changed it to 30 today to use as a test later.


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## qhobbes (Jun 14, 2020)

If file size is the issue, use CBR or VBR.


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## BlitzGirl (Jun 14, 2020)

qhobbes said:


> If file size is the issue, use CBR or VBR.


If I recall, CBR was recommended for streaming. What's a recommended setting for CBR for recording?


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## qhobbes (Jun 14, 2020)

It depends on what you are recording and desired quality. The more action on the screen, the more bits you'll need to preserve quality but you'll have a predictable file size for the length of the recording. A file at 3,072 Kbps at 30 minutes would be 691.2 MB in size.


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## BlitzGirl (Jun 14, 2020)

qhobbes said:


> It depends on what you are recording and desired quality. The more action on the screen, the more bits you'll need to preserve quality but you'll have a predictable file size for the length of the recording. A file at 3,072 Kbps at 30 minutes would be 691.2 MB in size.


2500 kbps is the default when I select CBR in Advanced Recording settings. My videos tend to be closer to 1 hour in length.


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## R1CH (Jun 14, 2020)

I'd recommend playing around with the CQP until you get file sizes you're happy with. Using CBR can be very wasteful on low motion scenes and impact quality on high motion.


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## BlitzGirl (Jun 15, 2020)

Well I recorded gameplay today using CBR at 3000 kbps, and I'm fine with the quality and the file size, but...something made my game audio ridiculously loud, to the point where it drowned out my mic. I didn't change any audio settings, but there was a Windows update that installed today, though I don't know what it could have done.


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## lakolka (Nov 16, 2020)

I found this nice article how to shrink video size:





						How to Reduce HD/4K/8K Video File Size to 90% Smaller
					

Here you can reduce the size of HD/4K/8K videos to 90% smaller without losing quality. Start to shrink MKV, MTS, HEVC and big-sized AVI, MP4 videos for hard drive,  portable devices or webs.



					www.winxdvd.com
				



You can shrink video by 90%!
Also possible to shrink video by using some another soft - better to use Open Source soft . Ususally it is free.


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