Question / Help Apple Hardware encoder vs Apple Software encoder

[Narcogen]

I've always used the x264 encoder in OBS Studio, but I've just noticed that in the most recent builds of OBS, I don't even have the old "Apple VT H264 Hardware encoder" as an option-- just "Apple VT H264 Software encoder".

Has this option been removed, or renamed? Are there supposed to be both hardware and software encoders available?

 

[FreeKillZero]

I still have the "Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder" option under Settings -> Output -> Output Mode = Advanced -> Streaming Tab -> Encoder.

I tried it out for a little bit, but man… it sure puts the "Variable" in VBR. Twitch was not happy.

 

[Narcogen]

Hmm. Odd, I wonder why I don't have that option.

What GPU do you have in your machine?

 

[FreeKillZero]

It's a 2012 iMac, i7-3770, nVidia GeForce GTX 680MX.

In the context of Hardware Encoders in OBS, I was under the assumption it was referring to QuickSync in the Intel Chips rather than NVENC in the nVidia GPU.

 

[Narcogen]

Hmm. That's possible. I went from using an i7-3770 Hackintosh that probably could have used QuickSync, but MacOS might not have been aware of it.

Now I'm on an old Mac Pro with Xeon CPUs and an AMD RX580, so it's possible that there's nothing there for the encoder to use. A shame, I guess. I'll check against an iMac next time I can.

 

[Chidorin]

Only "i" macs have quicksync, xeons made without it as it has more than 4 cores which will be faster and better in software compared to qsv today capabilities

 

[reubenlara]

I still have the "Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder" option under Settings -> Output -> Output Mode = Advanced -> Streaming Tab -> Encoder.

I tried it out for a little bit, but man… it sure puts the "Variable" in VBR. Twitch was not happy.

Hey there! Just seeing this thread. I'm still running an iMac like what you mentioned, streaming to YouTube Live.
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2 GB

My last stream (which was my first one ever) totally overloaded my CPU, could barely draw on my Cintiq. I had a Skype guest feeding in as well. The Encoder was set to "x264". Do you recommend I switch to "Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder"?

Thanks!

 

[faithj]

Hey there! Just seeing this thread. I'm still running an iMac like what you mentioned, streaming to YouTube Live.
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2 GB

My last stream (which was my first one ever) totally overloaded my CPU, could barely draw on my Cintiq. I had a Skype guest feeding in as well. The Encoder was set to "x264". Do you recommend I switch to "Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder"?

Thanks!

Definitely. x264 uses your CPU while the Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder uses your GPU

 

[reubenlara]

Definitely. x264 uses your CPU while the Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder uses your GPU

Thanks for the response! I keep reading everywhere that the "Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder" is variable rate and creates a mess of the stream. Am I understanding that correctly?

On my last run, the x264 worked great when i did "Unlisted" YouTube Live tests, but then we we actually went live it was kind of a nightmare on my CPU load.

 

[FreeKillZero]

Not sure, since I don't stream to YouTube Live, but variable rates aren't inherently bad. When I tried it last, Twitch kept sending me warnings that their systems do not like variable rates and to use a constant bit rate, which (at the time 2 years ago) was only available on x264. If YouTube Live is fine with VBR, by all means, use it. Just keep in mind it doesn't have as many user-facing adjustable quality settings compared to x264.

I've since moved on from that iMac to a Hackintosh.

 

[jdvanci]

I am trying to stream a live webinar on Youtube, using OBS software. I intend to stream a desktop application + webcam data.

My hardware setup is as follows: Macbook Pro 15inch 2017, 2.9 Ghz, Quad core i7, 16Gb ram, with Radeon pro 560 4Gb, and Intel HD Graphics 630 1.5Gb.

I am getting a 'recieving low video data from streaming source' message on Youtube. There is a lot of lag in the video data recd by Youtube from the streaming source.

I tried using Apple VT Hardware enc as well as the x264 encoder.

I understand that the Apple VT Hardware encoder is using the built-in Intel HD Graphics card.

1. How can we configure it to use the other built-in Radeon pro 560 graphics card?

2. Is there any other free and reliable solution that someone has successfully utilised within the specified hardware?

3. There is a lot of hissing fan noise from the laptop which gets captured in the stream. Is there any solution for reducing the fan noise?

PS: Note this is a Macbook Pro laptop, and not a Windows system.

Pls advise.