Question / Help Best settings for recording? (Local)

[Toxikr3]

I make youtube as well as stream(occasionally) and I want to try out OBS as a recording software.

Currently I use Fraps and it hits into my FPS quite a bit but I am still able to get good quality videos with 30fps.

What are the max settings I can get with an amd quad core 1.8ghz and 6gb ram?
I do have an integrated gfx card but I am not sure if it will effect the recording that much, its a radeon HD 4200 mobility(laptop).

I know OBS is not made for recording, but if I can achieve similar results then I'd rather use OBS.

 

[micechal]

I don't think you'll get more FPS than fraps because OBS uses a CPU heavy codec (x264). Post your full specifications, please.

 

[Toxikr3]

What specifications do you need?

 

[micechal]

Processor and graphics card model. There are many six core AMD processors.

 

[Toxikr3]

AMD Phenom II P960 Quad-Core 1.80ghz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series

Is there anything else?

I just would like to know what I can get away with in terms of quality and FPS.

 

[micechal]

It differs from what resolution do you want to achieve and what type of game do you want to record. I'd try with maybe 5000 bitrate, quality 8-10 if you want to record something static, or 5-6 when it's dynamic, for example a shooter game. Base resolution 1920x1080 (if you've got such screen) and downscale it to 1280x720 with 30 FPS. To maximize your performance you could use Game Capture source. x264 is CPU heavy, but I think your processor shouldn't have much trouble encoding such video on the default preset.

 

[Toxikr3]

Alright thanks for the help.
Also, what effect does higher/lower bitrate have on quality/fps/CPU usage?

And I will be recording a lot of dynamic content, would you recommend going to a slower preset for x264?

 

[micechal]

The best way to determine which preset you should use is to monitor CPU usage when encoding. If your processor is 'bored' with encoding (for example 40%, 60% usage) you could try using a slower preset.
Basically higher bitrate should make your quality better, but your filesize would also grow. Theoretically it shouldn't impact FPS and CPU, but in my personal opinion higher bitrate means less cpu usage (it's only my opinion). Also, afaik there's a sync problem with MP4 files in OBS.

 

[Krazy]

For local recording just use ultrafast and pump the hell out of bitrate, like 30k or higher. This will have the lowest impact on your system, but keep the quality high. You can even set custom crf settings in advanced, something like crf=10 with really high bitrate should work pretty well for local recording. Keep in mind your hard drive space, though.

 

[Lain]

Just so you know there's a bug with MP4s at the moment that will be fixed in the next test version

 

[Toxikr3]

Alright, I guess I will wait until the next version to mess around with local recording then.

And I have sufficient harddrive space so that shouldn't be a problem KrazyTrumpeter, so I'll try what you have suggested.

 

[Lain]

MP4s should be fixed in test build 6. Try it out and let me know.