Can I have 'indistinguishable' quality and assign audio tracks?

[DigitDemon]

Hi,

Been recording on my PS5 and quality was quite bad using my Mac and HD60 X capture card. Did some reading and someone suggestion going to 'simple' settings on output for recoding and choosing the indistinguishable setting for quality and that works perfectly.

However previously I had my usb mic setup in a different audio track so that when I edit I have my capture audio and mic audio on separate channels. Switching to the simple setup seems to have lost the track ability.

So I've gone back to advanced settings in Recording by can't seem to find any settings to ensure I get high quality recordings like I do in the simple settings.

Can anyone please advise on what I'm missing.

Thanks.

 

[DigitDemon]

Hoping someone can help with the please?

 

[David Harry]

Hoping someone can help with the please?

Are you recording in OBS and then using the recording for editing? It sounds that way as you are using multitrack audio.

If so. Just go back to the way you were recording with your separate USB mic (multitrack audio) and just use a high bit rate for the recording.

Just do some quick test recordings at different bit rates until you find the quality that you are happy with.

There‘s nothing different with indistinguishable in simple mode compared to the video output in other modes. Indistinguishable is just a higher bit rate or different parameters of the same codec/s that you’d use in any other mode.

I sometimes use OBS for capturing gameplay with a UVC interface or Blackmagic interface, which I then edit and export for YouTube upload. In this instance I will use a very high encoding bit rate in OBS with multitrack audio. I then edit and mix that capture in Resolve and then export at a much lower bit rate for my upload to YouTube.

I could of course do everything in OBS and mix my audio and use a lower video bit rate and record a file that I can upload to YouTube. However, the other way of doing it using editing software to prepare the final mix etc. gives me a lot more control of the final video output and I also need to edit out parts of the recording anyway.

While using multiple encodes and decodes isn’t ideal, especially when using heavily compressed inter-frame codecs. If you record at a high enough bit rate with the initial OBS recording, this essentially reduces the effects of concatenation to such a level that it‘s almost not worth worrying about.

Depending on the Mac you are using and the version of OBS, you may want to try using one of the variations of ProRes as your initial capture codec, just make sure to use the .mov container if using ProRes.

The workflow I’ve just described will create very large files from OBS. However, these large OBS files are only intermediate files and they get deleted once the final output from the editing software has been done.

If video quality is a big concern, you may also want to think about using one of the Blackmagic Thunderbolt interfaces. These are technically better than any UVC or Elgato device in a number of ways.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[DigitDemon]

Wow Dave, thanks for the amazing answer and help, it's cleared everything up for me.

Regarding your workflow, I was noticing blocky blurry quality in high speed games, can I ask what bitrate you capture gameplay at and what bitrate you export at, presuming you're gameplay is also fast moving?

Also when you say it doesn't matter that the ProRes files are large as they get deleted after edit, is this because you're not keeping anything for possible future edits? Just thinking how to best manage my files.

Many thanks again.

 

[David Harry]

Wow Dave, thanks for the amazing answer and help, it's cleared everything up for me.

Regarding your workflow, I was noticing blocky blurry quality in high speed games, can I ask what bitrate you capture gameplay at and what bitrate you export at, presuming you're gameplay is also fast moving?

Also when you say it doesn't matter that the ProRes files are large as they get deleted after edit, is this because you're not keeping anything for possible future edits? Just thinking how to best manage my files.

Many thanks again.

Hi.

When you say blocky quality, is this in the actual capture?

Are your videos being used for uploading, YouTube for instance?

If you are uploading the video, presumably after you've done an edit, is this where you notice the blocky quality?

If the blocky quality is in the actual capture, then this will most likely be because the recording bit rate wasn't high enough. There are also certain parameters that can cause this during a recording using an inter-frame CODEC such as H.264 or H.265 (HEVC). However, the main cause is likely to be the recording bit rate not being high enough, which is especially noticeable in fast action games.

If the blocky quality is in the YouTube playback, assuming this is what you are doing. Then it's highly likely to be the same reason, the export bit rate for the upload wasn't high enough.

I'm actually testing a UVC interface that I've been sent to review, it does 1080 120FPS and can also do 1440 60FPS. I'll upload one of my tests to YouTube and post it on the forum later with a description of how I've done it. It'll be 1080 60FPS but upscaled to 4K 60FPS, I'll also do an example at some point of native 1440 60FPS. Unfortunately, like all UVC devices, you can't do 4K 60FPS, however, the UVC interface I'm testing can do 4K 30FPS.

I'll use Warzone 2 on the PS5 for the example, although there won't be any fight action as I'm crap at the game :)

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[AaronD]

Also when you say it doesn't matter that the ProRes files are large as they get deleted after edit, is this because you're not keeping anything for possible future edits? Just thinking how to best manage my files.

I keep everything, and periodically buy more hard drive space. That has come in handy several times as I often want to include bits of previous projects in a new one. My process usually doesn't produce large intermediate files though: I just take what comes from the camera's SD card (highest settings in the camera), plus a separate audio recording from Audacity in 32-bit WAV format, and use a single editing project to produce the final result. When I include bits of previous ones, I either take the original sources and re-edit from there, or re-export the old project as lossless, or use the old project file as if it were a video file as my editor supports that with limited functionality.

Sometimes I have a shot from my "potato cam" of a phone that needs to be converted to a fixed frame rate, so I'll do that losslessly which makes a big file, but those aren't very long so it still works out okay. Likewise for shots that need their timing adjusted and some extra stabilization, so I'll have an auxiliary project just to mess with the play speed of a singe shot, export that losslessly, and then import it into the main project where I add the stabilization effect.

I'm still working on a rig that I can use to produce those videos live, and not need the main editing project (the small auxiliary ones would still be necessary, to pre-produce what I show live), but I haven't quite gotten there yet. Maybe it's because I'm picky about certain things...

 

[David Harry]

BTW. Yes, I delete all the source files as I don't re-use any of them, I only keep the master output file. Common files such as stings etc. are things I keep and re-use but not game capture files. I also delete all my camera files once a project is complete, unless it's commercial client stuff, then I just back them off on to some 18TB mechanical drives that I use for long term storage or archive. All my day to day video project stuff and media drives files are done using SSDs, this is why it's impractical for me to keep most of my rushes (dailies) and HDMI capture files, as they are far too big.