Can Media Files be "Pre-Encoded" for Streaming?

[n0OBStupid]

Let's assume I want to stream some pre-recorded bits of media via OBS, through something like a VLC playlist. If I knew my streaming settings ahead of time, is it possible to "pre-encode" each of clips into other files such that there will be less strain on my system when I stream them? This way, rather than the heavy lifting of trancoding when the time comes, OBS would merely "read and transmit."

I used to be rather handy with ffmpeg so transcoding is not a problem for me, I can probably bang through it. Even only partially pre-digesting these files would be great. I am a decent scripter, programming-wise.

Naturally, I know that transcoding something already transcoded inevitably results in loss of detail, so I am aware of that.

 

[koala]

It's not possible to pre-encode anything. OBS is a compositor, that means it composites the stream video from multiple sources. And composition can only take place by overlaying the raw data of every source. This will even take place if you only have a single source. Everything is read, uncompressed, composited, compressed, output.

If you used ffmpeg and transcoded something, ffmpeg did exactly the same: transcoding is nothing else than reading the original, uncompress, perform the requested transform or filter, compress, output.

If you want to lower resource demands, provide your sources in a form where it is read and uncompressed in the most resource conserving way. This could be achieved by making sure the sources can be uncompressed with hardware acceleration and they are encoded by a less complex encoder.

 

[n0OBStupid]

If you want to lower resource demands, provide your sources in a form where it is read and uncompressed in the most resource conserving way. This could be achieved by making sure the sources can be uncompressed with hardware acceleration and they are encoded by a less complex encoder.

Thank you. Do you have any specifics for that?

 

[koala]

Unfortunately, no. I learnt from some forum thread here the GPU utilization was high with some included media file, and after recoding to some other format or to the same format with other encoding settings the GPU utilization was much lower, but I'm unable remember the details. I assume, in general, the more simple the encoding format, the lower the GPU usage with hardware acceleration.