Question / Help Forgot specs and can't record anymore (losing my mind)

Luca Igansi

New Member
Hey everyone!

tl;dr used to record smoothly, accidentaly messed something up and recording is almost impossible now

As you can see in this video, I used to record (not stream) very smoothly most games I tried (for example, this video settings: Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 30fps 5987kbps, Audio: AAC 48000Hz stereo 103kbps). I remember I had some trouble configuring the first time but after some researching the "ultrafast" setting change saved me.

But then I tried to set it up for streaming and messed up my previous config instead of creating a new profile (didn't realize I could do that then), and since then I haven't been able to get a single good vid. It seems it is consuming too much CPU usage right now even while recording nothing, making simple games like Baldur's Gate unplayable.

I tried to put back to ultrafast, tried to mess with every individual config, and the only thing that got decent framerate was setting the donwscale resolution to the minimum - but that's unacceptable.

Any idea what it might be? It's been months and I'm almost giving up on OBS. I have two friends that weren't able to make the software work by any means too, and it's a shame, it was so good when it worked for me :(.
 
Here you go. The only thing I forgot was to change the max bitrate back to 1000, but the performance was the same.

Code:
00:35:29: Open Broadcaster Software v0.655b - 32bit (´・ω・`)
00:35:29: -------------------------------
00:35:29: CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6400  @ 2.13GHz
00:35:29: CPU Speed: 2131MHz
00:35:29: Physical Memory:  2045MB Total, 616MB Free
00:35:29: stepping id: 6, model 15, family 6, type 0, extmodel 0, extfamily 0, HTT 1, logical cores 2, total cores 2
00:35:29: monitor 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1080}
00:35:29: Windows Version: 6.1 Build 7600 (revision 16385)
00:35:29: Aero is Disabled
00:35:29: -------------------------------
00:35:29: OBS Modules:
00:35:29: Base Address     Module
00:35:29: 00360000         OBS.exe
00:35:29: 6FE60000         OBSApi.dll
00:35:29: 726D0000         DShowPlugin.dll
00:35:29: 71E60000         GraphicsCapture.dll
00:35:29: 71E30000         NoiseGate.dll
00:35:29: 72C30000         PSVPlugin.dll
00:35:29: 72D50000         scenesw.dll
00:35:29: ------------------------------------------
00:35:29: Adapter 1
00:35:29:   Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+
00:35:29:   Video Adapter Dedicated Video Memory: 523829248
00:35:29:   Video Adapter Shared System Memory: 803792896
00:35:29:   Video Adapter Output 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1080}, attached=true
00:35:29: =====Stream Start: 2015-09-04, 00:35:29===============================================
00:35:29:   Multithreaded optimizations: On
00:35:29:   Base resolution: 1920x1080
00:35:29:   Output resolution: 1280x720
00:35:29: ------------------------------------------
00:35:29: Loading up D3D10 on NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+ (Adapter 1)...
00:35:29: D3D10CreateDeviceAndSwapChain1: Failed on NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+: 0x80004002. Trying compatibility mode
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:30: Audio Format: 48000 Hz
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:30: Audio Channels: 2 Ch
00:35:30: Playback device {0.0.0.00000000}.{052c7a0c-cb99-4d53-96c0-f2c872d98363}
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:30: Using desktop audio input: Line (M-Audio FastTrack)
00:35:30: Global Audio time adjust: 0
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:30: Using auxilary audio input: Line (M-Audio FastTrack)
00:35:30: Mic time offset: 0
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:30: Audio Encoding: AAC
00:35:30:     bitrate: 112
00:35:30: Using graphics capture
00:35:30: Trying to hook process: BGEE.exe
00:35:30: Scene buffering time set to 700
00:35:30: Using custom x264 settings: "cfr=20"
00:35:30: The custom x264 command 'cfr=20' failed
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:30: Video Encoding: x264
00:35:30:     fps: 30
00:35:30:     width: 1280, height: 720
00:35:30:     preset: ultrafast
00:35:30:     profile: high
00:35:30:     keyint: 250
00:35:30:     CBR: no
00:35:30:     CFR: no
00:35:30:     max bitrate: 8000
00:35:30:     buffer size: 8000
00:35:30:     quality: 7
00:35:30: ------------------------------------------
00:35:31: using memory capture
00:35:32: Exit signal received, terminating capture
00:35:34: FlushBufferedVideo: Flushing 23 packets over 733 ms
00:35:35: Total frames encoded: 127, total frames duplicated: 18 (14.17%)
00:35:35: Total frames rendered: 126, number of late frames: 2 (1.59%) (it's okay for some frames to be late)
00:35:35:
00:35:35: Profiler time results:
00:35:35:
00:35:35: ==============================================================
00:35:35: video thread frame - [100%] [avg time: 12.723 ms] [children: 75.4%] [unaccounted: 24.6%]
00:35:35: | scene->Preprocess - [0.0157%] [avg time: 0.002 ms]
00:35:35: | GPU download and conversion - [75.4%] [avg time: 9.588 ms] [children: 91.2%] [unaccounted: -15.9%]
00:35:35: | | flush - [2%] [avg time: 0.254 ms]
00:35:35: | | CopyResource - [89%] [avg time: 11.326 ms]
00:35:35: | | conversion to 4:2:0 - [0.212%] [avg time: 0.027 ms]
00:35:35: Convert444Thread - [100%] [avg time: 2.551 ms] [children: 99%] [unaccounted: 0.98%]
00:35:35: | Convert444toNV12 - [99%] [avg time: 2.526 ms]
00:35:35: encoder thread frame - [100%] [avg time: 6.412 ms] [children: 0.608%] [unaccounted: 99.4%]
00:35:35: | sending stuff out - [0.608%] [avg time: 0.039 ms]
00:35:35: ==============================================================
00:35:35:
00:35:35:
00:35:35: Profiler CPU results:
00:35:35:
00:35:35: ==============================================================
00:35:35: video thread frame - [cpu time: avg 7.812 ms, total 984.375 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | scene->Preprocess - [cpu time: avg 0 ms, total 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | GPU download and conversion - [cpu time: avg 4.588 ms, total 578.125 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | | flush - [cpu time: avg 0 ms, total 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | | CopyResource - [cpu time: avg 5.612 ms, total 578.125 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | | conversion to 4:2:0 - [cpu time: avg 0 ms, total 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: Convert444Thread - [cpu time: avg 2.144 ms, total 218.75 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | Convert444toNV12 - [cpu time: avg 1.991 ms, total 203.125 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: encoder thread frame - [cpu time: avg 2.253 ms, total 234.375 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: | sending stuff out - [cpu time: avg 0 ms, total 0 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
00:35:35: ==============================================================
00:35:35:
00:35:35: =====Stream End: 2015-09-04, 00:35:35=================================================
 
You don't have very much RAM, it look like.
OBS only sees 2GB, and of those 2, only 616MB was free at the time you started this log.
It looks to me like that is the issue? I don't see any of your settings that really need changing. Use Task Manager to check if maybe some background program has decided to eat up your RAM?
Also, sorry. I thought I posted this a few days ago, but must've forgot to hit "post reply".
 
Thanks dssdassw! I checked and saw that the CPU was being most "abused" by the recording, memory coming second.

Nevertheless, I used to record like that with this very same machine, just check that video above. There's probably some silly combination of configs that I have not tried and can't for the life of me find again. Any ideas?
 
Thanks dssdassw! I checked and saw that the CPU was being most "abused" by the recording, memory coming second.

Nevertheless, I used to record like that with this very same machine, just check that video above. There's probably some silly combination of configs that I have not tried and can't for the life of me find again. Any ideas?

As I don't really see anything wrong in your settings, I'm also not entirely sure what happened.
However, I do notice that OBS fails to set a custom x264 setting: you have "cfr=20" as a setting, which... doesn't make sense. What you mean is "crf=20".
Like I said before, I can't see anything up with your settings, they look quite good to me.
...though your processor is from Q3'06, you might want to look into upgrading that at some point.
Does changing the typo in your custom x264 settings change anything?
 
Goodness, I almost bashed my head on the wall thinking all my troubles were caused by a typo. But no, it wasn't the case unfortunately.

I know, an upgrade is more than necessary for a while now, I'm just shocked I was able to record perfectly and now I cannot. It has gotta be something with these configs, it's the only variable.

Well, thanks for the help anyway. I guess I'll just have to find another recording software then.
 
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