How can i find the perfect settings according to the performance of my laptop?

idegen

New Member
I just want to record my google meets classes. I attached a print screen about my settings. When i play my videos, the sound is good but the video is just not moving.. Maybe 1 frame per MINUTE.. what should i do to find the balance? i guess my computer is weak for these settings.
These are my specs:
Acer Aspire V15
15,6" HD 1366 x 768
Intel® Core™ i5-6300HQ Quad Core
20GB DDR4
1TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 950M 2GB

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FerretBomb

Active Member
Tools menu, Auto-Configuration Wizard.
That will give you a solid starting baseline. After that, it's all trial and error; there are no unilateral 'best settings' for given hardware, or they would be included in the ACW.

One thing up front, as the orange warning message states, you should NEVER record to MP4 directly. It is NOT a recording-safe format; if anything goes wrong during recording, the ENTIRE recording will be lost, and 100% un-recoverable by any means. A pile of digital garbage, which the only thing you can do with is delete it.
Record to MKV or FLV, both of which are recording-safe. If you NEED mp4 files, use the 'Remux Recordings' option in the File menu after the recording is complete. It takes seconds to re-wrap.
 

idegen

New Member
Tools menu, Auto-Configuration Wizard.
That will give you a solid starting baseline. After that, it's all trial and error; there are no unilateral 'best settings' for given hardware, or they would be included in the ACW.

One thing up front, as the orange warning message states, you should NEVER record to MP4 directly. It is NOT a recording-safe format; if anything goes wrong during recording, the ENTIRE recording will be lost, and 100% un-recoverable by any means. A pile of digital garbage, which the only thing you can do with is delete it.
Record to MKV or FLV, both of which are recording-safe. If you NEED mp4 files, use the 'Remux Recordings' option in the File menu after the recording is complete. It takes seconds to re-wrap.
I already tried the wizard but it wants to do this:
Screenshot_5.png
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so if it will save my video in 480 instead of 1080 that is horrible. i wish i could find another way around this without ruining the resolution.


Ill try recording in mkv, i hope that can fix my problem! thanx
 
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Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Real-time video encoding is really demanding on a PC. and you have a lower-end system for that, so you are going to have to compromise

You also have a problem as your are recording to a HDD, vs something much faster (have you tried a SATA SSD and seen if that makes a difference?) Have you turned off all unnecessary background tasks (ie unneeded chat/conference apps, etc ie all that standard auto-start garbage). Now, a HDD that doesn't have a lot of other activity should be able to handle the datastream associated with recording the video ok, BUT, other background OS activity and or settings, or AV solutions, etc could limit your data writing throughput (and therefore resolution)

For security reasons, I never recommend running OBS as an admin, but in your case, you might need to

10:01:52.902: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 113746/123374 (92.2%)
so you are asking too much of your PC

So do you really need a ultra-wide screen capture? or maybe only capture a window (like 1/2 that width or less)?
I'm guessing you don't need slow mo, so stick with 30fps... maybe try 15 fps? assuming audio more important that video..
Rescaling video base canvas vs output resolution cause extra GPU work (which your system obviously isn't up to the task of). s maybe try creating a base canvas and output resolution at similar 720p size, use Windows capture and make it fit inside that resolution? just an idea
 

FerretBomb

Active Member
You can always try swapping over to NVENC if your 950M supports it. I can't find it on the NVENC support matrix (the 950 is there, but not the 950M that I can see, I'm not sure if they make that distinction). Otherwise... yeah. That system is kind of on the weaker side. You could try dropping to 5fps (or even 1fps) if you're just recording a slideshow and the audio along with it.

For security reasons, I never recommend running OBS as an admin, but in your case, you might need to
I disagree strongly with this. Running OBS as Admin is very commonly recommended, to allow the GPU priority workaround to be active. I run it that way myself, as realtime prod needs as much safety margin as possible. The biggest down side is that if the OBS window is in focus and running as Admin, it will prevent hotkeys being used in other programs (like music players). An inconvenience at best.
From a pure-security perspective it'll be great when GPU-P escalation requirements are moved to be installer-only, yes.
 

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
I disagree strongly with this. Running OBS as Admin is very commonly recommended, to allow the GPU priority workaround to be active. I run it that way myself, as realtime prod needs as much safety margin as possible. The biggest down side is that if the OBS window is in focus and running as Admin, it will prevent hotkeys being used in other programs (like music players). An inconvenience at best.
From a pure-security perspective it'll be great when GPU-P escalation requirements are moved to be installer-only, yes.

I understand. Though you are referencing a config where GPU contention is an issue (such that prioritization is needed). Personally, I'm not dealing with such (and there are plenty of uses that are in similar situation), therefore running OBS as admin is both unnecessary and an inappropriate compromise of system security.
So I stand by my comment, on OP's setup where contention is absolutely going to be an issue (if it can work at all), then prioritization workaround most certainly going to be required.
But if you don't need to run as Admin (and plenty of people don't), then it is a bad idea. I do realize that many gamers, playing more demanding titles, may well fall into the 'desire/need to' group. But plenty of OBS users are NOT gamers, and such advice is misguided (at best) if applied to them. Running OBS as admin is a security-compromised workaround for an underpowered system. period. So it may be common in environments trying to exact every last bit of performance, but that doesn't make it a good practice or somethign that should generally be recommended.

If one's focus is max performance, then that may lead in one direction. If one's focus is on stability, reliability and consistency, then that often means not making some of the same compromises. I'm reminded of when people pursued max engine performance in a car, and pointed to what folks racing would do. But then ignore that F1, NASCAR etc teams would have to rebuild an engine after every race ... ie don't ignore/be oblivious to the downside to the pursuing that max performance. Advising folks to run OBS as Admin and not warn them of the downside/potential consequences, seems irresponsible to me

If one is following standard end-user advice and NOT running as local admin (true since we left the DOS based era with WInNT), the security implications of running end user code, especially with something actively communicating over the Internet (and in this case often using 3rd party plugins of various quality), the security implications of running OBS as admin is NOT trivial. I haven't been running as a local admin for around 25 years. If you think that is overkill, attending a few FBI or similar security briefings in the last 10 years and would have changed your mind
 

FerretBomb

Active Member
I understand. Though you are referencing a config where GPU contention is an issue (such that prioritization is needed). Personally, I'm not dealing with such (and there are plenty of uses that are in similar situation), therefore running OBS as admin is both unnecessary and an inappropriate compromise of system security.
...
But if you don't need to run as Admin (and plenty of people don't), then it is a bad idea. I do realize that many gamers, playing more demanding titles, may well fall into the 'desire/need to' group. But plenty of OBS users are NOT gamers, and such advice is misguided (at best) if applied to them. Running OBS as admin is a security-compromised workaround for an underpowered system. period. So it may be common in environments trying to exact every last bit of performance, but that doesn't make it a good practice or somethign that should generally be recommended.
...
In a production environment where a second take is not possible, such as when recording one-time events, or when performing live (as on a livestream) it is justified to take all precautions against performance issues, even if they normally are not necessary.

If running SOME processes as administrator was not warranted, the option would not exist. Yes, running ALL processes as Admin is an awful idea and outside good computing hygiene, but for mission-critical processes, is definitely best-practice IF that additional margin cannot be established in a non-escalated process. Which the OBS devs are trying to do. Until then, preemptive escalation is still a very good idea if your focus is on making certain that your stream/recording has NO problems, the first time.

Before I became a full-time livestreamer, I was a network engineer and infrastructure support technician. I worked in a NOC that provided service to major US banks, and credit cards. Trust that I am well-versed.
 

idegen

New Member
10:01:52.902: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 113746/123374 (92.2%)
so you are asking too much of your PC
what what is this? did you see this in the log i attached?

i am recording it to an SSD, but i might not need to record the full wide screen. i need a:
- chrome tab with google meets.
-chrome tab for google translate
-ms word (for notes)
-whatsapp for additional files my teacher sends me

i like to spread these all across my screens, but ill try to just record one session on my laptop only, without the wide screen.
can you help me out with this?
Screenshot_10.png

should my cpu usage stay on medium?
should i change my crf value or my rate control?
can you recomend something?
 

R1CH

Forum Admin
Developer
Why on earth do you have a canvas size of 4480x1080 when your screen is only 1366x768? Recording all your monitors at once on a lower end laptop is not going to work.
 

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Before I became a full-time livestreamer, I was a network engineer and infrastructure support technician. I worked in a NOC that provided service to major US banks, and credit cards. Trust that I am well-versed.

I completely understand and agree that context and use case are critical to make such decisions. And there is user training/expertise in dealing with consequences of those choices.

As for being well-versed, I've been an IT Pro since '96 (PC expert since mid 80's) and for last ~10 years as Enterprise Architect (Infrastructure and Security) for a large (over 60K employees) global company. Prior to that I was server admin, handling thousands of servers. I've designed, installed, and managed FDA 510K regulated servers handling medical device in hospitals. And I do network work as well (I ran my own CAT5e in my house). I've managed corporate firewalls, VPN, etc. Yes, I know what I'm talking about.

In certain use cases, I don't disagree with running OBS as admin. But regularly... not a chance.. and recall, for original poster, for recording Google Meet class.... on PC with single storage device, etc.... lots of single points of failure... so lets get real. The reason for OP to run OBS as admin is older, low-end hardware and contention issues, not because it is a good idea

You mention one a certain use case (though I'd argue, if that critical, simply a more powerful PC is warranted, and some other redundancy) ... though again, depends on specifics and level of OS expertise. For 'mission critical', I'd be using NDI feeds to multiple targets, protected power, redundant LAN and WAN circuits on physically divergent path if at all possible, etc... yea, I've worked on medical device mfg plant network design, and others where downtime not acceptable). And for OBS streaming important single take events, there is the associated expertise in understanding and configuring the OS optimized for purpose, including making sure that unexpected tasks/processes don't kick off unexpectedly during a streaming/recording session.
For general user, and without a warning of potential implications (like security context of browser windows, 3rd party plug-ins, etc all without any, or much, code security review), generally recommending running OBS as admin strikes me as irresponsible/inappropriate (or a punt). My use case is livestreaming House of Worship, so also single take. Running OBS as admin on a dedicated, properly built for purpose streaming PC where there is plenty of resource headroom as-is (not even close to reaching any resource contention issues) and OS is properly configured, would be counter-productive/pointless.

So you can disagree strongly all you want, but you appear to be projecting your use case onto others and not providing a warning. So on this we'll disagree. In many other respects, I value your input regarding OBS to this community, and will usually defer to you and your OBS expertise
 
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