Question / Help How can I get OBS to report a recorded file's compression settings?

[crashworks]

I'm trying to configure OBS to use YouTube's recommended upload settings so that my files process faster. In particular I want to verify the more niggly configs ( GOP of 15, Chroma 4:2:0 subsampling ). I notice that some posts on this forum include a file-settings report like the one below, but after an hour of searching I can't find how to get OBS to emit it!

note: the sample below is not from my client ; I am copying an example from elsewhere on this forum

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High 4:4:4 Predictive@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=64
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 41 s 189 ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 144 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 64.168 FPS
Original frame rate : 64.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:4:4
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Full
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
DURATION : 00:00:41.188000000

The log in my obs-studio/logs directory doesn't have anything like this level of information. Where do those reports come from and how can I get one?

Also, where can I find a list of the possible "x264 options" for the Output | Advanced window? I guess it's using libx264 , but after an hour of searching I can't find any page that documents all the options truthfully, and there is no x264 executable in my OBS directory that I can invoke with x264 --fullhelp .

 

[R1CH]

You probably want something like MediaInfo: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

 

[crashworks]

You probably want something like MediaInfo: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

Yeah, that helps, although it still doesn't report GOP or b-frames (which are presumably encoder settings that don't end up in the file header).

Also, do you know where I can even configure the GOP interval in OBS? I've been tearing my hair out for an hour to find any documentation for the "x264 options" that mentions it.

The text view in MediaInfo gives me this:

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L5
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, RefFrames               : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 58 min 10 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 1 171 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 108 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 200 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:10
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.017
Stream size                              : 487 MiB (90%)
Color range                              : Limited
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.470 System B/G
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

 

[R1CH]

The GOP size is also known as the keyframe interval. This can be configured in advanced output mode, the YouTube recommendation would translate to a keyframe interval of 0.5 seconds which seems rather excessive. Under one second can only be configured under x264 options with keyint=15 (eg for 30 FPS).

I'd recommend recording to MKV instead of MP4, as those files can be processed as soon as the upload starts without additional steps. I don't think the other changes make much difference, YouTube still transcodes every upload and other than the MP4 moov atom, there isn't much that will affect the speed of it.

 

[crashworks]

Thanks, R1ch: uploading in .mkv does seem to speed up processing somewhat. I guess YouTube's "non-streamable format" complaint was due to the missing MOOV atom.