Question / Help Irregular stutter in recordings (using Quick Sync)

[EncodingGuy]

Greetings. I consider myself more an advanced user and this is the first time in a long time I have to ask others on the internet about a software problem. I read the pinned threads before making this thread.

Whenever I record game footage (no streaming at all, just local recording), I can notice irregular stutter in the final recording. It doesn't have a clear time pattern, but it usually occurs at around every 20 seconds. I tried a lot of things: disabling my normal second monitor, disabling my antivirus, lowering the bitrate, setting the process priority higher, changing the encoding profile and keyframe interval, and probably other things I forgot. It got quite frustrating.

Here is the upload of an example recording I made (79s, 60 fps, 720p). The stutter occurs at 0:20, 0:42 and 1:05. I attached the log file to this post.

It would be nice if someone could help me. Thanks.

 

[EncodingGuy]

Just an update: I also tried changing the iGPU Memory in the bios settings from 64MB to the maximum of 1028MB today, which didn't help as well.

 

[dping]

Greetings. I consider myself more an advanced user and this is the first time in a long time I have to ask others on the internet about a software problem. I read the pinned threads before making this thread.

Whenever I record game footage (no streaming at all, just local recording), I can notice irregular stutter in the final recording. It doesn't have a clear time pattern, but it usually occurs at around every 20 seconds. I tried a lot of things: disabling my normal second monitor, disabling my antivirus, lowering the bitrate, setting the process priority higher, changing the encoding profile and keyframe interval, and probably other things I forgot. It got quite frustrating.

Here is the upload of an example recording I made (79s, 60 fps, 720p). The stutter occurs at 0:20, 0:42 and 1:05. I attached the log file to this post.

It would be nice if someone could help me. Thanks.

That logfile your encoder was not under any load.


Sounds odd but put both monitors on the 560 TI. second, might try a different quicksync preset. try balanced.

 

[EncodingGuy]

Both suggestions didn't help, sadly. With "put both monitors on the 560 TI" you meant enabling my normal second monitor again, right?

Edit: I also tried to record Resident Evil 5 and the stutter occurred there as well. But since it runs with the same engine and is from the same company as Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition (my uploaded sample), I now tried a whole different game with a different engine: Bioshock. Well, the stutter's there too.

Btw., changing the iGPU Memory value in the bios earlier today caused lots of problems for me. If someone sees this through Google someday: don't change your iGPU Memory value if you're not absolutely sure what you're doing. I had problems with my system memory, i.e. constant beeping from my mainboard (even before Windows booted up) and Windows crashes. It only somehow fixed itself when I ran a pass with Memtest86 (it only checked my RAM, I had no errors).

 

[EncodingGuy]

Well, now I really tried everything I could think of. I tried disabling Aero, changing to the fastest Quick Sync Preset and lowering the bitrate to low levels. Nothing helped.

So far, this has been a huge waste of my time. And I just can't find anyone else on the internet with the same problem.

Edit: This will be my last entry for some time. I tried Bandicam out, just to see if it has the same problem. Well, it does. I tried closing everything that's normally running on my system I could, but it still didn't help. I'm going kind of insane now.

 

[dping]

Well, now I really tried everything I could think of. I tried disabling Aero, changing to the fastest Quick Sync Preset and lowering the bitrate to low levels. Nothing helped.

So far, this has been a huge waste of my time. And I just can't find anyone else on the internet with the same problem.

Edit: This will be my last entry for some time. I tried Bandicam out, just to see if it has the same problem. Well, it does. I tried closing everything that's normally running on my system I could, but it still didn't help. I'm going kind of insane now.

Dont disable aero.

quicksync doesn't work well with Windows 7 btw, its a driver thing I think.

try x264 instead. set x264 preset to superfast. bitrate to 1000, buffer to 0 and keep aero enabled. post a new logfile when done.

 

[EncodingGuy]

Holy cow! I tried your settings and it still stutters! ...I'm shocked, I really am.

Here's the sample, if anyone's interested. Stutter occurs at 0:20, 0:42, 1:04. Also the logfile.

Edit: I finally know the reason for my troubles. I will comment on it tomorrow, but already in advance: Shame on you, OBS developers. You'll later know why.

 

[dping]

Holy cow! I tried your settings and it still stutters! ...I'm shocked, I really am.

Here's the sample, if anyone's interested. Stutter occurs at 0:20, 0:42, 1:04. Also the logfile.

Edit: I finally know the reason for my troubles. I will comment on it tomorrow, but already in advance: Shame on you, OBS developers. You'll later know why.

Please dont set your scene buffering to 60. set it to 700. Its not the fault of the OBS devs that cause the windows 7 quicksync drivers to have issues so I dont know what you are trying to say...

 

[EncodingGuy]

Please dont set your scene buffering to 60. set it to 700. Its not the fault of the OBS devs that cause the windows 7 quicksync drivers to have issues so I dont know what you are trying to say...

I only did what I thought you asked me to:

bitrate to 1000, buffer to 0 and keep aero enabled.

OBS set it to 60 itself afterwards, since it's probably the lowest value possible there. But yeah, I noticed now the Buffer Size option in the Encoding section.


Anyways, my problem was completely another: it was the refresh rate of my main monitor. Instead of 60 Hz, it's 59.954 Hz. Why I didn't think about it at all: Windows shows only 59 Hz and 60 Hz when I go to the monitor settings, and every time I reinstalled Windows, I thought I changed it to 60 Hz - little did I know that Windows didn't change it at all (there's even a Microsoft Support article about that). Why I never knew: All games played just fine for me.

The thing is: my monitor can't run on 60.000 Hz, whatever I do. I even tried changing the refresh rate with the Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) tool, which couldn't solve it as well - I could set my monitor's refresh rate to 60.003 Hz with it, but it seems that wasn't enough, since recordings continued to stutter. I tested it with my second monitor, and there I could finally record without any stutter.


So, why did I write "shame on you"? Because there were at least two other threads about this exact same problem. The ones I found:

• Video Stuttering at 60fps
• Stuttering at 60fps (workaround found)

From the first thread, post #11:

Ok. I thought about it again.

I'm a developer myself and I took a look at the obs source code. When creating the SwapChain, I don't see any paramter set for the refresh rate. Because of that the swapchain is probably running at what it auto detects: 59.94 fps because my monitor is running at 59.94. (NVidia shows 60, windows shows 59 and I googled why.) The main loop however is probably running full speed at 60fps.

These two parameters:

swapDesc.BufferDesc.RefreshRate.Denominator;
swapDesc.BufferDesc.RefreshRate.Numerator;

Can that be causing the stuttering? Well, since I read about ppl switching AverMedia LiveGamer HD to run at 59.94 and getting rid of the stuttering in XSplit (setting also 59.94 in XSplit itself, not just the driver)... it might be it :P ... ... because the source gives only 59 images, while OBS renders 60, rendering 1 of the 59 twice per second? because my AverMedia LiveGamer HD is running at 60 and the swapchain at 59.94 it misses a frame each second? (Is obs somehow working against the lost frame until it can't and then stutters more instead of every second once?)

The sad thing is, that I can't switch my AM LGHD to 59.94 anymore. Must have been a driver update that took away the possibility. At least I can't in VirtualDub (the option is there but it's not accepted).

I'd compile and run the code to test it myself and not just post untested thoughts -.- ... , but all I have is the express edition of VS for Windows 8 :( ... I'd also be happy if I could help with the development, but I need time to code on my own project :/ ...

I'm thankful that OBS is free and Open Source and I know that my problem is very specific and probably doesn't affect many people, but if you would have at least just mentioned Hz or refresh rate anywhere in your FAQ or your Quick Start Guide, I wouldn't have wasted almost two days of my time because of this.

Oh, and that funky problem of my mainboard beeping and Windows crashing because I changed the iGPU Memory value earlier in my stupidity? It was the RAM voltage. It was resetted (from 1.60V to 1.50V) because of the iGPU Memory value change. Nope, it was way weirder. I had to remove one of my RAM modules in the end. I even had to rewrite this post partially because my system crashed while writing it. Just for people who stumble over this when googling.

 

[dping]

I only did what I thought you asked me to:

OBS set it to 60 itself afterwards, since it's probably the lowest value possible there. But yeah, I noticed now the Buffer Size option in the Encoding section.


Anyways, my problem was completely another: it was the refresh rate of my main monitor. Instead of 60 Hz, it's 59.954 Hz. Why I didn't think about it at all: Windows shows only 59 Hz and 60 Hz when I go to the monitor settings, and every time I reinstalled Windows, I thought I changed it to 60 Hz - little did I know that Windows didn't change it at all (there's even a Microsoft Support article about that). Why I never knew: All games played just fine for me.

The thing is: my monitor can't run on 60.000 Hz, whatever I do. I even tried changing the refresh rate with the Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) tool, which couldn't solve it as well - I could set my monitor's refresh rate to 60.003 Hz with it, but it seems that wasn't enough, since recordings continued to stutter. I tested it with my second monitor, and there I could finally record without any stutter.


So, why did I write "shame on you"? Because there were at least two other threads about this exact same problem. The ones I found:

• Video Stuttering at 60fps
• Stuttering at 60fps (workaround found)

From the first thread, post #11:



I'm thankful that OBS is free and Open Source and I know that my problem is very specific and probably doesn't affect many people, but if you would have at least just mentioned Hz or refresh rate anywhere in your FAQ or your Quick Start Guide, I wouldn't have wasted almost two days of my time because of this.

Oh, that funky problem of my mainboard beeping and Windows crashing because I changed the iGPU Memory value earlier in my stupidity? It was the RAM voltage. It was resetted (from 1.60V to 1.50V) because of the iGPU Memory value change. I even had to rewrite this post partially because my system crashed while writing it. Just for people who stumble over this when googling.

I see. and note the buffering I was referring to was custom buffer in the encoding tab next to the bitrate.

 

[EncodingGuy]

Can't you just implement a function in OBS to detect the monitor's refresh rate and include it in the logs?