Issues with OBS Recording Clarity

1

1OG

New Member
Help!

I'm attempting to use OBS Studio to record my new podcast. For some reason, the video quality I see while recording, does not come out the same once the recording is done. It basically loses some quality. my setup is as such:
MacBook Pro Laptop, Mac OS Big Sur 11.6.7
LogiTech C922 Web Cam

Just to be clear, this is not for gaming. Help somebody!
 
L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
you ignored the one and only pinned post in this forum, so needed info not available

Basically real-time video encoding is really demanding computationally. And you are using a laptop subject to thermal throttling.. so depends on CPU, RAM, etc

And then there is the OBS recording settings you are using. You can easily record at higher settings, but your computer needs to be up to the task (and have sufficient Disk I/O and free space)
 
1

1OG

New Member
I'm not clear on what I ignored? I searched for hours and saw a forum that I thought could help. Can you point me in the right direction of who can provide paid tech support with my scenario?
 
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Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
My mistake - 5 pinned posts (not 1) in the MacOS Support forum
The important one in this case is in regards to posting your OBS log.
As for paid support, as OBS Studio is free open-source software, I'm not aware of 'officially sanctioned' support options (I could easily be wrong).
That said, asking here for consulting support, that you are willing to pay for, would be one approach to finding someone willing to help you (but you'd have to vet that person on your own... not easy when you don't know enough, hence asking for help)

if time to resolution is your primary interest, a separate post with a note about willing to pay for help, would probably be best (as many folks won't check this thread and see your comment)
If getting help from others, in whatever timeframe, works, then posting your OBS log would be a good first step

Also, if your Mac is older, or you desire higher framerates, resolution, video quality, etc, then you may benefit from optimizing your MacOS settings. for performance. Apple is famous for its eye-candy, and turning such off, and other default options which are CPU hogs and unnecessary in your situation, may help. notice all the caveats in this paragraph ... because.. what is needed, and whether it will work... depends on factors not discussed in this thread.
 
1

1OG

New Member
It seems Forums have gone to another level. I will take your advice, and appreciate you getting back. If most people won't see it, I'm glad you did.
 
L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Couple of things
1. You are recording to MP4, ignoring the big red warning about NOT doing that. I don't help folks who do such.. so last warning. Record to MKV and remux if need be.
2. That CPU is ancient for real-time video recording. Whether it will ever work, especially at 60fps, I don't know. But it will take a decent level of Operating System and OBS expertise to pull off even 30fps
and a laptop subject to thermal throttling... ugh
3. lots of other threads explaining why not to use CBR for recording (only streaming).

but your log looks like you are getting close
- record to a recording-safe format, not MP4, and use for recording appropriate settings (not CBR)
- switch to 30fps
- don't do any re-scaling
- and to make sure disk drive isn't the issue, use System Montor to check Disk I/O. Do you have a SSD or older spinning HDD? if a HDD, a fantastic performance improvement on older PCs is upgrading to a SSD

related notes that may help

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/best-settings.140188/#post-514693 @FerretBomb comment #2
1) NEVER RECORD TO MP4 DIRECTLY, FOR ANY REASON. It is not a recording-safe format; if anything goes wrong during the recording, even for a split second, the ENTIRE recording will be corrupted and absolutely not recoverable by any means. Record to MKV, and remux to MP4 after the recording is complete from OBS' File menu, Remux Recordings.
2) Record using CQP or CRF, not CBR. CBR is only used for streaming, where the back-end infrastructure requires it. CQP/CRF are quality-target based encodes, and will use as much or as little bitrate as is needed to maintain a constant image quality. No wasting bitrate on simple/slow scenes, no choking on fast-moving or complex scenes. 22 is a good starting point. 16 will result in much larger files, but near-perfect video. 12 should only be used if you plan to edit and re-encode later, and will be VERY large. Anything lower than 12 shouldn't be used unless you know exactly why you need it, and what problems it can cause.
3) Use the Quality preset, not Max Quality. Likewise, turn off Psychovisual Tuning. Both of these options use CUDA cores, and tend to cause significant problems like encoding overload when it should otherwise not be happening.
Click to expand...

Related to # 2 above ["FerretBomb, post: 529433, member: 4349"]
Don't record with CBR or VBR, use CQP instead.
CQP is a quality-based encoding target that uses as much or as little bitrate as is needed to maintain a given image quality level.
22 is the normal 'good' point, 16 for 'visually lossless', and 12 is generally the lowest you'll want to go even if you plan to edit the video later (to cut down on re-encoding artifacts). The lower the number, the closer to 'lossless' video it gets. But below 16 the filesizes get ridiculously large very fast.
Click to expand...

koala said:
For easy setting, use simple output mode instead of advanced and choose "High Quality, Medium File Size" as quality. Or if you insist on advanced output mode, increase the cq value to get smaller files. Increasing the cq value by 3-4, you're halving the file size.
Click to expand...

koala said:
…. recording, use a quality based rate control like CQP (if you use nvenc on a Nvidia GPU) or CRF (if you use x264) or ICQ (if you use Quicksync on a Intel iGPU). CBR/VBR is for streaming only.
Click to expand...

qhobbes said:
Jun 9 2021
NVENC. Tools > Auto-Configuration Wizard

Look-ahead allows the encoder to dynamically select the number of B-Frames, between 0 and the number of B-Frames you specify. B-frames are great because they increase image quality, but they consume a lot of your available bitrate (you should use CQP for recording so bitrate is not an issue), so they reduce quality on high motion content. Look-ahead enables the best of both worlds. This feature is CUDA accelerated; toggle this off if your GPU utilization is high to ensure a smooth recording.

Psycho Visual Tuning enables the Rate Distortion Optimization in the encoder, which greatly optimizes the way you use bitrate (not sure exactly how this works with CQP, possibly same quality at lower bitrate), improving image quality on movement. This feature is also CUDA accelerated.

If you're using something that uses the GPU, such as games, don't enable those. It depends on your source.
Click to expand...

rescaling in the encoder in settings->output->streaming->rescale output. Disable this. This runs in CPU space and is a bottleneck. Instead just set your output resolution in settings->video->output resolution. This rescaling takes place on the GPU and uses next to none resources, since the GPU is specialized on that kind of operation.
Click to expand...
 
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1

1OG

New Member
This is my system. If there'e any additional advice based on seeing this, please let me know. I will be incorporating all the great advice received so far!! This will be my last attempt to make this work in my favor, as I plan to stream through OBS or another app in the future.
View attachment 85166
While its at top of mind, is it suggested to use the Auto Config Wizard? I will be incorporating all the great advice received so far!! This will be my last attempt to make OBS work for me, as I hope to stream through OBS or another app in the future. All in all, I may be upgrading my system very soon..
 
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