Question / Help Multi-Bit Rate Streaming/Recording

[Andy-BDE]

Hello! I was referred to the OBS software yesterday and I have to say that after a couple hours of working with it this morning I am quite impressed at its functionality. It is nearly as powerful as the Wirecast software we use to stream our live sporting events.

There is one feature missing that I'm hoping there is already a plugin for or one that could be created pretty easily: multi-bit rate capability. Basically, the ability to stream out at one bit rate and record at another. We have some facilities we work out of where the bandwidth is limited so we have to stream out at, say, 350kb in order to fit over the network, but we would like to record video files for later playback at a higher resolution, say, 2000kb.

Wirecast has the ability to set one rate for streaming and one rate for recording. That is all we're looking for. Everything else (including the replay buffer which Wirecast does not offer) is fantastic. Many thanks to anyone that has this plugin available or could create it!

 

[rangerrambo]

That is exactly what I am trying. Use the -multi switch when starting obs, open 2 instances, make a new profile name it your recording profile or whatever and change the settings on it. That should be it.

I tested this with x264 and it works. Now I am trying to have 2 different encoders, x264 for streaming and quicksync for recording and that is giving me a bit of headache.

 

[Andy-BDE]

Thanks for the reply! My only worries with using 2 instances of OBS are that 1) the CPU load would be too intensive running 2 instances at once and 2) that there might be device confusion if both instances are trying to access the same devices (e.g., a digital camera). Are these worries unfounded?

 

[rangerrambo]

I would say try it out and see how it will be. I was able to do get it working before format, but now I can not make it work.

This was the load:

 

[Boildown]

For Quicksync I've seen a hangup when people attempt to use the Intel GPU for both the graphics processing and the encoding. If you're using the Quicksync encoder, then use a dedicated GPU for the graphics processing for best results. According to many forum problem posts that I've seen at least, I don't use Quicksync myself.

I do however use NVEnc for local recording and x264 for streaming at the same time, and it works great.

A good guide for setting up multiple bitrates is here: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...tream-and-record-at-different-qualities.15861