Question / Help My recording is never good, suspect of dropped frames

[Perene]

This is my log

https://obsproject.com/logs/96dJ6rHc1_im3XSP

I am trying to record to my local drive (SSD WD Blue 1 TB). Windows 10-64 bit being used.

However Metal Gear Solid for PC (HD version) always appears to have dropped frames. I don't know if this is the case or I am expecting too much. What I can tell is that the recording doesn't appear smooth at all, at least in a few moments.

Maybe it's just me, but I think something might be harming the final result. Can you tell me if this is OK? What can cause dropped frames? My PC is a Core i7 4770, 16 GB of DDR-3 RAM, video card is AMD Sapphire Radeon R7 265.

Download the file I recorded here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aflcl6x7xvdrqdw/RECORDING-MGS.mp4?dl=0

What are the best settings for the best picture possible? Audio is already at 320 kbps.

Again: this is not a streaming, I am recording to my local C:\. And the SSD is the only drive in this computer.

 

[Narcogen]

14:10:28.580: [x264 encoder: 'recording_h264'] preset: faster
14:10:28.581: [x264 encoder: 'recording_h264'] settings:
14:10:28.581: rate_control: CBR
14:10:28.581: bitrate: 15000

Don't use CBR for recording. It's mostly for streaming. Use CRF rate control and a quality setting. 15 is usually very good. There is a simple mode output setting for "indistinguishable quality, large file size" that you can use as long as you don't need multiple audio tracks.

It looks like it has dropped frames because it does:

14:16:32.707: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 1050/21843 (4.8%)

https://obsproject.com/wiki/GPU-overload-issues

14:10:21.909: output resolution: 1920x1200
14:10:21.909: downscale filter: Lanczos
14:10:21.909: fps: 60/1
14:10:21.909: format: NV12
14:10:21.909: YUV mode: 709/Full

You might want to either go down to 720p or drop to 1200p30 to alleviate the rendering lag.

You probably also want 709/Partial and not 709/Full. Even if it looks better to you on your display, it will probably look worse for many others on theirs:

https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...t-color-range-settings-guide-test-charts.442/

 

[Perene]

I followed your advice and now it appears there are no more skipped frames.

https://obsproject.com/logs/xEPi4MDjkW09k14-

Used CRF 15 and changed YUV to 709-partial. The bittrate used is now more or less 5 MB/s. Filesize would be aprox. 1.5 GB for every 1 hour. It's a lot less than what I got with FRAPS, which saved aprox. 15 hours of this game using 95 GB, still I don't see any noticeable degradation in the image with the current settings. I knew FRAPS was overkill and it's been outdated for many years, I also had to give up using due to issues with modern video editors and the need to record multiple times and merge the results, which is a lot easier with OBS.

I believe if I record the same 15 hours again it would take 20-25 GB. I didn't reduce the settings because I want a recording with the best quality possible, for both image and audio, which may or may not be possible with this old setup.