OBS Classic OBS-Classic: How to make high quality local recordings

[Boildown]

Does anyone have any experience they can share with using Constant Quantizer mode instead of Constant Rate Factor? I read that CRF takes away bits from high action scenes because its less visible. Which is great for a movie. But I'm wondering if its not so great for a first person shooter recording that I intend to edit later and I want my audience to see the fast action scenes as clearly as the slow action scenes.

If no one has tried it, I'll just do it and report back, but would like to get some input first if anyone has used it before.

 

[Boildown]

Well I've been using Constant Quantizer mode for a few days now and it works. It would be difficult for me to rate one way higher than the other because I capture at high enough quality that its nearly "transparent' anyways. I do think it records a bit more data (larger file sizes) for the same quality number. The files load fine in Vegas, which is my only other real requirement for them.

I believe I'll use it until I find a reason not to.

 

[dinksy]

Im interested in making local recordings that are ready for youtube with the settings youtube recommends :

2 consecutive B frames
Closed GOP. GOP of half the frame rate.
CABAC

At the moment my only custom setting is crf=16
To add more to that line should i use punctuation or just crf=16spacebframe=2 and so on. Dont know the commands to enable CABAC and closed GOP of half the frame rate. Help

 

[Boildown]

This is only important if you plan to upload directly to YouTube without any editing and re-encoding.

If that's true, then yes, bframes=2 (its plural) in addition to your crf=16 on the advanced page custom settings line, separated by a space. Also make sure you don't use UltraFast, because its the only preset that doesn't use CABAC. All x264 presets use Closed GOP by default, so no worries there.

Closed GOP of half the frame rate - I'm having trouble with. I think this refers to the key interval. Twitch for example wants a key interval of twice the framerate. This indicates YouTube wants a key interval of half the framerate. You can use keyint=x , where x = half your framerate, to set that. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Note: the UI won't let you set key interval to a half-second, so you have to do it manually, which means if you ever change framerates, you'll have to update your keyint=x line.

One more thing: Be damned sure you always have CFR (constant frame rate) on. Even though YouTube doesn't tell you, it wants it on.

 

[dinksy]

thx boildown that was very helpful! I was experimenting around and i think the CFR was the thing i was missing ;)

On an unrelated note, if i want to control the size of my video (i.e max 8000 kbps for a standard fullhd youtube vid) :
when i set buffer !=0 does the advanced settings like crf=16 get into consideration or just ignored if the specified bandwidth is not enough to achieve the crf and defaulting back to quality 10 crf=22 ?

 

[leviatan1]

HELLO, i have read all the post, i have a phenom 2 x4 970 BE, while im recording and playing the game i dont have fps drop, but my videos all of them when i play them, they just have moments of frozen image. like 1 or 2 sec of cropping. do you understand me?

My cpu usage never reach 85% so i don't get why is this happening, can you help me?

 

[Boildown]

On an unrelated note, if i want to control the size of my video (i.e max 8000 kbps for a standard fullhd youtube vid) :
when i set buffer !=0 does the advanced settings like crf=16 get into consideration or just ignored if the specified bandwidth is not enough to achieve the crf and defaulting back to quality 10 crf=22 ?

Um, I'm not sure about that. I thought there was a way to use a CRF up to but not above a certain bitrate, but I don't know how to do it. You might search around the x264 wiki or the Doom9 forums. Be sure you've searched plenty before you ask the question there though, its probably been asked/answered before.

 

[Boildown]

HELLO, i have read all the post, i have a phenom 2 x4 970 BE, while im recording and playing the game i dont have fps drop, but my videos all of them when i play them, they just have moments of frozen image. like 1 or 2 sec of cropping. do you understand me?

My cpu usage never reach 85% so i don't get why is this happening, can you help me?

You should post this on the Help forum and include a log file.

 

[leviatan1]

A log ile of what? i don't have any error during recording. just the video output is cropped

 

[dodgepong]

An OBS log tells you if there's anything wrong with your capture setup. Follow this guide to get a log and then make a new post in Questions and Help: http://obsproject.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97

 

[lastzombie]

Hello everyone long time streamer and lurker here first time poster :D
I have decided to start shooting videos for YouTube so i need a bit of advice. I have 2600k (oced to 4.2 if it makes a differance) 8 gb ram and two ati 6950(modded as 6970).

I am setting up my local recording settings and used the guide on the main page but it seems like i am missing out on something because my 1080p@30fps video doesn't seem as fluent as my streams which i do at 540p@60fps (i have good internet but no partneship so cannot use high bitrates). And I know they can't be the same but just throw some ideas at me please. I am not dropping any frames but Darksiders II is not as fluent as i have it on my screen. Can send you some samples if needed.

my settings
bitrate 1000 buffer 0
quality 10
cbr off
audio bitrate 320
keyframe rate 2
crf:16
preset: veryfast (normally i use faster)
video:1080p 30 fps

 

[Krazy]

Well...they don't look as fluid because you are encoding at only 30fps instead of 60fps like on your stream. I would actually recommend downscaling to 720p and doing 60fps.

 

[lastzombie]

that is the most reasonable way to go but for some reason i want that 1080p :D Probably go with 720p@60fps as suggested if there is no solution for it.

 

[ThoNohT]

This thread is about local recordings, you don't have to care about bitrate then, just pump it up.
If you want to stream at the same time, then this doesn't belong in this thread. But you might want to wait a while until it's possible (speculation, not promising anything here) to have two different encoders working at the same time.

 

[Krazy]

that is the most reasonable way to go but for some reason i want that 1080p :D Probably go with 720p@60fps as suggested if there is no solution for it.

Then again, if you are just going to be uploading these to YouTube, which doesn't even allow 60fps, it's probably fine to just record at 1080p30fps. It's just never going to look as smooth as a 60fps encode.

 

[lastzombie]

i have tried bandicam after some consideration for darksiders II it more smooth even with 30 fps vs 720@60fps i think game source on obs is not very compatible with darksiders or my cf setup is causing a problem.

 

[zwair]

So i decided to do some recordings of my wow guilds boss kills, and so i followed this guide. My local recordings look great, however when im uploading my rendered video to youtube, it has rather poor quality i think.
Im using Sony Vegas to render 1080p@30fps, field order: none (progressive scan). I've tried both constant bit rate anything from 4mb to 36mb. That goes for variable bit rate aswell, i've tried several ways, but havent quite found a way to improve it to my likings.
If anyone could help me out, that would be much appreciated! :)
Heres a youtube video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDGfj-aRxxw

 

[Krazy]

Well, do remember that youtube processes every video uploaded to their own settings, so that's as good as you are going to get. Frankly, that video looks nice and clear, to me :X I mean, obviously when you're running around and having to move your in game camera around a lot, things are going to pixelate with YouTube's settings, but there's not a ton you can do there other than try to train yourself not to move your camera around too much while playing.

 

[Boildown]

Im using Sony Vegas to render 1080p@30fps, field order: none (progressive scan).

Seeing how you're re-encoding your files, this is a Sony Vegas problem, not an OBS problem, as Vegas is the last program to encode the files before you upload to YouTube.

The best way to use Vegas for editing gameplay videos is to capture to disk with OBS at as high quality as you're willing to go. Do your editing in Vegas, then render as an uncompressed AVI. The resulting file will be huge, its called an "intermediate" file, and it can be hundreds of gigabytes in size. It will increase in size directly proportionally to the length of your video (for a given framerate and resolution) because its uncompressed, so make sure you have a lot of empty space on your hard drive.

Once your intermediate file is created, you're done with Vegas, now use Handbrake with the intermediate file as your input. Go to the advanced settings in Handbrake and set all the H.264 settings that YouTube wants that I previously posted in this thread along with a reasonable CRF. The resulting file will essentially be as high quality as you can get. Upload to YouTube, and once you verify that it worked out correctly, you can delete the intermediate file and get your hard drive space back.

Here's a YouTube video showing the workflow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=rWMX5lSvEgY . The only difference in what I do is that I don't use DNxHD for my intermediate file, I use lossless AVI. If you're short on hard drive space, the DNxHD method will make your intermediate file smaller.

 

[Jack0r]

Well instead of doing the uncrompressed rendering I normally just setup the necessary youtube settings in Vegas. But do not forgot to deactivate the smart resample or whats it called for ALL of your videofiles in vegas. The resampling of vegas is just horrible, I dunno why its activated on default.