OBS recording questions

[peregrine]

Had to repost this because it wasn't posted up earlier

I've not been using OBS long but it's a really good program so really appreciate it being available to use. I use it for recording tennis matches which are streamed in the public domain on ITF. I do this because I love keeping a collection of some of my favourite matches. I also have a health condition which means I cannot always watch the match live so watching it later when I am able to works better for me. So this software is a godsend.

I record in 60 fps. I originally used 30 fps but found it to be not as smooth as I desired. My other recording settings are:
mp4 (Please note I use this rather than mkv because I don't have the time to reconvert files and haven't had a power cut in many years plus have a UPS so it isn't a concern)
resolution : 1920x1080. 16:9
rate control= CBR (is this okay?)
bit rate=8000 kbps (is this okay?)
CPU usage=veryfast (is this okay?)
encoder =x264 {i do have options called: Nvidia HVENC H.264(new) but not used this as don't know what it means or does}
I'll also see if I include a log file.

When i record with above settings, the file sizes are too big though. For example a 2 hour video = 7GB. The quality is very good but is there a way for me to keep good quality at 60fps and reduce file size? i.e. are the settings I am using okay or can they be altered to fit my recording requirements?

thank you

 

[koala]

When i record with above settings, the file sizes are too big though. For example a 2 hour video = 7GB. The quality is very good but is there a way for me to keep good quality at 60fps and reduce file size?

With these settings, the size is exactly what to expect.
You record 8000 kbps, 2 hours. 8000 kbps are 8000 kbit/s, which is 1000 kbytes/s. 2 hours are 120 minutes are 120*60 = 7200 s.
Thus, the resulting file size is 7200 s * 1000 kbytes/s = 7200000 kbytes = 7200 mbytes = 7.2 gig.

To reduce the file size, reduce either recording time or bitrate. Half the bitrate or half the time means half the file size.
If you reduce the bitrate, you need to also reduce the resolution to keep the same quality. For example, if your stream is only available as 1280x720, it makes no sense to record with a resolution of 1920x1080, so you can reduce both.

If you simply record some stream from some website, consider using some kind of stream downloader software instead of OBS Studio. OBS Studio is not a stream recorder. Youtube-dl might be better suited, for example. Despite its name, it is able to download from a vast amount of streaming and vod websites. Stream recorders will directly save the stream data without reencoding, so it will record exactly the quality that is sent by the stream.