OBS recordings can't be played back or edited - must be re-encoded to playback properly, QuickTime fails to re-encode.

[coolaj86]

I have a 2017 iMac that's fairly beefy (maxed out Radeon GPU, 32GB RAM) and it cannot play back or edit OBS recordings in any software - VLC, DaVinci Resolve, QuickTime, etc. I've tried h264 VT encoding in pretty much all of the containers - mkv, mp4, ts, etc.

h.264 VT 1440p @ 29.97 12,000 kbps + 128kbps AAC

I've tried using the same encoder for streaming and recording, and different encoders for each.

I can see previews for the files and I can kinda play them back - but the media completely freezes if I try to seek, and I can't use any NLE (Screenflow, DaVinci, etc) to edit them. They also can NOT be re-encoded with QuickTime (it will error out).

If I re-encode them using Handbrake or DaVinci's Media Manager - with seemingly all of the same quality settings - then they playback and can be edited smoothly in any NLE.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might be? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Log file: https://obsproject.com/logs/gwnkrqIf2vO_fSGf

 

[maestrostockholm]

I have experienced that 264 recorded by OBS is tricky to playback or import into Davinci Resolve. Don't know why. I got tired of it, so nowadays I'm recording in Prores with 16 bit Wav audio. Works every time. It's better quality than 264 and also less taxing on my system. Recording Prores (1080) takes around 6% of my processor while 264 takes around 16%. File file sizes are bigger of course, but I'd rather have good quality recordings that works and don't have to be converted afterwards. I've never had a crash recording so I'm sticking with mov instead of mkv, which gives me the option of recording in Prores.

 

[coolaj86]

So you select Custom Output (ffmpeg)?

My understanding was that ProRes is (literally) 100x larger. I don't know if my hard drive can hold an hour of footage at that bitrate... but perhaps I should give it a go and see.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[maestrostockholm]

Prores (1080p 30 fps) is about 1,1 gb per minute for me. Bitrate is 147000. About 4 times more than encoding with libx264 bitrate 30000, which gave me a file around 250 mb/minute.