Question / Help Rendering file with any software ruins quality

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FortM

New Member
I've found a good balance for quality in my stream/recording in OBS, but when I render the file in Vegas (minor audio/video cuts) the quality always dips noticeably. I've tried a whole host of different rendering/project settings but I just can't seem to find the magic numbers to make it render a perfectly good OBS recorded .mp4 into something equally smooth.

Really hoping that someone with experience could point me towards the correct rendering settings. For vegas or potentially another program?

My obs recording settings:

Encoder x264
use CBR
enable CBR padding
Max bitrate/buffer 3000
1280x720 resolution
Filter: bicubic
60 fps
x264 preset: veryfast
profile: main
Use CFR


Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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That was my original thread, but as it turns out, a slightly choppy video output is the same with every video editor I try! I must restate- the original .mp4 OBS recording is silky smooth. The choppy output persists when I use an alternate computer to do the render/re-rendering. I have no idea what could be causing this.
 
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DryRoastedLemon

Member
The quality you get from Vegas has nothing to do with your OBS settings. That said, the OBS settings will dictate the maximum amount of quality you can get from a render. The quality of the final render is completely dependent on the codec settings you use in Vegas.

I'm personally not a big fan of the MP4 codecs that come with Vegas. No matter how high you set the bitrate, it always seems to make the videos look incredibly dark and incredibly ugly. I'm not sure why this is. The way I usually work is I render a lossless AVI using the Lagarith codec, and then I use XMedia Recode to create the final file. I create an MP4 using the x264 codec. Play around with the quality settings. I usually use CRF = 20 (Constant Quality).

I know it's suboptimal (because you have to re-encode non-losless material), but it's a pretty reliable way to create videos for YouTube. If someone has figured out a way to edit videos without having to re-encode them reliably, I would love to hear about that.
 
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FortM

New Member
Well, thanks for your post, but I'm doing something similar to that already and the result is rather confusing.

Also, I'm not sure I explained well enough what I meant by loss in quality. I'm not talking about any sort of image degradation like you mentioned; the video becomes subtly choppy, as though the framerate is taking a hit. This occurs at every quality setting, and oh boy, have I ever played around with them. No matter the end file type, no matter the bitrate, no matter the FPS setting, no matter the output template/format, this always happens.

This ALSO occurs in non-vegas editing programs I've tried, and on alternate computers.

I'm now using a workaround similar to the one you recommended, but it suggests an issue with the OBS recorded file. I'm using Handbrake to convert the OBS .mp4 file to... another .mp4 file. (H.264, constant quality 20 RF) The handbrake'd file, after being run through Vegas, suffers an almost unnoticeable quality loss, whereas the original OBS file suffers a very noticeable loss.

edit

also of note, this happens equally with recordings done at 30 fps. No worse, no better.
 
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F

FortM

New Member
Boildown said:
Don't render an .mp4 from Vegas. Set your bitrate much higher on the files you put into Vegas, then use Vegas to create a near-lossless "intermediate" file, and use Handbrake to render that file into your final .mp4.

More info in my post here: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...lity-local-recordings.12600/page-4#post-48617
(If your end result is not an upload to YouTube, then just ignore the parts that reference YT, the rest is valid).
Click to expand...

Having followed the steps you listed in your post and youtube video, the result is no increase in quality whatsoever. It may have come out a little worse, actually.

It seems that no matter the settings in vegas, the file comes out choppy. mp4, avi, mov, uncompressed 100% quality whatever. The post-vegas file, intermediate or not, comes out looking like it's 15fps.

Just to be clear, because I know someone will ask, this is not a case of my computer not being able to handle the render. I'm using an AMD Phenom II X6 + 8 gigs of ram.

edit

May have found the culprit. When recording at 50000 kb/s bitrate and running through vegas, it seems to work out fine, no quality loss. Recording the same scene at 10000 kb/s, the choppy output returns. I don't suppose there's a way around this? I was hoping to record streams with as little delay on them as possible, do some minor editing, and toss them on youtube. It seems like such a simple thing; is this simply not possible?

I suppose I'm also confused as to why a video with a 10000 kb/s bitrate can be smooth as glass before vegas, but after vegas it turns to garbage.
 
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Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
Post a log file of your OBS capture to disk.

In Vegas, for every video file you put in your project, be sure to Right Click > Properties > Disable Resample. The resampling in Vegas is horrible, never let it do resampling.

Watch the video I linked in my instruction post.

What settings did you use in Handbrake?
 
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CaptainKirk55

New Member
Having the same issues. The audio stays fine, but the visual suddenly freezes and then catches up with itself. I don't put it into any editing system. I am trying out OBS because it has much better rating than fraps, and does more. In the few 30 minute videos I record with OBS using different and more increased video settings each time I still get the freeze about every 30 seconds. I just watch them with Windows Media Player. I also can't find a resolution to this through searches so this is my last resort.

Please help!
-Kirk
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
"Kirk", make a new thread for your problem, and post a log file in it. If they're small enough, post a sample video file to a file-sharing site for us to download and look at.
 
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