Question / Help "Starting the output failed. Please Check the log for details"

[david.coneff]

I recently moved from using a laptop as my main computer to a desktop.
The new desktop has 8GB RAM, where as the older laptop had 16GB RAM.

I get this error just trying to start OBS recording with nothing else open at all. I've seen some other posts regarding this that say reserved RAM can be an issue (e.g., Adobe software reserving 20GB + even if it is not using it), however I didn't see any definite advice on how much I should be making sure to keep free for OBS.

My goal is to record locally 1080p60 of either gaming or desktop tutorials. At the moment however, it doesn't matter which encoder I pick - x264 or NVENC - in either case I'm unable to start a recording at all. Do I just need more RAM or is this possibly something else?

 

[koala]

According to the log, your configuration references a Quicksync encoder, which is not present on your current machine. Selecting a different encoder such as x264 or nvenc (which your desktop GPU supports) is the right way. If this doesn't work, you perhaps changed the encoder in the wrong configuration tab. In Settings->Output, there is a tab for streaming and a tab for recording. It might be that you changed the encoder in one, but not in the other.

The amount of available RAM is not relevant for OBS, as long as you don't use the replay buffer feature.