Question / Help Unable to select 4K recording inOBS with 4KPro Card.

[HammerGeek]

I'm a bit of a novice with OBS when it comes to detailed settings. I've got a 4KPro Elgato card and the highest resolution OBS will allow me to select is 1920x1080. I watched some YouTube videos and each of them said, "Just select a 4K recording quality like 3840x2160." However, 3840x2160 is not available to me as an option in the Video, Base Canvas drop down. All I have is 1920x1080 and 1280x720. Can anyone help me figure out what I'm missing?
My PC:
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight-Core Processor 3.70GHz
16 GB RAM
64-bit Windows 10
OBS Logs:
https://obsproject.com/logs/NcjOZIp4aGyUrvu5
I'm thankful for any help.

 

[carlmmii]

The logs show the hd60pro as set up for 3840x2160 60fps capture, so you should be fine?

For the drop-down option, normally you have to type that in explicitly. The drop-down is only propagated by whatever the device reports it is able to output, which some devices fail to do thoroughly.

 

[HammerGeek]

@carlmmii did you mean to type "hd60pro"? Because I have a 4K60Pro
Also, when I play back my recordings they do not look like they are in 4K.

 

[carlmmii]

Sorry, meant 4k60 pro.

I also just realized you were talking about the canvas, not the actual capture device's resolution. Just type in 3840x2160 for both the canvas and the output resolutions.

 

[TheKingOfPES]

Sorry, meant 4k60 pro.

I also just realized you were talking about the canvas, not the actual capture device's resolution. Just type in 3840x2160 for both the canvas and the output resolutions.

It doesn't record in 4K, it still records in 1080p with a 4K format :/

 

[carlmmii]

I don't understand what you mean by that. Did you update your canvas resolution?

 

[TheKingOfPES]

I don't understand what you mean by that. Did you update your canvas resolution?

I manually adjusted it, it's not giving me the 3840x2160 option I don't know why!
I'm playing on PS5, I have 4K 60fps TV, Elgato 4K 60 Pro, and ran through all the settings but it's still 1920x1080

 

[carlmmii]

Please post an updated log file.

 

[FerretBomb]

I manually adjusted it, it's not giving me the 3840x2160 option I don't know why!
I'm playing on PS5, I have 4K 60fps TV, Elgato 4K 60 Pro, and ran through all the settings but it's still 1920x1080

You don't need the option in the dropdown. Just click in the box, backspace over 1920x1080 or whatever, and type in 3840x2160. Do the Canvas first.

 

[TheKingOfPES]

Base (Canvas) Resolution is only giving me two options, 1920x1080 or 1280x720. I've seen many others have the 3840x2160 option, but I can only type it manually which doesn't make sense. the Output (Scaled) Resolution also gave me only two options at the beginning, but after editing the source settings of the Elgato and setting everything manually it changed and gave me the 3840x2160 option...

 

[FerretBomb]

Base (Canvas) Resolution is only giving me two options, 1920x1080 or 1280x720. I've seen many others have the 3840x2160 option, but I can only type it manually which doesn't make sense. the Output (Scaled) Resolution also gave me only two options at the beginning, but after editing the source settings of the Elgato and setting everything manually it changed and gave me the 3840x2160 option...

Your only GPU-connected monitor (according to your logfile) is 1920x1080. OBS won't show base canvases larger than your display in the dropdown to reduce the chances of new-user error, while still allowing anyone who needs a larger canvas to simply type it in.
If you had a 4K display attached to your GPU, it would list 3840x2160 in the dropdown.
Output Resolution properties are inherited from the Canvas Resolution, so will show a typed-in base canvas value in its own dropdown.

Added advice: NEVER record directly to MP4 for any reason. It is not a recording-safe format. If anything goes wrong during the recording or finalization, your entire recording will be corrupted and un-recoverable by any means. As an added bonus, most video editing software has major problems with mp4 files directly recorded by OBS. Record to MKV or FLV, and use the 'remux recordings' option under OBS' File menu to convert them to mp4 after the recording is complete.

You should also NOT record using CBR. It's only used while streaming as the infrastructure requires it. Record using CQP or CRF. They are quality-target based encoding methods, that use as much or little bitrate as is needed to maintain a given image quality. So you aren't wasting bitrate on a simple scene, or choking out and artifacting on complex or fast-moving scenes.

 

[TheKingOfPES]

Your only GPU-connected monitor (according to your logfile) is 1920x1080. OBS won't show base canvases larger than your display in the dropdown to reduce the chances of new-user error, while still allowing anyone who needs a larger canvas to simply type it in.
If you had a 4K display attached to your GPU, it would list 3840x2160 in the dropdown.
Output Resolution properties are inherited from the Canvas Resolution, so will show a typed-in base canvas value in its own dropdown.

Added advice: NEVER record directly to MP4 for any reason. It is not a recording-safe format. If anything goes wrong during the recording or finalization, your entire recording will be corrupted and un-recoverable by any means. As an added bonus, most video editing software has major problems with mp4 files directly recorded by OBS. Record to MKV or FLV, and use the 'remux recordings' option under OBS' File menu to convert them to mp4 after the recording is complete.

You should also NOT record using CBR. It's only used while streaming as the infrastructure requires it. Record using CQP or CRF. They are quality-target based encoding methods, that use as much or little bitrate as is needed to maintain a given image quality. So you aren't wasting bitrate on a simple scene, or choking out and artifacting on complex or fast-moving scenes.

I've a 4K 60fps TV connected directly to the GPU, my PC's background is running in 4K on my TV, so why it's not reading it correctly?
Output Resolution only gave me two options even after I edited the Canvas Resolution manually, it changed only after I manually edited my source settings which is the Elgato 4K 60 Pro, I'm also playing on PS5, and all my HDMI cables connected are either 2.1 or 2.0 and both of them support 4Kat 60fps... when I first installed the OBS Studio it gave me only two options to run it in which were the 1920x1080 & the 1280x720.. I think this is where the problem really is. cuz everything I have here is based on 4K resolution.

 

[FerretBomb]

04:05:59.719: Initializing D3D11...
04:05:59.719: Available Video Adapters:
04:05:59.721: Adapter 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
04:05:59.721: Dedicated VRAM: 2073288704
04:05:59.721: Shared VRAM: 4269266944
04:05:59.721: output 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1080}, attached=true
04:05:59.722: Loading up D3D11 on adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (0)
04:05:59.779: D3D11 loaded successfully, feature level used: 45056

No idea. Your log shows a single 1080p monitor only.

 

[discomuffel]

I´ve got the same issue at my PC with Nvidia GTX1080 and Samsung U28E590 (native 4k).
OBS recognized it as 1080p and offers maximum Canvas Resolution of 1440p.
Monitor is set as PnP standard Monitor in Windows 10/64bit. (OBS v26.1.1)
No way to force OBS to use this settings. Any suggestions?

 

[FerretBomb]

I´ve got the same issue at my PC with Nvidia GTX1080 and Samsung U28E590 (native 4k).
OBS recognized it as 1080p and offers maximum Canvas Resolution of 1440p.
Monitor is set as PnP standard Monitor in Windows 10/64bit. (OBS v26.1.1)
No way to force OBS to use this settings. Any suggestions?

Same as above. Click in the 'base canvas' box instead of clicking the dropdown arrow. Backspace over the text, and type in the desired resolution. This absolutely will work if you are using OBS Studio (not guaranteed to work on SLOBS, OBS.Live, or any other derivative).

 

[whizeazz]

I was stuck too... found the fix!!
Go into Settings>Stream>Service and click on Custom
Most are on Facebook which doesn't allow an output of 4K. After you switch to custom, and click apply, you can no select a higher res.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!