Question / Help Variable bitrates

[nminwalla]

Hi. I'd like to use OBS to generate two sets of outputs (at the same time or separately):

1. A high bitrate encode which is stored locally.
2. A variable bitrate which is sent via RTMP to a server. Network connectivity to this server will be quite variable (it's over satellite and bitrates can go from 8 Mbps to 2 and i'd like the encoder to rachet down as appropriate).

Could you advise on whether this is possible?

 

[Boildown]

You can do two simultaneous OBS instances with "-multi" on the shortcut target, just copy OBS to another location and make a new shortcut (or do it for the 32 and 64 bit versions). "-portable" may help as well, to keep the settings saved separately. This is actually how I always stream and record OBS. Downside of course is that you're encoding twice, so its harder on your computer.

OBS isn't capable of altering its bitrate to suit network conditions. It would be really interesting if this was added in the re-write (OBS is coming out with a new version called "OBS Studio" that will allow a lot more features to be added), but I doubt its currently planned. Actually I'm not sure any encoder is capable of doing this, Adaptive Bitrate Streaming isn't quite what you described.