Question / Help Video Formats that survives after crash.

JunZhi

JunZhi

New Member
Recently, the need for me to record using OBS has increased and there are a few files that somehow failed the encoding or something failed, resulting as failed files. Now, two files of 1 hour each had failed and I am searching for formats that won't brick themselves even encoding failed. Any suggestions?

Format used: .mp4
Encoder: h264_nvenc
 
MKV if you need multi-track audio, FLV if you only need a single audio track. On a crash with either of these you may lose a second or two at the end. It's why they're the default format, and why an orange warning message pops up when you switch to mp4 warning you not to record to mp4.

MP4 should NEVER be recorded to directly. As you've discovered, it is not a recording-safe format, and many editors have problems with the mp4 files that OBS creates when recorded direct anyway. Just record to MKV, then go you OBS' File menu, Remux Recordings to convert them to mp4s. You can also automatically remux at the completion of a recording by ticking a checkbox in Settings->Advanced.
 
FerretBomb said:
MKV if you need multi-track audio, FLV if you only need a single audio track. On a crash with either of these you may lose a second or two at the end. It's why they're the default format, and why an orange warning message pops up when you switch to mp4 warning you not to record to mp4.

MP4 should NEVER be recorded to directly. As you've discovered, it is not a recording-safe format, and many editors have problems with the mp4 files that OBS creates when recorded direct anyway. Just record to MKV, then go you OBS' File menu, Remux Recordings to convert them to mp4s. You can also automatically remux at the completion of a recording by ticking a checkbox in Settings->Advanced.
Click to expand...

I tried using .mkv but it hits my sad little CPU hard (~30% reported in OBS) and always hit 100% when recording, while recording to .mp4 largely reduces load (~10-15% reported in OBS) and I can do some other stuff with my laptop (All settings remain the same but i changed only the file format). Is there any fix to this? Seems like I need to record with my laptop but hope for it to not crash at the wrong time :)
 
MP4 and MKV use the same videostream, there should be zero additional CPU load regardless of format, as it's literally using the same encoder for both. Also why it's so fast to remux, as it's just changing the wrapping container.

MP4/MKV are simply container formats; MP4 stores its indices and metadata in an atom at the END of the file, why if the recording is interrupted at any point before it's finalized, the whole file will be unusable, irrecoverable garbage.
Give FLV a try if you like, that one should actually have less CPU load, just because it only supports one audio track.
 
FerretBomb said:
MP4 and MKV use the same videostream, there should be zero additional CPU load regardless of format, as it's literally using the same encoder for both. Also why it's so fast to remux, as it's just changing the wrapping container.

MP4/MKV are simply container formats; MP4 stores its indices and metadata in an atom at the END of the file, why if the recording is interrupted at any point before it's finalized, the whole file will be unusable, irrecoverable garbage.
Give FLV a try if you like, that one should actually have less CPU load, just because it only supports one audio track.
Click to expand...

True though, I am wondering why OBS hit my CPU that hard when recording to MKV, I will give FLV a try later. Thanks for your help.
 
FerretBomb said:
MP4 and MKV use the same videostream, there should be zero additional CPU load regardless of format, as it's literally using the same encoder for both. Also why it's so fast to remux, as it's just changing the wrapping container.

MP4/MKV are simply container formats; MP4 stores its indices and metadata in an atom at the END of the file, why if the recording is interrupted at any point before it's finalized, the whole file will be unusable, irrecoverable garbage.
Give FLV a try if you like, that one should actually have less CPU load, just because it only supports one audio track.
Click to expand...
Is there a way to record in MKV and automatically convert it into MP4 after recording? (Without the manual remux)
 
JunZhi said:
Is there a way to record in MKV and automatically convert it into MP4 after recording? (Without the manual remux)
Click to expand...
Yes, there's a checkbox to automatically do it in Settings->Advanced. Note that this does NOT delete the original MKV at the same time; it's preserved just in case of a remuxing error.
 
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