Question / Help What Bitrate should i used for 22 CRF??

[BlockAboots]

For my video captures after ive edited them i usually re-encode them at a 'Constant Rate Factor' of '22' and Profile, 'High', 'VeryFast', for upload to YouTube. What Bitrate should i use in OBS if using x264 for encoding?

At the moment im using a Bitrate of 13,000 and x264 CPU Preset 'VeryFast' and Encoding Profile 'High' but im not sure if this it too much if im just going to be re-encoding them after editing them at 'CRF 22', 'High' and 'VeryFast' presets??

What bitrate value is equal to CRF 22??

 

[R1CH]

Don't use bitrate for local recording. https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.16/

 

[Sapiens]

CRF is basically a "quality target," there is no "equal bitrate" because the bitrate required to reach the target depends on the content being encoded and all of the other compression options you're using. You shouldn't be using a set bitrate at all for recording at VBR, go look at the local recording guide - https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.16/

 

[BlockAboots]

Ok, thanks ill give that a go. Just one quick question though, it says in the guide

"If you wish to increase quality further, you need to use advanced options - quality 10 is equal to a CRF of 22, which is fine for live streams but not so good for local recording."

but above that it says

"Where X is anywhere from 1-20, lower being higher quality / higher CPU usage. A good place to start is the 15 - 20 range. A CRF of 0 enables lossless recording which will have very high file size and CPU requirements and introduces compatibility issues, so be careful!"

i though the lower the number the better the quality was?, but it says that 10 is equal to CRF 22 which is ok for streaming but not for local recording!, yet it stats a good range is15-20 which is much higher than 10!!???

 

[BlockAboots]

Hmmm, these settings aren't really working out of me!. Im captureing at 1080p 60fps and Im using superfast and crf=20 in the advanced settings but i keep getting the High CPU warning message!.

I never got this when i was using CBR,13000 Bitrate, and veryfast cpu profile setting

 

[Sapiens]

The values in the quality dropdown box aren't the actual CRF values, they're there to give people an easy 1-10 scale for quality. For 1080p60 recording you should probably use the ultrafast preset. If performance is still poor, post a log - https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/problem-make-sure-to-post-a-log-and-or-crash-dump-howto.97/

 

[BlockAboots]

Ok ill give it a go, i would have thought my i7-4770K @ 4.2Ghz should of been able to handle veryfast however!?

EDIT: actually to be fair i was running a Windows Defender scan at the time, i just looked and its using 20% of my cpu so that might explain it?....didnt know it used so much of the cpu

 

[Sapiens]

1080p60 encoding is very demanding. If your CPU isn't doing anything but encoding then it should be fine, but if it's also running a game or some other software it may not keep up. Since you're recording locally using a less demanding preset doesn't really matter since the encoder can use a higher bitrate to compensate.

 

[BlockAboots]

Are these settings in the guide for a more or less lossless quality. As have just tried the settings and whilst i never got a HIGH CPU warning the file size was double that of my usual file sizes for OBS (using Nvidia NVENC). Would lowering the Quality Balance to something like 8 lower the file sizes?

 

[Sapiens]

No, the settings aren't for lossless output (you can achieve that with crf=0 but this isn't recommended). Yes, a lower Quality Balance value will output a smaller file at the expense of quality. A better idea would be to use the Quality Balance/CRF value that results in the video quality that you want, and if the output file is too large then re-encode it using a program like Handbrake.

 

[maulet]

hi, I am using the guide for local record and I have a good quality but the file size is toooooo large (4 min = 85 mb). Is the problem the cfr (i am using crf=16)? When you have a huge file what is the problem, cfr, bitrate...?

thanks

 

[Harold]

The problem is that you're expecting the files to be smaller than they actually need to be.

 

[maulet]

The problem is that you're expecting the files to be smaller than they actually need to be.

I am not an expert but I think, sincerely, that If I am playing field of glory ( a pc board game ) one hour of gameplay can not occupy 1,29 GB (4 min 85 gb = 60 min 1,2GB). This is not a shooter or arcade game, but i don't know where is the problem (I have followed step by step the guide for local recording).

thanks.

 

[Harold]

Considering the thread hijack that you've done, and the lack of information you're providing (obs log is kinda critical) I doubt you've actually used CRF based bitrate selection any real amount.

1080p videos have no problem getting up into the 2gb/hr range.

 

[maulet]

sorry, my intention wasn't hijack the thread.