What does "Scale Output" do under Advanced Video Output settings?

[General Snivy]

I'm thinking about experimenting with the "Rescale Output" setting under the Advanced Video Output settings for local recordings as I stream games and such in 720p 60fps due to my internet speed being "low" (I have 5 Mbps upload from my ISP's internet package. Speaking of my ISP, my internet is provided via, cable line.) but, my PC is capable of capturing gameplay at 1080p 60fps. (This is talking about capturing console gameplay here! PC gameplay is an entirely different beast and a topic for another day!) I stream on Twitch with my bitrate set at 3,000 Kbps, which is ~70% of my bandwidth, but I record gameplay locally at the same resolution but at a much higher bitrate of 20,000 Kbps. All of the heavy lifting, such as streaming and recording locally at the same time, is done using my graphics card, which is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 TI. My local recordings record multiple audio tracks for the different sources I use and also one Master track where all audio sources are recorded onto for live streaming purposes.

What I'd like to know is, what is it that "Scale Output" actually does when it comes to local recordings? Does the quality and resolution increase if I set this to 1080p 60fps and the recording bitrate to 30,000 Kbps, like I would expect something like this to do? Or, does it maintain the scaled output of 720p like the stream recordings, but upscaled to 1080p? I was just curious and wanted to hear from someone who's used this feature before and what their results were before beginning the experiment to get an idea of what to expect.

If anyone is curious, these are my current settings for my local recordings while streaming onto Twitch: https://gyazo.com/cfffb0a46c0ee81ec5a2cceddece1f6f

 

[R1CH]

You have it backwards - you should set OBS to 1080p and then rescale the stream output to 720p, allowing your recordings to remain in 1080p. Also don't use CBR for recording, CQP / CRF is much more efficient.

 

[General Snivy]

You have it backwards - you should set OBS to 1080p and then rescale the stream output to 720p, allowing your recordings to remain in 1080p.

I do have the stream output at 720p as seen in the "Output (Scaled) Resolution as seen here: https://gyazo.com/e25d8d57e0d513d120d2d9e15e78c946

Also, these are my stream settings for streaming onto Twitch: https://gyazo.com/a9159b48009ac1c0cd6165c1ac4ed592

Also don't use CBR for recording, CQP / CRF is much more efficient.

What do you mean by that? How is it more efficient? Can you explain what it does? Also, does it play nice with video editing software such as Vegas Pro 15? (By the way, I remux my recordings from .MKV to .MP4 after I finish recording for extra security in case a BSOD happens mid-stream or if OBS Studio crashes for whatever reason.)

 

[R1CH]

Setting the output resolution to 720p under video settings affects both streaming and recording. If you want to record at 1080p you need to leave it at 1080p there and rescale output under only the streaming output settings.

CBR uses exactly what you tell it to, wasting space or wasting quality. Nothing happening on screen so not much data to save? It'll still write at 30mbps. Huge amounts of motion that can't fit in 30mbps? The quality will be lowered so it fits in 30mbps.

CRF / CQP instead varies the bitrate based on the complexity. Nothing happening? Maybe it writes at 1mbps. Heavy activity? Maybe it briefly spikes up to 100mbps. The end result is usually a smaller file at higher quality than CBR can offer. Higher CQP / CRF values result in lower quality and lower bitrate, experiment around 16-26 to find what fits your needs.

 

[General Snivy]

Setting the output resolution to 720p under video settings affects both streaming and recording. If you want to record at 1080p you need to leave it at 1080p there and rescale output under only the streaming output settings.

Ok, I think I understand what you're talking about when it comes to that. I may give that a shot next time I stream something.

CBR uses exactly what you tell it to, wasting space or wasting quality. Nothing happening on screen so not much data to save? It'll still write at 30mbps. Huge amounts of motion that can't fit in 30mbps? The quality will be lowered so it fits in 30mbps.

CRF / CQP instead varies the bitrate based on the complexity. Nothing happening? Maybe it writes at 1mbps. Heavy activity? Maybe it briefly spikes up to 100mbps. The end result is usually a smaller file at higher quality than CBR can offer. Higher CQP / CRF values result in lower quality and lower bitrate, experiment around 16-26 to find what fits your needs.

Thanks for sharing the information when it comes to CRF / CQP vs CBR for local recordings. I may stick with CBR as I want consistency all around. Maybe I'll mess around with CRF / CQP in the future, but for now, I'll stick to what I know works best for me.

 

[Dyran]

You have it backwards - you should set OBS to 1080p and then rescale the stream output to 720p, allowing your recordings to remain in 1080p. Also don't use CBR for recording, CQP / CRF is much more efficient.

Can you help clarify settings? In the video tab I have base and output resolution the same at 3840x2160.

In the output tab under recording there’s a “rescale output” greyed out. Does it after anything recording wise? and Is that only in use when checked?