Local Recording Using OBS

Operating Systems & Open Source Open Source & Web-Based
1

So I have been trying to use OBS to record high quality video while gaming.

The issue I am having is my recording are jittery. They are crisp and clean looking however when watching the recording its as if I am rewinding a few milliseconds randomly causing jitters and a very annoying video to watch. I tried recording the video onto my hard drive and ssd to see if that was the problem but I had the same issue. The games fps is above 60 the entire time I am recording, so no in game lag. I am trying to record the game wildstar.

Settings I changed in OBS:

mode File output only

USE CBR unchecked

quality balance 10

Buffer size 0

Custom x264 encoding settings crf=0-20 always same jitter issue

 

PC specs:

4770k @ 4.5 ghz

gtx 670s sli

gigabyte soc force x97

16 gb of corsair ram 2133

 

Thanks for any  advice or help.

 

 

 

2

Try using QuickSync

3

I decided to explore your suggestion, however I goggled quicksync because I wasn't sure what it was and found out it uses the cpus onboard graphics as an encoder. So I went into my bios enabled the igpu and now quick sync is no longer greyed out. However the problem now is that when I click start recording I get the error: Encoder initialization failed: Quick Sync couldn't find a valid configuration; try connecting a (virtual) monitor to your intel iGPU.

I am not sure how to fix this error, or connect a virtual monitor to my igpu. (I am running my monitor with my dedicated graphics.)

4

I use OBS for game recording as well and I think I can help you. Since you have a very capable computer, OBS will play well with your settings. Basically when you are streaming, the quality usually needs to be lower because your internet is your bottleneck. When only local recording though, you can quite literally crank the settings out of the park and go for it. My processor is an FX8350, so yours is better. Mine handles these settings just fine, so yours is golden. So lets get into my settings:

Encoder: x264

Use CBR and CBR padding: checked.

Use custom buffer size: checked.

Bitrate AND buffer size: 200000. (You can probably crank it to 300000 with your 4770k)

Audio encoding

Codec:AAC            Bitrate: 128

Format: 48KHz         Channel: stereo.

Then to the advanced settings. These rreeallly make a difference.

Use multithreaded optimizations: checked.

Process priority class: High

scene buffering time (miliseconds): 400

x264 preset: Ultrafast (ignore the warning lol)

Encoding profile: high

i dont use a keyframe intreval.

I have use CFR checked.

I don't use custom x264 encoder settings.

I also dont mess with the network settings in advanced.

 

So yeah, try that out and see if it works, it did for me. What I first did was raise the buffer rate, and it fixed the quality but not the stuttering. That's when I found out to set the x264 preset and encoding profile to the highest settings. 

It didn't work for my friend, but thats only because his athlon couldn't keep up with ultrafast and high on those settings.

Good luck, I really like OBS, and I hope you can keep using it :)

 

5

I don't mess with quicksync so try to turn it back off when you try my suggestion

6

Thanks for the help, I thought it was working at first but I'm still getting these jitters. It's weird because I'm not getting fps drop in game obs doesn't say I'm dropping any frames. I'm using game capture as my source.

7

Btw, I read that setting buffer to 0 got rid of the limit since my network isn't being stressed during a local recording.

8

Oh :(

Maybe it's just Wildstar? You could maybe try it with another game, because there's always the possibility that OBS just doesn't like Wildstar.

9

Oh :(

Maybe it's just Wildstar? You could maybe try it with another game, because there's always the possibility that OBS just doesn't like Wildstar.

10

It could possibly be Wildstar. I'm waiting on youtube to upload some of the video to show what the problem is exactly.

11

This is the issue as you can see, it is very "jittery" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chBsRuwXAhQ

12

Oh wow, yeah I've never seen that kind of stutter...

As for the buffer/bitrate, I haven't heard that but I've read that you Can punch it up so high because it's not the network being stressed. But you're probably right lol because it would make sense...

13

That jitter and stutter you are getting, I get the same thing when I set the bitrate too high and my hard drive can't keep up. Try cutting the bitrate down a bit and see if that helps.

14

Do you think my bitrate could be high enough where even my ssd couldn't keep up? I have tried recording on my ssd and harddrive with the same issue.

15

word of advise.. use fraps.. obs is for streaming mainly and not quite suited for local recording 

16

Fraps seems to be working for me better. I'll update in a few days when I raid to see if the jitter happens. (The Jitter was only happening during raid in OBS)

Would you recommend a program like handbrake to compress and combined the FRAPS clips?

 

17

I don't know, I never record on my SSD because it doesn't have the capacity (its an old intel SSD) Does your SSD or hard drive ever have problems with a long sustained file transfer (such as sudden slowdowns?) because that would be a problem similar to jittering in OBS

Or its just OBS being OBS, and nobody really knows what it could be doing...every update seems to fix one thing and break another.

18

Well I haven't found a solution to obs. But its alright I got it fixed with fraps. Thanks everyone

19

If you're trying to use quick sync, which I do. After you setup the iGPU in the BIOS, then you have to enable the second display. Go to you desktop and right click, go to screen resolution, click detect, then have the second display use VGA, click apply and ok. Now when you enable quick sync in OBS, you will not get the error.