Best OBS Video Playback Recording Practices
My goal is to run a video I've made back through OBS to apply some Source Filter effects to the base footage. The filters are Retro degradation effects so end-quality isn't the most important in this specific case... but it did make me question "best practices".
The footage was all recording at 4k H.264, VBR 50-60,000 kbps, 2s Interval frame, P5 preset, High quality tuning, Two passes mode, high profile.
From the Source methods I tried (Media Source, Display Capture, Window Capture) Media Source was a no-go for me because it introduced stutters into the playback and recording. The two methods that worked were Display Capture of me watching it through "Movies & TV", and Window Capture after uploading the footage to YouTube and playing back at the highest possible quality (4k).
I couldn't tell a noticeable difference between the resulting footage from Display Capture and Window Capture. This could be because of the retro effects, the capture settings, me just not noticing the difference, etc. I heard Window capture was preferably to Display capture, but uploading to YouTube may have negated that benefit.
Is there a general rule of thumb about which method would be better in this case, or are they really both approximately the same? Is there a better method I didn't try? Please and thanks for taking the time.
2 Replies
Try installing vlc and then using vlc source instead of media source. Might play smoother
Tried it, playback was even worse using VLC. Started getting screen-wide artifacts in addition to the stutter.
I think Media/VLC Source playback and especially recording 4k is too intense for my rig. I've got a GTX 1080 Ti Quad core 32gb RAM. I've only got 2 drives and only my C is an SSD. I can hear my PC fans churning as I use this method.
UPDATE: After going through this process several more times, performance was the limiting factor for my setup. Priority for me became:
1. Window Capture after uploading to YouTube
2. Display Capture of "Movies & TV"
3. Media/VLC Source (unacceptable quality)
Windows capture was the best performance option but obviously demanded streaming bandwidth. This was not an issue for me at 4k, and even if it was you could in theory wait for the video to load for playback - bandwidth dependent. Best method for me.
Display capture, although not very performance demanding, I'd encounter minor stuttering rarely on playback. This risk wasn't present for Windows capture Youtube streaming. There may have been a quality difference between the first two options, but not one I could perceive. Recording stability became a priority.
Couldn't get any media source to reliably work without playback issues. I could hear my fans churning using this method. There may be settings here to alleviate this issue, but I'm not aware of them and it may not help with my rig anyway.
That was my experience. Thanks for the help! This may be useful to someone later