OBS video recording looks bad even when using recommended settings

[K3nobi]

Laptop: ASUS X450CC (yes, ancient)

 

I don't know why but I just can't seem to get my recordings to look the same as what it is supposed to look like. Here is an example,

 

This is what I see:

 

And this is what is produced in the recordings:

 

My settings:

 

Yes my display is a 1366x768 just in case anyone is wondering and the only encoder I have is x264 and Quicksync H.264 as this thing is absolute ancient and no Nvenc

[igormp]

You're using QuickSync, so that quality is to be expected. If you want better quality, you need to use the x264 encoder with fast, medium or slow settings (fast having the worst quality, but not taxing your CPU that much, while slow produces the best quality but will likely make your CPU go to 100% usage).

[K3nobi]

6 minutes ago, igormp said:

You're using QuickSync, so that quality is to be expected.

Ah I see

 

7 minutes ago, igormp said:

If you want better quality, you need to use the x264 encoder with fast, medium or slow settings (fast having the worst quality, but not taxing your CPU that much, while slow produces the best quality but will likely make your CPU go to 100% usage).

Well it seems that even with x264 veryfast (Target usage) & main (profile) it still looks somewhat the same. Oh well, I guess I'm just gonna have to stick with lower quality then

[igormp]

3 minutes ago, General K3nobi said:

Well it seems that even with x264 veryfast (Target usage) & main (profile) it still looks somewhat the same. Oh well, I guess I'm just gonna have to stick with lower quality then

Veryfast has worse quality than fast. Try fast or medium.

[An0maly_76]

I have had issues like this, primarily due to OBS using entirely too low a default bitrate (2500kps? SERIOUSLY?) even when using x264 or other hardware encoding. What I found is this. First, you need an insanely high bitrate to record 3MP-5MP. You're doing good to get good quality at 9600kbps at 848x480p DVD widescreen. I was enlightened to the need for insane bitrate for high-resolution recording in the course of this thread I created asking a similar question in regard to quality vs file size. Basically, unless you have unlimited storage and your recordings are less than 30 minutes, you don't want to record video much above 1080p-1280p. Some interesting responses -- check it out.

Edited March 21, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[K3nobi]

24 minutes ago, igormp said:

Veryfast has worse quality than fast. Try fast or medium.

Oh, I also forgot to mention this settings even though lower quality but still hits my CPU so much harder then the inital Quicksync one, so I probably won't bother with x264, thanks for your contribution tho!

[K3nobi]

24 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

I have had issues like this, primarily due to OBS using entirely too low a default bitrate (2500kps? SERIOUSLY?) even when using x264 or other hardware encoding. What I found is this. First, you need an insanely high bitrate to record 3MP-5MP. You're doing good to get good quality at 9600kbps at 848x480p DVD widescreen. I was enlightened to the need for insane bitrate for high-resolution recording in the course of this thread I created asking a similar question in regard to quality vs file size. Basically, unless you have unlimited storage and your recordings are less than 30 minutes, you don't want to record video much above 1080p-1280p. Some interesting responses -- check it out.

Wait so basically I just have to turbo schlonk my bitrate..? I'll try it out now

[An0maly_76]

2 minutes ago, General K3nobi said:

Wait so basically I just have to turbo schlonk my bitrate..? I'll try it out now

It certainly won't hurt, but it does has its limitations, mainly hardware and storage. I got near-perfect quality in 848x480p at 9600 kbps. 4K res needs like 1.2Gbps, so unless you have Grand Canyon-like storage, not a viable setting.

Edited March 21, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[igormp]

4 minutes ago, General K3nobi said:

Oh, I also forgot to mention this settings even though lower quality but still hits my CPU so much harder then the inital Quicksync one, so I probably won't bother with x264, thanks for your contribution tho!

QuickSync is hardware accelerated, meaning there's an device inside your iGPU that does that without using any CPU or GPU resources, but has fixed settings and quality.

 

Meanwhile, x264 is software based and is much more flexible, and that's why it overloaded your CPU since it's actually making use of it to do the encode process.

[K3nobi]

4 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

I got near-perfect quality in 848x480p at 9600 kbps. 4K res needs like 1.2Gbps

Bruh such high bitrate for 848x480p? Hmmmm I'll try 15000Kbps 1366x768p and see how it looks, hopefully fine

[An0maly_76]

6 minutes ago, General K3nobi said:

Bruh such high bitrate for 848x480p? Hmmmm I'll try 15000Kbps 1366x768p and see how it looks, hopefully fine

 

And hopefully it won't fill your storage in 15 minutes LOL. This is a screenshot of my settings, and what it yielded. I can't tell the difference from the DVD. Used 8.8GB for 2:02 runtime at 852x480 (DVD Widescreen, 1.77 Aspect Ratio).

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[igormp]

Btw, are you streaming, or just recording? If recording, you could just use CRF instead of CBR, which should improve quality and not be so CPU-heavy.