Help: OBS Studio gameplay recording file size too huge

[Ariortega]

Hello Steam mates,

I want to record my gameplay so I can upload it on youtube. But my oh my, the file size I get from OBS Studio is absolutely insane. I recorded 5:30 min. of DMC 4 SE with the following settings:

Output resolution = 1920 x 1080 @ 60fps, Lanczos,
Encoder = NVENC, Format = *.mp4,
Rate control = CQP, CQP Level = 20, Preset = High Quality.

File size was : 5,1 GB !!! I mean...what the heck? This can't be right for a 5:30 min. footage, can it? Imagine the size for a 30 min. or 45 min. gameplay footage....

Can somebody please help me or give me some advice how to reduce drastically the file size?
I don't wanna loose much quality.

(How do other (professional) youtubers record their gameplay with such quality but small file sizes?)

As always mates, I highly appreciate every help and suggestion. Thanks in advance.

[Omega]

You have to compress the video. If you run it through FFMPEG it will probably compress this mostly raw footage down quite a bit. And you can compress it down signifcantly further with various codecs and compression algorithms.

What I said here basically means open it in a video editor and save the video again.

[Ariortega]

Thanks so much @ Omega. Can I do this with Shotcut? Or do I need professional software solutions?

[Omega]

Originally posted by Ariortega:

Thanks so much @ Omega. Can I do this with Shotcut? Or do I need professional software solutions?

Any decent editing software will do. The as you mentioned Shotcut will do.

I am sure other people will respond to this thread who know a lot more about this then I do and they will tell you exactly what codecs and settings to use.

[emoticorpse]

You want to re-configure OBS studio for better encoding settings. With the settings I have I also use NVENC and recorded a 19 minute 1080x1920 mkv file good quality video and it was 6 GB.

I use the "indistinguishable quality, large file size" setting

[xSOSxHawkens]

Handbrake

When you launch select batch folder scan option.

Select OBS recording folder as source, should scan all files in there.

Select a default output folder for *all* files in preferances.

Select corresponding Youtube preset from 720p/30 through 4k/60 (you would use 1080p/60).

Add all files to que.

Walk away and let it do its thing after pressing start.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Also get an ssd to record to, so that recording for like an hour won't be a problem. But yes usually you would run the video through editing software after you are done, before uploading it, so the video can be edited, cut, compressed, etc. Before your upload the video to YouTube or others.

[Ariortega]

Thank you so much for all the help and infos so far. I will try to compress a gameplay video with shotcut and with handbrake to see which one is better for compression and write it down in this thread once I've done that.

[Ariortega]

My apologies, but I forgot to ask another important question: Is there a way or a method to record my gameplay already compressed so that I don't get that big and large files in first place?

[Omega]

Originally posted by Ariortega:

My apologies, but I forgot to ask another important question: Is there a way or a method to record my gameplay already compressed so that I don't get that big and large files in first place?

It's best to save it raw and then compress it later. Video compression is very heavy on the CPU it will hurt your gaming experience.

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by Ariortega:

My apologies, but I forgot to ask another important question: Is there a way or a method to record my gameplay already compressed so that I don't get that big and large files in first place?

Not sure if this link will post right but if you see the image, those are the settings I use and the video looks really good to me.

https://ibb.co/cNfrhqR

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by Omega:

Originally posted by Ariortega:

My apologies, but I forgot to ask another important question: Is there a way or a method to record my gameplay already compressed so that I don't get that big and large files in first place?

It's best to save it raw and then compress it later. Video compression is very heavy on the CPU it will hurt your gaming experience.

Well, from what I can tell using the NVENC is less taxing on the CPU and actually beneficial because if you don't compress later all you need to do (if you can) is frame accurate video snipping which runs very very very quick with the right software. It's almost like just cutting / pasting. I think re-encoding every video you make first off loses quality and takes up a lot of time. You literally cut your time in half if you can simply do one encoding WHILE you play. If all you need to co is cut later without encoding, saving the file is a breeze.

[Electric Cupcake]

Run it through avidemux to optimize. That's an easy program for simple video edits.

[Set-115689]

The files pretty large maybe lower your settings.

Use handbrake if you want to reduce the size. Use average bitrate and not crf. I think an average bit rate of 1000 produced about 400 mb/hour files. You can try higher bit rates. You can use .264 since .265 can have compatability issues.

[Zeratoxx]

May I present to you my little self written tool to compress video files with ffmpeg ^^ (only working on Windows):

https://github.com/Zeratoxx/FFMPEG_dragdrop_video_compression

[Omega]

Originally posted by Zeratoxx:

May I present to you my little self written tool to compress video files with ffmpeg ^^ (only working on Windows):

https://github.com/Zeratoxx/FFMPEG_dragdrop_video_compression

Pro tip:
Use your Github repository to share source code and not pre-compiled binaries.

If you want to share binaries of your program Github has a "releases page" for that.