[SOLVED] Unable to record with OBS

tty001 · 03-13-2021, 03:18 AM

Hello, folks.
I'm trying to use OBS to record my desktop on up-to-date Slackware current. OBS v 26.1.1 from alienbob repo. With default Slackware ffmpeg it just doesn't work at all. I guess because there is no support for h264 encoder in ffmpeg build and there are no other options for encoders. In case of ffmpeg v 4.3.1 and x264-201803-24 from alienbob repo I'm able to start recording with x264 encoder, but no matter what quality options I use for recording (CRF 5-15, CBR/ABR 20Mbps+, fullscreen, etc.) output video quality is awful. Also if I run autoconfig wizard it always tells me "failed to start up encoder". Default SimpleScreenRecorder has the same problem (low quality video) with ffmpeg and x264 from alienbob repo. I'm not an expert, but suspect it's an ffmpeg/x264 problem. Is there any way to prove and fix it?

P.S. I record full screen without downscaling. OBS log is attached.

tty001 · 03-13-2021, 03:34 AM

I've managed to record screen directly with ffmpeg

Code:

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -f x11grab -i :0.0 -c:v libx264 -crf 15 1.mkv

There is no issue with quality this way. Does it mean that the source of the problem are OBS and SSR themselves?

tty001 · 03-13-2021, 04:15 AM

Finally, I found the problem. I was completely wrong about OBS/SSR/FFMPEG/X264. The source is VLC. It's my main player. BTW from alienbob repo too. With hardware decoding "automatic" option in VLC every x264 videos are shown very blurry no matter the quality of the video. After disabling hardware decoding everything get back to normal.