Capturing screen/video - reducing file sizes?

N-drju · October 03, 2019, 02:59:12 AM

Hello Community,

I am having quite a bit of a trouble in another one of my hobbies.

I try to record some gameplay through OBS Studio and come up with ludicrously large video file sizes. Some, amounting to 15 GB of space per 45 minutes of gameplay.

Even more so, the visual quality is far from impressive - some artifacts and "stains" are still clearly visible.

Do you have any experience with this program or, in fact, with video settings for screen recording in general? I mean, the general parameters are exactly the same for any computer and any video recorder in the free world.

If you could help me out or offer any tips, that would be super!

digitalguru · October 03, 2019, 03:03:35 PM

Have you tried the Techsmith codec? - it comes with Camatasia (screen recording software) but you can download it free:
https://www.techsmith.com/codecs.html

If OBS can let you choose a codec then it might be an option - I just looked at some of my screen captures and a 40 min file at 1920*1080 is about 400mb

WAS · October 04, 2019, 04:32:57 AM

Quote from: N-drju on October 03, 2019, 02:59:12 AMHello Community,

I am having quite a bit of a trouble in another one of my hobbies.

I try to record some gameplay through OBS Studio and come up with ludicrously large video file sizes. Some, amounting to 15 GB of space per 45 minutes of gameplay. Even more so, the visual quality is far from impressive - some artifacts and "stains" are still clearly visible.

Do you have any experience with this program or, in fact, with video settings for screen recording in general? I mean, the general parameters are exactly the same for any computer and any video recorder in the free world.

If you could help me out or offer any tips, that would be super!

Most high end recorders are recording in lossless format for you to compress manually FYI.

N-drju · October 04, 2019, 08:31:58 AM

Quote from: digitalguru on October 03, 2019, 03:03:35 PMHave you tried the Techsmith codec? - it comes with Camatasia (screen recording software) but you can download it free:
https://www.techsmith.com/codecs.html

If OBS can let you choose a codec then it might be an option - I just looked at some of my screen captures and a 40 min file at 1920*1080 is about 400mb

Theoretically, I can. The problem is, it is not displayed in the rolldown list so I'm afraid it's not compatible.

Quote from: WAS on October 04, 2019, 04:32:57 AMMost high end recorders are recording in lossless format for you to compress manually FYI.

The problem is that when I select a "lossless" preset and then try to play it through Windows Media Player, all I get is sound. No video. Just some annoying zig-zagging pattern in the bottom left corner, saying something along the lines of "Network is too overloaded to display the file properly"... What's this all about then?

WAS · October 04, 2019, 05:14:59 PM

Quote from: N-drju on October 04, 2019, 08:31:58 AM
Quote from: WAS on October 04, 2019, 04:32:57 AMMost high end recorders are recording in lossless format for you to compress manually FYI.

The problem is that when I select a "lossless" preset and then try to play it through Windows Media Player, all I get is sound. No video. Just some annoying zig-zagging pattern in the bottom left corner, saying something along the lines of "Network is too overloaded to display the file properly"... What's this all about then?

Yeah, Windows Media Player I believe only supports lossless AVI. You'll need a codec pack. Though I suggest just using Media Player Classic as it comes with the k-lite codec pack which will play all modern formats that arne't totally locked down by proprietary licensing.

Lossless formats usually assume you have HitFilm or After Effects or some means to manage and edit them.