Bug Report Frozen video in local recordings.

[OBSuser1234]

Hello,

I am using the Window Capture method to record a video being played in full screen in Google Chrome.

I have often noticed that OBS studio window capture freezes. The output file has frozen video but running audio for this duration. OBS studio resumes recording the video only when I switch to the Google Chrome window which is being recorded.

This issue used to occur with my previous recording settings (as per this and this log file) as well as with my present recording settings (as per this log file for file "2019-08-17_21-56-16.mkv").

While my Google searches for this issue suggested that my possibly my hardware is insufficient for OBS studio, but Windows' Task Manager seems to portray the picture that none of components are overburdened, as brought out by the following screenshots:

Even OBS Studio's stats don't seem to suggest any issue:

Further:

1. This issue is intermittent. It happens in about 1 out of every 4 or 5 video recordings only.
2. It used to occur intermittently with my previous recording settings (which caused the recorded video to be a lot more blurry vis-a-vis the actual video) as well as with my present recording settings (wherein I am recording in Indistinguishable recording quality).
3. It occurs despite OBS's process priority set to High!

Any suggestion/advice is highly welcome. This issue is preventing me multitasking on my computer. I have to let Google Chrome be in the foreground.

 

[OBSuser1234]

This happens on my other laptop too.
The logs are here.

In fact, the behavior on this laptop is even more intriguing. While on the other laptop, the frozen video can even be seen in the OBS Studio window; on this laptop, the video is never frozen in OBS... it's only when I saw the output file that I got to know that video works only for 2 minutes or so. Thereafter, it's frozen.

 

[Narcogen]

15:03:07.058: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 14393 (revision: 953; 64-bit)

Windows is 5 major patches out of date. Update, manually if necessary.

You are also running OBS on your integrated GPU, which you don't need to do unless you're capturing the display, which from the logfiles, you don't appear to be doing.

You're also using CPU encoding, where on this machine you might be better off using QuickSync.

With local recording you may also get better result from a rate control using quality (QSV or CQP or CRF) rather than VBR or CBR.

 

[OBSuser1234]

15:03:07.058: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 14393 (revision: 953; 64-bit)

Windows is 5 major patches out of date. Update, manually if necessary.

You are also running OBS on your integrated GPU, which you don't need to do unless you're capturing the display, which from the logfiles, you don't appear to be doing.

You're also using CPU encoding, where on this machine you might be better off using QuickSync.

With local recording you may also get better result from a rate control using quality (QSV or CQP or CRF) rather than VBR or CBR.

Hi @Narcogen,

Thanks for the response.

I'm using CPU encoding because hardware encoding (using QuickSync) was much inferior in quality.

Clarity in recording is my prime concern. (Reference this thread that I had created earlier)

So that leaves me with Windows update as the only possible way out, is it?

 

[Narcogen]

I don't know for a fact that it would address your issue at all. I just know that current versions of OBS are tested against current versions of Windows; and that this version is very old; it's two versions behind one that is very broken on OBS and that we regularly tell people not to use.

It's entirely possible it won't help your issue at all, it's just that until you do it, no one can be sure the problem isn't because you haven't updated.

You have a stronger GPU but you're not using it, so that may hinder OBS' performance.

 

[OBSuser1234]

You have a stronger GPU but you're not using it, so that may hinder OBS' performance.

Yeah. I too want to try using my GPU but OBS doesn't seem to recognize it. :(
I started this thread regarding that issue. If you could, please help me make OBS use my AMD Graphics Card. That, I think is a possible step before I go for Windows Update (because Windows Update, in my opinion, is a pandora's box of new issues in itself!)

 

[Narcogen]

Sorry, I'm not able to help with that, as I don't use OBS in Windows with an AMD card.

The AMD driver should somewhere have a setting, similar to Nvidia's control panel, where it specifies what programs use which GPU.

 

[OBSuser1234]

The AMD driver should somewhere have a setting, similar to Nvidia's control panel, where it specifies what programs use which GPU.

It does have that feature. It's under the Switchable Graphics section. But if I assign OBS to my AMD Graphics card, OBS doesn't even start. It crashes. So I've had to assign it to the Intel CPU.

 

[Narcogen]

Then either the OS or the drivers (or both) being out of date compared to OBS may be a factor. It may be that it's not possible to update the drivers further until the OS is updated. Not sure.

 

[shailan39902]

I want to add i am also experiencing this and this is on my Windows 8.1 PC 64 bit, i had also experienced this while running Windows 7.

So if i want to record a specific window the only hope i have it of doing it without any potential freezing is to do a display capture rather than a windows capture and then leave it running while i go away from my desk.

IIRC this is a long going issue on even older versions of OBS and now im starting to think its related to my graphics card seeing as not many people are experiencing this or maybe others just havent noticed it?