OBS Studio 23.0 Released With VA-API Video Encoding, New Audio Filters

[phoronix]

Phoronix: OBS Studio 23.0 Released With VA-API Video Encoding, New Audio Filters

For fans of OBS Studio for desktop screen recording and live-streaming, version 23.0 is now available for this cross-platform Linux / macOS / Windows screen broadcasting software...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OBS-Studio-23.0-Released

[Guest]

I remember trying to compile FFMPEG with support for Intel's Quick Sync in hopes it would work with OBS back in the day, because I finally got my hands on a computer with one of their (amazing) integrated GPUs, and ending up with a build of FFMPEG that took long time to compile, and was useless with OBS.

I hope this is is, and it will make it easy for people to take advantage of their hardware to record video with smaller overhead, and make it viable on older and weaker hardware.

[Darksurf]

So here's my question. the support is for VA-API . AMDGPU also supports VA-API... In theory, this should also work fine on AMD GPUs correct?

[xpris]

So here's my question. the support is for VA-API . AMDGPU also supports VA-API... In theory, this should also work fine on AMD GPUs correct?

Not in theory but just work. VAAPI is supported on AMD well but to use it you need compatiblie GPU. So your GPU/driver need to support h264 encode via vaapi. To check if your GPU support it, just install vainfo (libva-utils) and execute in terminal vainfo. If profile 264 for encoding is supported then - YES, this OBS should work fine with vaapi on your gpu.
From what I remember h264 decoding via vaapi on AMD is supported from GCN gpu (but I can be wrong...)

[creative]

On 22.0.2-3 works great for the games that allow it. Nvenc has been pretty good in linux. If you are using vsync or force composite or even libstrangle encodes can be rubbish. Works great with vsync off though if you have a game with good motion blur it can eliminated a lot of visible tearing.

[xiando]

So here's my question. the support is for VA-API . AMDGPU also supports VA-API... In theory, this should also work fine on AMD GPUs correct?

This is correct, with AMDGPU you can use either va-api or vdpau. You can use vainfo to see what VAEntrypointEncSlice entries you have. That will be VAProfileH264High and VAProfileHEVCMain if you have a newer GPU. Sadly, the output of the AMD hardware encoder, which has been pretty much the same on their GPUs for many generations, is very bad. It's garbage, you get half the quality at twice the bitrate. This does not mean it isn't or can't be useful. If you are streaming something like you screwing around ricing your desktop or whatever then you're probably better off using x264. If you're streaming something using all your CPU cycles like some intensive game then it's probably a good idea to use the hardware video encoder. Quality isn't all that super important when you're streaming anyway, but I wouldn't use it for recording something that would be edited and uploaded later.

I've obviously never used AMDs hardware encoder with OBS, btw. My opinions on the hardware encoder being very bad is based on experiments with command-line ffmpeg.

[juno]

This is correct, with AMDGPU you can use either va-api or vdpau.

vdpau is decode-only though. This article is about encoding.

[darkbasic]

From what I remember h264 decoding via vaapi on AMD is supported from GCN gpu (but I can be wrong...)

GCN 1.0 doesn't even support DECODING with the AMDGPU driver (which is necessary to get Vulkan support). Community developers made patches to support it, but AMD is not releasing the necessary firmware updates.
Proprietary firmware is SO nice <3

[[TV]]

GCN 1.0 doesn't even support DECODING with the AMDGPU driver (which is necessary to get Vulkan support). Community developers made patches to support it, but AMD is not releasing the necessary firmware updates.
Proprietary firmware is SO nice <3

Damn. Those patches were released in early November of 2017. Well they did just hire some new people to work on Linux drivers. Hopefully that will eventually hasten the release of the decoding support on the firmware. If they ever manage to bring Fluid Motion to linux, it's only going to happen with AMDGPU drivers and then that decoding support would be really beneficial.

[aht0]

On 22.0.2-3 works great for the games that allow it. Nvenc has been pretty good in linux. If you are using vsync or force composite or even libstrangle encodes can be rubbish. Works great with vsync off though if you have a game with good motion blur it can eliminated a lot of visible tearing.

nvenc quality-wise is probably the poorest of all. If at all possible use Quicksync (Intel CPU's) or if you have AMD's Ryzen 5/7/Threadripper - straight CPU encoding.