The Best OBS Recording Settings in 2024

If you want to record professional-grade videos from your screen, then OBS Studio is a solid platform. But the program is a little tricky when setting up. For those struggling with their configuration, here is our list of the best OBS recording settings.

Let’s explore each Settings category, so you’ll know how to use the best OBS settings for recording based on your project.

The General tab within the Settings window has settings that affect your experience of the platform. There’s nothing on the menu that affects the quality of your audio or video. Explore these settings and see what might be helpful in your video creation process.

We saw this menu earlier, but let’s take a closer look. This menu allows you to customize the encoding and format settings for your videos and streams. To start, click Advanced under the Output Mode dropdown menu and use these OBS high-quality recording settings:

To create a video, you need the program to encode the information in the video into a specific format. And your graphics card determines how fast your system can encode that information.

Many articles on ‘How to optimize OBS for recording’ state that you should use the NVENC H.264 setting. And they’re right because this setting creates the highest quality videos and streams.

But this setting requires an NVIDIA graphics card you may not have installed in your system. That’s why we recommend the x264 as the default recorder.

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card, use the NVENC H.264 setting, and you’ll definitely see a difference when recording or streaming games.

The rate control setting tells your system how you want to allocate the bitrate you’re using. CBR puts out consistent, quality video clips, doesn’t stress your motherboard, and gives you complete bitrate control.

However, if you have an NVIDIA graphics card installed, then CQP is the setting with the highest quality. Just know that this setting puts out large video files, and is mainly used by those recording videos in 4k.

You can always set custom bitrates to match the quality of the video you want to put out. Just remember that when you increase the bitrate, you increase the size of the file. If you have the storage space and a good internet connection (in case of streaming), you can set a high bitrate like 8000 for full HD recordings to get a crisp video.

But if you’re recording videos for tutorials or conferences, and potentially only playing back in 720p, you can lower things down to 6000.

Adjusting your audio bitrate correctly is beneficial for both streaming and recording. Audio bitrate affects overall bitrate and should be set according to available disk space, internet connection speed, and desired audio quality. Higher bitrate means better sound. If you record a video in full HD, it’s better to set the audio bit rate in OBS to 320. For 720p, 192 is just enough.

Audio is important for both your stream and recording, so it is important to always have the best possible audio quality.

Both Base (Canvas) Resolution and Output (Scaled) Resolution depend upon your output needs. You can always match the settings to the size of your monitor to get the full screen, but you don’t have to. However, this is best practice to get the highest quality video output. Remember to set your bitrate to either 30 or 60 FPS.

Let’s determine the best audio settings for OBS, starting with the Settings menu in the bottom-right corner of the main screen.

Under the Output tab, you can change the Audio Bitrate that directly affects the audio quality and the size of the output file.

Go to the Audio tab. Sample rate defines the number of samples per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete or digital signal. The higher the sampling rate, the more accurate the sound wave representation will be. Select the Stereo option from the Channels list. Having two audio channels is enough for most recordings.

OBS audio settings can also be found in the Devices section. If you’re using your computer's internal audio output, select Default next to Desktop Audio. And if you’re using an external mic, then select your mic from any of the four Mic/Auxiliary Audio options.

• Set the bitrate to the maximum of 320 kbps

• Set the sample rate to the maximum of 48 kHz

• Set the Channels to Stereo

To record gameplay, you’ll click the + sign under Sources and select Game Capture from the menu. From here, you can choose whether you want to record your full screen or a specific window.

If capturing a window, be sure that your Base (Canvas) Resolution matches the resolution in the game’s window. And be sure to visit your Audio settings if you’re using an external mic for narration.

Here are some of the settings you can tweak for better gameplay recording.

• Video settings: Set the base canvas resolution and output scaled resolution to match your desired recording resolution. Use the H.264 encoder for recording. Choose a suitable bitrate, as mentioned in the first question, and experiment with the preset options ranging from "ultrafast" to "slow" to find the right balance between quality and performance.
• Audio settings: Set your desired audio bitrate, sample rate, and channel configuration. Ensure that you have selected the correct audio sources for your gameplay audio and microphone input.
• Other settings: Consider enabling hardware acceleration if your system supports it, as it can improve performance. Additionally, adjust the recording format (e.g., MP4 or FLV) and the location to save your recorded gameplay files.

Many of the settings above are for modern, higher-powered computers. If you’re working with a low-end computer, then you’ll want to set things up based on the specs of your system to create the smoothest possible video.

The best way to adjust for this is through the resolution. Go to your Settings menu and then click Video. Then, drop your resolution settings until things smooth out. Your video quality will be lower, but at least you’ll lower the chance of lag and create a fluid viewing experience.

• 24 or 30 FPS: The best OBS settings for low-end PCs are usually 30 or 24 FPS. These are both industry standards that have been used at times for professional video production, and the quality is enough to make the videos look good when watched back. 60 FPS or even higher can be demanding for a slow computer.
• 1280 × 720p or 1920 × 1080p: 1280 × 720p is not the highest setting for canvas resolution, but if you are worried you have a bad computer setup that won’t be up to standard, then it might be necessary. The best OBS settings for recording on a low-end PC may be able to push to 1920 × 1080p. This provides a higher quality, but it doesn’t necessarily present the easiest option for a poor computer. Experiment with both of these settings and see if there are any errors with 1920 × 1080p. This will also look far better if you are showing a video on an HD screen so it is worth trying to achieve this quality.
• 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz audio sample rate: The best options for audio recording are 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. While 44.1 kHz requires less processing power, making it one of the possible OBS settings for low-end laptop users, it is also not as high in detail as the alternative. This means that you might lose some sounds in the process. It is still perfectly functional. If you are recording a lecture, for instance, you will still be able to hear pretty clearly at 44.1 kHz. The higher settings tend to be good for capturing games or videos where the audio is particularly important. It isn’t a huge difference when switching between the two settings.
• Hotkeys: These won’t change the quality of the video or greatly impact on the performance of your machine, so it is not as important as some of the other settings. However, setting up the hotkeys to assist with your recording helps you to ensure that you are able to control OBS Studio properly and start and stop recordings as well as make other changes. The hotkeys are totally customizable within the software, and you can set them to control the exact way you want to capture your screen, giving quicker and simpler controls.

For lectures and conferences, it’s better to choose Display Capture from the Sources menu. Again, you’ll want to adjust the Base (Canvas) Resolution to match your display.

If you’re recording your own lecture, then use a mic for the best sound. Just be sure to set things up in the Audio settings first.

OBS – Open Broadcaster Software – has advanced features for both capture and streaming. But to get a smooth output, you must know how to set up OBS for recording.

To optimize for the best recording settings for OBS, you’ll need to pre-configure specific settings that apply to every recording. These base settings help you capture with better quality overall and should remain as a default.

To configure these settings, access the Settings menu by clicking File > Settings. A window will appear that lists options to change settings in a variety of categories like Output, Audio, and Video.

We’ll use these categories to:

• Set your video capture parameters

• Set your video recording parameters

• Set streaming parameters for your screen recording

An auto-configuration tool will pop up when you first open the OBS screen recorder. From here, you can apply the best OBS settings for recording to match the specs on your computer. But if you need to further adjust your settings – as shown in the sections below – you’ll return to the Settings menu.

Follow the instructions in each category to optimize for the best OBS recording settings in any situation.

You can improve the quality of your videos by clicking the Video category from the Settings menu. Here, you’ll find options that allow you to capture the smoothest videos possible within the platform. Adjust the following settings for optimal capture recording performance.

Represented by width × height, this resolution represents the dimensions of your capture area. It’s best to match it to the settings on your monitor, but you can also create a custom capture window. 1920 × 1080 is standard 1080p HD recording.

The resolution for your output (Scaled) doesn’t have to match the resolution for your capture (Canvas). But to create better quality videos, it's best to do so. For optimal playback on a specific platform, make sure your resolution settings are compatible. If not, you’ll want to adjust your settings to match the platform's upload standards.

FPS – also known as frame rate – determines how many frames per second your video will record. This affects the quality of your video, as more frames give you a smoother picture. 30 FPS or 60 FPS are the top settings based on your storage capacity.

60 FPS has a higher recording bitrate and takes up more storage. But if you want your viewers to experience no lag while watching gameplay videos and other high-quality content, this is the best option.

When your resolution output is smaller than your recording, the video must downscale to match the size. That’s the task for this filter. Lanczos provides the highest quality downscaling, but not every computer can handle this filter. Therefore, we recommend sticking to Bicubic, unless your system can handle Lanczos.

Click Output from the Settings menu. From here, you can choose either Simple or Advanced to change a wide variety of output settings.

There are no actual parameters for this section, as everyone has different recording needs and systems. But we’ll explore some of the best OBS settings for recording in the sections below.

For now, click the dropdown menu next to Recording format and select MP4. It’s the most commonly used video format to date.

The last two settings categories are Hotkeys and Advanced. Hotkeys doesn’t really affect your video output, so let’s look at Advanced. Here, you’ll want to incorporate the following settings for high-quality videos:

• Set your processing priority to Above Normal.

• Set the renderer to Direct3D 11.

• Set your color settings to NV12, 709, and full.

For streaming, the settings in the previous sections will work for most scenarios. To optimize your streaming, you’ll want to focus on your bitrate and FPS. This is where your internet speed comes into play. You’ll need a faster internet connection to put out higher-quality streams with higher bitrates.

Here’s a short guide you can use to set up bitrate and FPS for streaming:

• 720p video at 30 frames per second – 1,500 to 4,000 kbps

• 720p video at 60 frames per second – 2,500 to 5,000 kbps

• 1080p video at 30 frames per second – 3,000 to 6,000 kbps

• 1080p video at 60 frames per second – 4,500 to 9,000 kbps