OBS Studio 117 – What File Format Should You Record To? MP4? MKV? FLV? – OBS File Formats Explained
OBS Studio is great – it lets you record to
a vast multitude of formats right out of the box, and a few really cool ones if you know
how to tweak it just a bit. But what format should you be recording to? I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and
more fun, and welcome back to my OBS Studio tutorial course. I have many, many more videos on the software
in the playlist linked in the description. Check that before asking questions, and check
the introduction video to learn how this course works, if you get confused. By far, the most compatible format you can
record to in OBS Studio is MP4. Most video editors and YouTube itself tend
to work best with the MP4 container. It’s also compatible with multiple audio
tracks, which FLV is not. The problem with MP4, though, is that it’s
prone to corruption very easily. If OBS crashes, your computer loses power,
or sometimes even if just an audio device disconnects while recording – the whole recording
gets corrupted and unrecoverable. Thankfully, you have two options to avoid
this. You can record to MOV – which is less prone
to corruption, though it can still happen – but it’s not always compatible with all
video editors. The best option for recording is to record
to MKV. MKV allows the file to still be saved, even
if your computer crashes or OBS crashes or gets closed mid-recording. You generally can’t edit MKV files, but
OBS lets you “remux” the file back into a MP4 file that you can edit, with the multiple
audio tracks in tact. In my opinion, MKV is the BEST format to record
to, then remuxed to MP4 to do whatever you want with. If you record to MOV, you can remux to MP4
as well. I hope this episode of my OBS Studio tutorial
course has been helpful for you. If it was, drop-kick that like button and
subscribe for awesome tech videos. If you like game streaming, come follow me
on Twitch and drop a message in chat. Until next time, I’m EposVox, Happy Streaming! Thanks for watching this episode of my OBS
Studio tutorial course. More videos like this and a full master class
are linked in the playlist in the video description. Click to learn more. Also consider joining us on Patreon to help
keep tech education free. Go to Patreon.com/eposvox to sign up.
MKV is love, MKV is life.
I feel like you should have stressed that remuxing leads to no quality loss. A lot of people might think its a retranscode fsr.
Ok so I’m going to watch all of the videos and hopefully after finishing all of them i will be able to get obs to work with what i have and i won’t need to buy a pc to replace the laptop Im trying to use right now thanks for your help
I swear to god if apple doesn’t fix the stupid capital i being replaced with I️ bug I’m gonna get the Razer Phone and I’ve had apple my whole life hopefully it doesn’t come to that
Thanks 🙂
The same I thought.
Thanks for makes me sure about it.
It's time to say goodbye~ MP4 ~
Does remuxing the file makes it loose some quality?
THANKS
So my question is, for some reason OBS only works fine as long as i don't exceed 3.99gb or video or else it doesn't work and says its corrupted… does changing it to MKV file stops that?
I gave a shout out to you in this video. https://youtu.be/gBG22DyhsiI
I figured out a work around for OBS, and DaVinci Resolve 14. It's much less time consuming than reformatting to Prorez, or something like that.
Ugh lessons learned. I had to put a corrupt podcast file to rest tonight. Luckily theirs audio from the camera, off to look up some audio tutorials.
First one to metion REMUX option. I was just about to give up on .mkv and settle for .mov
Lets see how quick it will do a 40 gigabyte recording and then i can know for sure if its usable.
This is the best piece of information! I watched the entire master class (brilliant work) while I was working on setting up my stream. It was hands-down the most useful of all the videos I watched. And when I couldn't remember how to convert (remux) my MKV files, I remembered that I had learned everything I know from you, so I came back here. Great videos!
It turns out, I was able to edit the MKV file using Avidemux. Now, I only recorded a few minutes worth of some Dragon Age Inquisition as a "test" to see if it was possible, and it turns out…it was. Now, I do not know if it'll take bigger files (such as a couple hours or so worth of gameplay), but I was able to do it as an MP4. Thanks to you, I won't be using MP4 any longer :D. I noticed when I would split up my videos (Let's Plays) using MP4 format, my voice commentary would be off sync slightly (about a millisecond to a second, sometimes even 1.5 seconds). But now it when I did that test, the syncing was perfect. I guess my question is: Do you think I'd still be able to edit a couple hour long videos in MKV format? Thank you again for all the help.
P.S. I also subbed!
Can you help me when i record a video on like 1:00 the time goes to 0.000001/ just skips it all
1:33 I have no Idea what you said there
This might just save me a future heart attack x) Thanks a lot!
I record just the gameplay in MKV (Window Capture [1920*1080] and Desktop Audio), that's all I record. I have a different setup for streaming, with multiple inputs, which doesn't record.
However, the other day, I had a BSOD and the MKV file is corrupted, I guess? The file size is 0, doesn't show an end time, and scrubbing isn't working correctly. Opening the file and leaving it playing seems to be working fine, however.
Any ideas?
thumbs up
Sorry but this didn't help one bit because you didn't show where to go to actually change this setting.
Lost my recording yesterday due to stop recording issue and i was sooo pissed, i was looking for an alternate software but this video solved the problem. Thanks Bro!
Awesome Vid; informative and precise.
Your the best
Thanks for this. I don't know if you realize how much bad information is floating around out there by YouTubers who consider themselves savvy on this topic.
OH MY GOSH!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! I'm so glad I found your videos!!! Now I need to figure out why my audio was off sync tonight when I was watching the MLK video on my desktop… I played back the video in mp4 format and the audio wasn't off. Is that normal for a MKV file?
Thank you very much! Great video, short to the point and loaded with info. Keep up the good work!
I save to MKV files because I was afraid this would happen. i had about 2 hours recording and when I went to stop recording it crashed. I have my MKV file but it's only 900 MB and 45 minutes long. Did it just crash long before I realized it? I though the MKV file would save everything?
nice thanks ill sub
Is ts M2ts?
Whatvif it only records about 5 second -24 seconds? Mines keep doing that.
My mp4 files always crash
MY MP4 FILES KEEP CRASHING PLSSS HELP
I know this video is old but im having a problem.
Whenever I record and stop recording it always comes out as a VLC file. I uninstalled vlc player and it still isnt working. I set my recording output as mkv, but it still does it. Help pls
I didn't even know remuxing existed! Wow!
Helpful vid for a beginner like me. Had to switch from mp4 when a recording corrupted due to little hard drive memory once. I switched to flv at first but the picture gets all grey for a second when jumping through the video so it's not ideal. I'll try moving to mkv from now on, hopefully there's no issue like that. Or maybe there's something that can be done to the existing flv files to behave better, I don't know yet. What's the corruption risk and editing ability with flv anyway?
Please refer me to the video that shows exactly how to make MKV to MP4. You always stress to use MKV but don't stop to show how to convert file. I used OBS yesterday and I had issues. I could not press the stop button. So I lost my rec.
Okay…. it was a pain because my mp4 files keep getting corrupted. i kept placing my ear phones into my computer :U
so that was the problem :<
that was realy helpful thanks 😀
Coming here after getting my first corrupted .mp4 file hahaha, thank you!
Stopped the video, was afk for a while, refreshed the page when I came back
THIS VIDEO DOES NOT EXIST
Refreshed the page a couple times again and it has come to existance again
I use wondershare filmora which can publish to a .mp4 and keep all 6 audio channels.
you are a god you deserve more subs
i cant hear any sound
thx
whenever i make a vid using mkv and I remux it the video is incomplete what do i do plz help
how to remux?
damn i just had an 8 hr stream and it crashed because of space running out on my disc leading to a corrupted file. I'll be using MKV from now on because of this video. Thanks! Always nice to learn new info quick and to the point of what you're searching. Does MKV or FLV have any difference based on size or quality though? I'm sure they're both better than 1080p streaming regardless but just thought i'd ask.
Mkv worcks now when I am recording the that recorded does not cut
Tip : MKV remuxed to MP4 has audio problems in Da Vinci resolve, so if you want to use that software use MOV (which you don't have to remux)
thanks for explaining all this shit!
How do you switch it back to mp4
I was having rendering issues trying to edit MKV files. This video is a fucking godsend lol, no source online was able to solve the problem.
every time i record my video brcomes just a file and i cant see the video
i dont imagine this sub will let me down
damn dude nice educational set!
FINALLY somebody explains WHY you should select MP4. every video I find is like "This is the best settings. period." nothing more…no explanation WHY it's the best file to save it as. THANK YOU.
i tried usig flv it says wrong file format then i used mov and it said the same
thanks
tenks
Good info. There are others suggesting .MP4, I wish I had not continued with it. Hey – I was just able to Remux 2 corrupted MPGs by this method!
thx for the help
How do you remux multiple videos into Mp4?
Doing them one by one takes a lot of time especially if the videos are very long. Wish there was a way in OBS to do that so I could just leave it overnight and have all files converted to .mp4.
thank you so much <3
When i start doing my tutorials they are gonna be like this. I absolutely hate it when people talk talk talk.
For some reason when I end recording I click file.I want to see my video but it says I have to download a app to see my video.
THANK YOU! I recorded in MKV and discovered I can't use that in an editor after hours upon hours of recording an event. I tried converting one file with Handbrake and it took forever. Remuxing was fast and easy, and built into OBS. I'll stick to MKV 🙂
Even when I moved it to mov and mkv it is still corrupted, how?
Thank you You Help me Alot i also subscribed
you didn't show where to change the settings you idiots
Thanks so much!
I have had 2 issues using mp4 to record my lets plays while I am playing the game no issues but once I watch the vid before uploading it will have like weird puases in video but audio is alright then work then do the weird puase again so what do I do to fix this.
Mkv doesn’t even work for me. I try to open in Microsoft videos, and it shows that missing codec or wahtever
Wonderful video thank you so much
I ended up having to do my own research that lead to me recording to MKV due to a number of corrupt recordings, however I still feel like an idiot after watching this video… since I previously thought using handbrake to re-encode the video to MP4 was my only option
Is there a way to do it in avi?
Where can i find the video that i record because iwill start gta 5 video…. thx subscribed
Very helpfull thanks.
useful info, thank you
thank you working august 2019 you are the besttt!!!!
this youtube shit is no joke lol
This was damn helpful…thanks!
I had some really good footage that I had recorded with obs. Even though it was right in front of me, I'll still switch to mkv.
so helpful and to the point. Awesome thank you!!
Where is the video format located on obs
It's a shame that, in order to edit properly, you need to record in mkv, remux to mp4, then transcode to an editing format…unless I'm missing something?
Trying to edit in a compressed format like mp4 just causes me awful lag.
I LOVE YOU THANKS
Remuxing doubles the strain on your harddrive, because you write everything twice.
Mov also doesn't give you the problems of not being able to edit it.
It also has all the features as mkv (not corrupting on ending recording early and multiple tracks).
I'm not an expert, but I can't think of a reason to not just stick to mov. Is there one?
Why would I ever use mkv? I don't get that.
awesome!
Thank you
When i remux MKV file to mp4 i can't hear other tracks.
Short, sweet and to the point. Thank you.
After i record in MKV and remux that record into MP4, i still have problems in Hitfilm Express because doesn't show me the separated tracks as i want (mic and game audio separated). Can someone help me? thanks to all
Cant use any of them they all say not supported
He never mentioned FLV.