Encoder Shootout: vMix vs OBS

[@HillClimbTV]

Just looked into this a bit and vMix is using the llhq (Low Latency High Quality) nvenc preset and OBS is using p6 (which is the second slowest). That seems the main difference. Having said that, I've just run the test using vMix v27 beta streaming to ffplay. HW encoding still looks worse than software, but not as bad as here, so maybe there has been a tweak in the latest version.

[@GoldenTeeTV]

Looks like version 27 (build 58) now allows you to change the preset from LLHQ to P1 - P7. I still wish vMix had an option like OBS where for more advanced users you could simply pass in your own params. But seems now the quality issues has been resolved allowing you to pick P6 or even P7 if needed. But since most video you really can't tell the difference and most vMix systems using multiple hardware encoders using the llhq isn't that bad due to resources being lower. Than again seems that's a mute point with the latest GPU's now anyway. Probably why they exposed the P profiles as an easy drop down now.

[@HillClimbTV]

I just gave the latest beta a test and the new presets do improve the quality from vMix. Testing on an old laptop with a mobile 1060 GPU, video encoder usage was around 10% for LLHQ and 17% for P7 during the 'test card' section of the LiveX video so multiple encodes shouldn't be a problem. I can see OBS still enables a few options that vMix doesn't (Look Ahead, Adaptive Quantization, Multi Pass) so I think OBS would still win on a blind test, but the results should now be a lot closer. I also wish vMix would allow more access to options like this, but I can see why they would be reluctant from a support standpoint.

[@GoldenTeeTV]

@@HillClimbTV I'm curious if the margin changes when using the much better 7th or 8th gen encoder compared to the older 6th gen like whats in your 1060. Thus not requiring additional flags to ensure compatibility on vmix part (still which they had an advanced setting to change). I'm only guessing though. unfortinitly i do not have anything less than a 1660 to test. But I'll test with a 7th gen (3090) and a 8th gen (4080) to compare between OBS and vMix beta. i might have 1070 laptop someplace which will have the 6th gen. I'll let you know thanks

[@BillAshtonNelo]

VMix it always works

[@Noro-s6u]

obs fails?