---
layout: default
category: "OBS"
title: "High Quality Recording (in OBS Studio) with H.265/HEVC"
comments: true
date: "2023-05-05"
redirect_from:
- /guides/high-quality-recordings/h265/
---

<p class="block">The H.265/HEVC codec is a newer codec that was intended to replace H.264/AVC, but ultimately failed due to its needless licensing complexity. While more efficient and much more versatile than the predecessor, it is also significantly harder to encode and decode.</p>

<details class="block" open>
	<summary>
		<h1>AMD AMF</h1>
	</summary>
	<details class="block">
		<summary>
			<h2>Built-In</h2>
		</summary>
		<figure class="block">
			<table class="block">
				<thead>
					<tr>
						<th>Option</th>
						<th width="16%">Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Near Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Indistinguishable</th>
						<th width="16%">High Quality</th>
						<th width="16%">Acceptable Quality</th>
					</tr>
				</thead>
				<tr>
					<td>Rate Control</td>
					<td rowspan="255" colspan="2" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;">N/A</td>
					<td colspan="255">CQP</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>CQ Level</td>
					<td>5 - 10</td>
					<td>11 - 16</td>
					<td>17 - 22+</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Profile</td>
					<td colspan="255">Speed</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Max B-frames</td>
					<td colspan="255">Any, but less may be faster</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>AMF/FFmpeg Options</td>
					<td colspan="255"><code>profile_tier=high preanalysis=false vbaq=false filler_data=false skip_frame=false</code></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>OBS Color Format</td>
					<td colspan="255">4:2:0</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
			<figcaption>For empty fields, look further left.</figcaption>
		</figure>
	</details>
	<h3 class="block">Additional Notes</h3>
	<ul class="block">
		<li>AMDs H265 encoder is only capable of 4:2:0.</li>
	</ul>
</details>

<details class="block" open>
	<summary>
		<h1>Intel QSV</h1>
	</summary>
	<details class="block">
		<summary>
			<h2>Built-In</h2>
		</summary>
		<figure class="block">
			<table class="block">
				<thead>
					<tr>
						<th>Option</th>
						<th width="16%">Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Near Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Indistinguishable</th>
						<th width="16%">High Quality</th>
						<th width="16%">Acceptable Quality</th>
					</tr>
				</thead>
				<tr>
					<td>Rate Control</td>
					<td rowspan="255" colspan="2" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;">N/A</td>
					<td colspan="255">CQP</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>CQQ</td>
					<td>5 - 10</td>
					<td>11 - 16</td>
					<td>17 - 22+</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Target Usage</td>
					<td colspan="255">veryfast</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Profile</td>
					<td colspan="255">high</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Keyframe Interval</td>
					<td colspan="255">1</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Latency</td>
					<td colspan="255">normal</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>B Frames</td>
					<td colspan="255">0</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>OBS Color Format</td>
					<td colspan="255">4:2:0</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
			<figcaption>For empty fields, look further left.</figcaption>
		</figure>
	</details>
	<h3 class="block">Additional Notes</h3>
	<ul class="block">
		<li>OBS Studio does not export 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 support for QSV.</li>
		<li>Intels QSV H.265 encoder is tied to CPU usage, so it may perform worse than x265 would.</li>
	</ul>
</details>

<details class="block" open>
	<summary>
		<h1>NVIDIA NVENC</h1>
	</summary>
	<details class="block">
		<summary>
			<h2>StreamFX</h2>
		</summary>
		<figure class="block">
			<table class="block">
				<thead>
					<tr>
						<th>Option</th>
						<th width="16%">Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Near Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Indistinguishable</th>
						<th width="16%">High Quality</th>
						<th width="16%">Acceptable Quality</th>
					</tr>
				</thead>
				<tr>
					<td>Preset</td>
					<td colspan=255>Fastest (P1)</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Tune</td>
					<td>Lossless</td>
					<td colspan=255>High Quality</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<th colspan=255>H265</th>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Profile</td>
					<td colspan=255>Main</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Tier</td>
					<td colspan=255>High</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Level</td>
					<td colspan=255>Automatic</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<th colspan=255>Rate Control Options</th>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Mode</td>
					<td colspan=255>Constant Quantization Parameter</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Multi-Pass</td>
					<td colspan=255>Single Pass</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Look Ahead</td>
					<td colspan=255>0 frames</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Adaptive I-Frames</td>
					<td colspan=255>Disabled</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Adaptive B-Frames</td>
					<td colspan=255>Disabled</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<th colspan=255>Quantization Parameters</th>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>I-Frame QP<br>P-Frame QP<br>B-Frame QP</td>
					<td>0</td>
					<td>0 to 4</td>
					<td>5 to 10</td>
					<td>11 to 16</td>
					<td>17 to 22</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<th colspan=255>Adaptive Quantization</th>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Spatial Adaptive Quantization</td>
					<td colspan=255>Disabled</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Temporal Adaptive Quantization</td>
					<td colspan=255>Disabled</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<th colspan=255>Other Options</th>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Maximum B-Frames</td>
					<td colspan=255><i>Any</i></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>B-Frame Reference Mode</td>
					<td colspan=255><i>Any</i></td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Zero Latency</td>
					<td colspan=255>Default</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Weighted Prediction</td>
					<td colspan=255>Default</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Non-reference P-Frames</td>
					<td colspan=255>Default</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Reference Frames</td>
					<td colspan=255>-1 frames</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Low Delay Key-Frame Scale</td>
					<td colspan=255>-1</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<th colspan=255>Key Frames</th>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Interval Type</td>
					<td>Frames</td>
					<td colspan=255>Any</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Interval</td>
					<td>1 frame</td>
					<td colspan=255>Any</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>OBS Color Format</td>
					<td>4:4:4</td>
					<td>4:4:4 or 4:2:2</td>
					<td colspan="255">4:4:4, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
			<figcaption>For empty fields, look further left.</figcaption>
		</figure>
	</details>
	<details class="block">
		<summary>
			<h2>Built-In</h2>
		</summary>
		<figure class="block">
			<table class="block">
				<thead>
					<tr>
						<th>Option</th>
						<th width="16%">Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Near Lossless</th>
						<th width="16%">Indistinguishable</th>
						<th width="16%">High Quality</th>
						<th width="16%">Acceptable Quality</th>
					</tr>
				</thead>
				<tr>
					<td>Rate Control</td>
					<td rowspan="255" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;">N/A</td>
					<td colspan="255">CQP</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>CQ Level</td>
					<td>0 - 4</td>
					<td>5 - 10</td>
					<td>11 - 16</td>
					<td>17 - 22+</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Preset</td>
					<td colspan="255">P1: Fastest (Lowest Quality)</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Tuning</td>
					<td colspan="255">High Quality</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Multipass Mode</td>
					<td colspan="255">Single Pass</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Profile</td>
					<td colspan="255">main (for 8bit)<br>main10 (for 10bit)</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Look-ahead</td>
					<td colspan="255">Disabled</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Psycho Visual Tuning</td>
					<td colspan="255">Disabled</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>Max B-frames</td>
					<td colspan="255">0</td>
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td>OBS Color Format</td>
					<td>4:4:4 or 4:2:2</td>
					<td colspan="255">4:4:4, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
			<figcaption>For empty fields, look further left.</figcaption>
		</figure>
	</details>
	<h3 class="block">Additional Notes</h3>
	<ul class="block">
		<li>You can freely adjust the Key-Frame Interval for anything but Lossless. Lossless will (and should) always produce an IDR-Frame every frame.</li>
	</ul>
</details>

<p class="block align-center"><a href="../">Back to the Guide</a></p>