
This is only used with variable bitrate, and determines how the video encoder should spend bits for quality. When using variable bitrate, this controls the CRF (constant rate factor) parameter in x264 (10 is CRF 22, 0 is CRF 32).

The "quality balance" setting will have no effect as the quality will be determined entirely by your bitrate, and x264 will try to ensure your stream goes out at exactly at bitrate specified. This will set x264 to use constant bitrate rather than variable bitrate. For online streaming this is the recommended encoder. Each of the encoders has different abilities with x264 being probably the most stable one. If available on your system you can switch between the x264 encoder, the Intel Quick Sync encoder and the Nvidia encoder included in newer gen graphic cards by nvidia. OBS supports more than just the standard CPU encoding using x264. Video Encoding Encoder (x264/Quick Sync/Nvidia NVENC) For all other settings, there is an official OBS settings estimator.

When configuring encoding, make sure to test your available bandwidth first, typically using a site like. Each streamer should experiment with their own settings.)
