The stream your viewers watch is compressed to survive the internet; the recording on your hard drive can be far higher quality. Recording locally while you stream gives you pristine source footage for highlights, YouTube uploads, and clips, all captured in the same session with no extra effort once it is set up. OBS makes this easy, but a few settings decide whether your local file is a treasure or a bloated mess.
Why local recording beats the stream copy
Your live stream is capped by your upload speed, often 6 Mbps, and re-encoded by the platform. Your local recording is limited only by your disk, so it can run at 20 to 50 Mbps with far more detail. Editing from the clean local file instead of a re-downloaded VOD means your highlights are not degraded twice.
Stream and record can use different settings
OBS lets you record with a separate, higher bitrate than you stream. In the Output settings on Advanced mode, the Recording tab has its own encoder and bitrate controls. This is where you crank quality for the file without touching what goes out live.
Recommended local recording settings
| Setting | Stream | Local recording |
|---|---|---|
| Bitrate | ~6 Mbps | 20-50 Mbps |
| Format | N/A | MKV (or fragmented MP4) |
| Encoder | Hardware (NVENC) | Hardware or x264 |
| Audio tracks | 1 mixed | Multiple (mic, game separate) |
Use MKV to protect your recording
Record to MKV rather than MP4. If OBS or your PC crashes mid-session, an MP4 file can be corrupted and unplayable, while an MKV remains intact up to the moment of the crash. You can remux MKV to MP4 losslessly afterward in seconds through OBS’s own File menu, so you get safety now and compatibility later.
Separate audio tracks are a gift to future-you
Set OBS to record multiple audio tracks, putting your mic on one and game audio on another. When you edit later, you can balance your voice against the game independently, or remove music entirely, without the sources being fused into one track. This single option saves hours of editing pain.
Watch your disk space and drive speed
High-bitrate recording eats storage fast. At 40 Mbps a one-hour stream produces roughly 18 GB. Record to a drive with room to spare, and prefer an SSD or a healthy hard drive that can sustain the write speed without dropping frames. Check free space before long sessions so you do not stop recording halfway.
Frequently asked questions
Will recording locally slow down my stream?
The extra load is mostly on your disk and slightly on your encoder. A hardware encoder like NVENC handles streaming and recording together with minimal CPU cost, so most systems see no impact on the live stream. Disk speed, not the stream, is the usual limiter.
Should I record and stream at the same resolution?
You can, and it keeps things simple. The bigger quality win comes from a higher recording bitrate, not necessarily a higher resolution. Match resolution for convenience, but let the local file’s bitrate climb well above your stream’s for clean, editable footage.
Managing your growing footage library
High-bitrate recording produces files fast, and an unmanaged folder becomes an unsearchable swamp of thousand-word filenames within weeks. Build a simple habit: after each session, rename the file with the date and game, and move anything worth keeping into a per-month folder while deleting the dead sessions you will never touch. Because a single hour can be 15 to 20 GB, storage discipline is not optional; a full drive silently kills recording mid-stream. Consider recording to a dedicated drive so your system disk never fills, and periodically offload clips you have already edited to cheaper long-term storage. It also helps to remux your MKV files to MP4 soon after recording, both for editor compatibility and because you are far more likely to actually use footage that is ready to drop on a timeline. A few minutes of housekeeping per stream keeps your best moments findable instead of buried.
Bottom line
Recording locally while streaming captures a high-quality source your compressed stream cannot match. Give the recording its own 20 to 50 Mbps bitrate, save to MKV for crash safety, and enable separate audio tracks so editing later is painless. Just keep an eye on free disk space, and every stream leaves you with footage worth re-cutting.
