Just curious, but having an office laptop, will it be the cause for audio distorts?
CPU usage average is 30-50%

In recording aspect only, not streaming

possiprobably (also depending on the game, settings and OBS settings too).

your specs would be useful (along with whatever game etc you're trying to record).

yea I'll post my specs later but imagine a 2010 office laptop with intel integrated graphics card.
I'm trying to record the TV so I can watch the programs after I'm off work
the issue is I used CBR recording before, made large files, but no audio pops
I switched to CRF after reading it is meant for recording and is more dynamic, smaller size and better quality
It was perfect
But as I tried lower values, CRF started to sound like popcorn intermittently

Note:

I'm watching the TV play in OBS as I am recording and I can hear the audio distorts live.
Checking the recording, it records the same audio distorts


CBR, audio distorts still occur but only after recording for 1 hour.
To avoid it, I need to exit OBS and reopen it. Record another hour, then restart again
No issues then.

But CRF is a whole different monster. Audio popping after 16 minutes in after hitting record....
So confused

I'd suggest a few things to do.

1) Use a Constant Bit Rate, like 192k or something. You can always do another pass later and reduce it

2) Use ultrafast if you're doing video. Yeah you'll have to have like 6Mbit/sec but it wont get in the way, same with streaming

3) Give the recorder priority probably. In Linux you'd renice -n -10, while in windows open Task Manager, set priority above normal, preferably high. This ensures that it has a chance to actually process the audio it takes in if there's a limited buffer

4) If popping still occurs, is it due to picking up from the microphone? If you do any type of recording with a normal mike you might have an anti-pop screen (it's like panty-hose in front of the microphone, basically prevents sudden rushes forward of air when certain syllables are used which would cause the sudden 'pop' to occur). You said you're using a laptop right? If you're talking directly into the microphone that still may happen, depending on where it's at. I've seen microphones on the top by the camera, and at the base of the screen, so it's possible either way.

5) If still occurs, might try for an external mic. ones made for you to talk directly into. Though this likely goes above and beyond what you'd want.

And ultimately, your soundcard could just plain suck; especially if it's just some inbuilt thing?

apparently, I left it hooked up but not recording or streaming
It was just idling with the preview input from the TV stream and audio on
And I was hearing cracking, not as frequent but it happens still

If it is happening when recorder is inactive, guess the problem isn't that? maybe, it is actually inbuilt. You don't think it is the specs?
Integrated intel graphics card, 8GB RAM, i5-3320M CPU

I already changed the hdmi cable already but still the same thing
maybe elgato? wasn't there some issues with elgato and obs's update version awhile back among twitch users?

Idling shouldn't use too many resources as OBS would just be showing you what the input should be at a smaller screen, but not actively encoding (unless you're doing a test encoding for bandwidth purposes). So running out of buffer seems less likely.

Hmmm... Another thought is the input levels that comes to mind. When the audio is too loud it maxes out and can sound like terrible crackling, so with a meter or the like lower the input volume until there's no crackling, then increase the speakers until you're happy. You might get away with doing say 24bit audio instead of 16, as some transition software goes to 24 or 32bit when mixing or changing volume levels, then converts back to 16bit. I remember that resulting in huge wav files when i was doing modplug stuff to burn to CD when i was a teenager.

But it's either setting, hardware, or input. One of the three. If it was constant crackling i'd say hardware, so right now i'm leaning more on audio settings. Try checking your mixer and lower the input level on the mic/input. Or do that in OBS's settings.

Is it possible to increase the buffer? With the video capture device's USB input?

speaking of USB, I have 3 ports and all 3 are plugged in.
One for video capture, 2nd for a USB drive and 3rd for the mouse.
Touchpad is tough

In theory, yes.

I'm not sure how big the buffer is, could be 128k, could be a meg. Look in OBS and see if there's an option. It could just be a hardware buffer that needs accessing, or maybe it's a DMA (direct memory access) where the hardware copies the value to the memory. If it's a hardware buffer like used in modems of old, you don't have much space and it has to be triggered regularly. If it's a DMA or software buffer, you can likely make it as big as you want. I'd probably go 10 seconds.

edit: Hmmm USB... I do hope it's at least USB 2.0 supported. 1.0 and 1.1 couldn't possibly support video, but could do audio. We're talking raw bandwidth.. USB 2 gives 480Mbit, or i'd round to 48Mb/sec. 800x600@30fps 24bit takes 41.2Mb/s, as a reference. USB 3.0 pushes to 5Gbp/s which i'm not sure how much video you'd get from it. If you have a 3.0 port, you might get a hub and connect multiple devices in, which for low latency/low data would be fine, mouse keyboard mic, yeah those are fine. Even a USB drive, though the max speed and how much you use it is suspect.

Video capture should likely have it's own plug so you aren't fighting with it.

edit2: Alright looked over settings in OBS. Not seeing anything for a buffer size beyond the 'replay/playback' which is set at 20 seconds or about 6Mb. So...

I'd say going to File->Settings, under the following screen, change streaming audio from P5 to Fastest, and the rate from 160 to 320. Other than setting OBS at a higher priority, i'm not sure depends on how bogged down your computer is.

You might also go through your windows services and disable things you don't need. Don't have a printer? Disable Print Spooler, don't do updates? Turn off auto-updater. Don't have a smart-card system? Disable those, etc etc. By default there's like 90 services or more that windows starts up with, many which you don't need.

Sadly it is all USB 2.0
I tried restarting the laptop with nothing open except OBS. Still some distorts
I observed that the least popping sounds occur requires the combination:
Nothing running in the background + Only one USB port is being used for the video capture device.

Needed to unplug all other ports, which is less than practical

This would reduce the odds of distorts but it isn't perfect.
Once in awhile there will be a pop which seems to be the best I can do

Edit: No microphone. This is for recording TV / no smart card that I know of

Btw is OBS available on linux?
To all the memes geeks who tell me to use linux instead of windows to fix any problem, maybe that can be tested

I wonder if there won't be audio issues after reinstalling linux over on the same computer

Yes as far as I remember.

Given you're on a low end system it might be a decent option (Linux) to reduce OS use of system resources. Mint XFCE or Zorin light are probably good choices.

That said, I havent read the full thread - are you still using a work laptop? O___o

If your laptop has a modernish NVIDIA GeForce GPU, you should try Shadowplay recording via NVIDIA GeForce Experience.

I've tested them all, and Shadowplay provides the best quality with the least performance impact. It needs some weird tweaking to get the most out of it, but the results are very, very good.