[Question]: Why poor video recording / streaming quality when using new driver 24.x.x and 25.x.x ?

[Ryu0833]

Hi, I hope you’re doing well.

I was browsing the AMD Community and came across this post about poor streaming and recording quality:

Very poor video recording / streaming quality

Issue summary:

With the 24.x.x and 25.x.x driver series, video recording/streaming quality is noticeably worse than with driver 23.12.1.

The original poster tested different color formats—NV12, I444, etc.—and found that switching from NV12 to I444 improved image quality but increased CPU usage significantly.

I’ve replicated their tests and can confirm that 23.12.1 delivers the best quality.

My questions:

What changes were introduced in the 24.x.x drivers that could have degraded recording and streaming quality?

Is there a way to restore the previous behavior or override those changes in the newer drivers?

Is this issue caused by the driver package itself, or does it originate within AMD’s Advanced Media Framework (AMF)?

[MikhailAMD]

Native HW format for 8-bit video is NV12. Switching formats don't change encoding. But changing formats from NV12 adds color converter in OBS that AMF doesn't control.
AMD/AMF team over time submitted several changes to OBS to improve quality.
Also changes in driver are made to improve quality and fix some bugs. I recommend to get the latest driver and latest OBS, maybe master.
In general, AMF here is just set of header files for integration and samples. All functionality is in binaries delivered with driver package.