We may end up adding settings for this, but your bug report is about an issue with H244 recording  basically not working properly at all, and in such a case additional user-facing options are not the right approach; we should just fix the bug. Let's drill into that.

Can you mention your system's specs?

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> We may end up adding settings for this, but your bug report is about an
> issue with H244 recording  basically not working properly at all, and in
> such a case additional user-facing options are not the right approach; we
> should just fix the bug. Let's drill into that.
> 
> Can you mention your system's specs?

Yes, this is my system specs.

```
Operating System: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20240407
KDE Plasma Version: 6.0.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.0.0
Qt Version: 6.6.3
Kernel Version: 6.8.4-rc1-1-default (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 30.2 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20XHSIT022
System Version: ThinkPad X13 Gen 2a
```

And this is my spectacle app info.

```
Information for package spectacle:
----------------------------------
Repository     : Tumbleweed (OSS)
Name           : spectacle
Version        : 24.02.1-1.2
Arch           : x86_64
Vendor         : openSUSE
Installed Size : 2.1 MiB
Installed      : Yes (automatically)
Status         : up-to-date
Source package : spectacle-24.02.1-1.2.src
Upstream URL   : https://apps.kde.org/spectacle
Summary        : Screen Capture Program
Description    : 
    Spectactle is a screenshot-taking program made by KDE. It allows taking screenshots
    of screens, windows, regions of the screen, and to export them to files or other
    online services.
Provides       : [6]
    application()
    metainfo()
    application(org.kde.spectacle.desktop)
    metainfo(org.kde.spectacle.appdata.xml)
    spectacle = 24.02.1-1.2
    spectacle(x86-64) = 24.02.1-1.2
Requires       : [57]
    libstdc++.so.6()(64bit)
    libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4)(64bit)
    libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3)(64bit)
    libm.so.6()(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.34)(64bit)
    libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3.9)(64bit)
    libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
    libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.14)(64bit)
    libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.38)(64bit)
    libQt6Core.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Core.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libQt6Core.so.6(Qt_6.6)(64bit)
    libQt6Gui.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Gui.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libQt6Widgets.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Widgets.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libKF6I18n.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6CoreAddons.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6ConfigCore.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Qml.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Qml.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libQt6DBus.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6DBus.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libKF6WidgetsAddons.so.6()(64bit)
    libxcb.so.1()(64bit)
    libKF6ConfigGui.so.6()(64bit)
    libwayland-client.so.0()(64bit)
    libKF6XmlGui.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6ConfigWidgets.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Quick.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Quick.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libKF6KIOCore.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6DBusAddons.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6Gui.so.6(Qt_6.6.3_PRIVATE_API)(64bit)
    libKF6KIOWidgets.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6KIOGui.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6WindowSystem.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6Service.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6Notifications.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6PrintSupport.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6PrintSupport.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libKF6GuiAddons.so.6()(64bit)
    libxcb-randr.so.0()(64bit)
    libxcb-xfixes.so.0()(64bit)
    libKF6GlobalAccel.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6JobWidgets.so.6()(64bit)
    libQt6WaylandClient.so.6()(64bit)
    libxcb-util.so.1()(64bit)
    libQt6WaylandClient.so.6(Qt_6)(64bit)
    libxcb-image.so.0()(64bit)
    libKF6Purpose.so.6()(64bit)
    libxcb-cursor.so.0()(64bit)
    libKirigamiPlatform.so.6()(64bit)
    libKF6PurposeWidgets.so.6()(64bit)
    libLayerShellQtInterface.so.6()(64bit)
    libKPipeWireRecord.so.6()(64bit)
    /bin/sh
```

The ffmpeg-6 package info, I don't know if spectacle use ffmpeg or not, but here it is.

```
Information for package ffmpeg-6:
---------------------------------
Repository     : packman
Name           : ffmpeg-6
Version        : 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2
Arch           : x86_64
Vendor         : http://packman.links2linux.de
Installed Size : 2.5 MiB
Installed      : Yes
Status         : up-to-date
Source package : ffmpeg-6-6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2.src
Upstream URL   : https://ffmpeg.org/
Summary        : Set of libraries for working with various multimedia formats
Description    : 
    FFmpeg is a multimedia framework, able to decode, encode,
    transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter and play several formats
    that humans and machines have created.
Provides       : [6]
    ffmpeg = 6.1.1
    ffmpeg-tools = 6.1.1
    ffmpeg-6 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2
    ffmpeg-6(x86-64) = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2
    /usr/bin/ffmpeg
    /usr/bin/ffplay
Requires       : [41]
    libc.so.6()(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.34)(64bit)
    libm.so.6()(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.14)(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit)
    libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.29)(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.33)(64bit)
    libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
    libz.so.1()(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7)(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.2)(64bit)
    libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.35)(64bit)
    libavutil.so.58()(64bit)
    libavutil.so.58(LIBAVUTIL_58.29_SUSE)(64bit)
    libavcodec.so.60()(64bit)
    libavcodec.so.60(LIBAVCODEC_60.31_SUSE)(64bit)
    libavformat.so.60()(64bit)
    libavformat.so.60(LIBAVFORMAT_60.16_SUSE)(64bit)
    libSDL2-2.0.so.0()(64bit)
    libswscale.so.7()(64bit)
    libswresample.so.4()(64bit)
    libswresample.so.4(LIBSWRESAMPLE_4.12_SUSE)(64bit)
    libswscale.so.7(LIBSWSCALE_7.5_SUSE)(64bit)
    libpostproc.so.57()(64bit)
    libpostproc.so.57(LIBPOSTPROC_57.3_SUSE)(64bit)
    libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.10)(64bit)
    libavfilter.so.9()(64bit)
    libavfilter.so.9(LIBAVFILTER_9.12_SUSE)(64bit)
    libSDL2-2.0.so.0(SUSE_2.0.8)(64bit)
    libavdevice.so.60()(64bit)
    libavdevice.so.60(LIBAVDEVICE_60.3_SUSE)(64bit)
    (libpostproc57 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libswresample4 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libswscale7 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libavfilter9 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libavcodec60 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libavutil58 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libavdevice60 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
    (libavformat60 = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2 or ffmpeg-6-mini-libs = 6.1.1-1699.5.pm.2)
```

Yes, the only option now is to record a gif and convert it into h264/265 afterwards. MP4 recording in Spectacle is practically useless, you can't even read screen text in those videos.

Can confirm that the screen recording quality in mp4 format is bad on Spectacle 6.4.4 on Fedora 42 KDE. The bitrate is 1.43 Mbit/s for my 1440p display which is way too low for h264 at that resolution. Please let us adjust the bitrate or make it higher by default

Coming from the peanut gallery, I would suggest setting by default a CRF Factor as opposed to a bit rate and if you already do this then you need to make it higher quality by default.

But yes for the Love of all that is good please allow people to change these settings.

Also from the peanut gallery. I do game dev work on Linux and often have to send visual bugs to other devs. Adding some quality control settings, or even just adding env vars that Spectacle would honor would be very nice.

As a workaround I am usign obs, but as you might imagine it gets annoying fast.