Problem
When using OBS to stream, and in particular record, video, performance can gradually degrade such that, on review of any recordings/archives, the frame-rate of captured video gradually decreases until only a single frame is displayed (audio may be okay) on playback e.g. 30 frames per second ends up as 1 frame per minute or more, video effectively being stuck on one frame.
Unfortunately the only indication there might be an issues during stream/recording is the generic "overloaded encoding" error that instructs the user to lower their bitrate or other quality settings. While doing this might help in the immediate to short-term, the degraded performance may persist, leading to a constant battle trying to get ahead of the problem.
Cause
Notwithstanding hardware issues, the likely culprit causing performance to degrade while streaming or recording with OBS, is Windows Real-time protection, which is always running in the background by default - as OBS typically records extremely large files, new data that triggers a scan, Real-time protection stays active, persistently scanning for extended periods, as files are being generated. This consumes valuable resources and in doing so negatively impacts OBS in real-time (hardware conflicts can similarly trigger the Real-time protection system to remain active for extended periods, and if recording, this too will affect performance).
Solution
A temporary solution to this problem is to disable Real-time protection in Windows Security Virus & threat protection settings (system Settings). Here the option can be toggled OFF until it automatically restarts (on reboot or system start), or until re-enabled (there are a number of ways to disable Real-time protection but doing so for extended periods may cause system stability issues due to the way Windows security is embedded into the operating system). Once Real-time protection is disabled, streaming/recording should then be unaffected over extended periods.
