Glossary

Glossary

ShadePlay guide › Help

The words this guide uses, in plain language.

• Instant replay: a recorder that always keeps the last few minutes, so you can save something after it happened.
• Buffer (replay buffer): the last minute (or your buffer length) of picture and sound that ShadePlay keeps in memory, ready to save.
• Buffer length: how much time before the key press a clip holds.
• Clip: a video file ShadePlay saved from the buffer, an .mp4 file.
• Hotkey: the key that saves a clip, F10 unless you choose another.
• Tray / notification area: the icons next to the clock on the Windows taskbar.
• Notification: a small message from ShadePlay in the corner of the screen.
• Codec: the way the video is compressed. ShadePlay uses AV1, HEVC or H.264.
• AV1: a modern video codec with the best quality per bit, on recent graphics cards.
• HEVC (H.265): a video codec most graphics cards from the last years have.
• H.264: an older video codec that plays everywhere; in ShadePlay SDR and 8-bit only.
• Encoder: the part of the graphics card that compresses video: NVENC on NVIDIA, AMF on AMD, Quick Sync on Intel.
• Bitrate: how much data a second of video takes, in Mb/s (megabits per second). 8 Mb/s is about 1 MB per second.
• Constant quality: the encoder keeps the picture at one quality and uses as many bits as each moment needs, up to a peak limit.
• Keyframe: a complete picture in the video; the frames between keyframes only store changes. A clip starts at a keyframe.
• Frame rate (fps): frames per second.
• HDR: high dynamic range, brighter highlights and more colours on a monitor that supports it.
• SDR: standard dynamic range, the normal picture.
• HDR10: the common HDR video format: BT.2020 colours, the PQ brightness curve, 10 bits per colour.
• 10-bit: 1024 steps per colour instead of 256, for smoother gradients.
• Tone mapping: converting an HDR picture so it looks right on an SDR screen.
• Track: one of the sound recordings inside a clip. ShadePlay saves up to five.
• Mix: the track with all sounds together, each counted once; the one players play.
• Loopback recording: recording what plays on an output device (speakers or headset).
• Process loopback: recording the sound of one program (and its helper programs), whichever device it plays on. ShadePlay uses it for the game and Discord.
• Desktop device: the output device you listen on, recorded on the Desktop track (What you listen on).
• Never-record list: output devices ShadePlay must never record, for example a bass shaker.
• Sidecar file (clip info file): a small .json file next to a clip, with details about it. Off by default; always written while an after-save command is set.
• Standby: ShadePlay is fine but has no picture to record: the monitor is off or the screen is locked.
• Watchdog: the part of ShadePlay that restarts the recorder when it crashes or hangs.
• Fast start: the MP4 file's index at the front, so a clip starts playing sooner when streamed.
• Split-frame encoding: above 300 fps, NVIDIA cards split each frame between their video encoders.
• SmartScreen: the Windows warning "Windows protected your PC" for programs that aren't code-signed.
• Smart App Control: a stricter Windows protection that blocks every program that isn't code-signed.
• SHA-256 fingerprint: a checksum that proves a downloaded file is exactly the one published. The updater checks the installer against the one GitHub publishes for it.

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See also: FAQ · Troubleshooting