CS Save Video

ComfyUI's built-in Save Video is fine until it isn't. You want a specific H.264 bitrate because your render looks like a crushed YouTube thumbnail, or you want the workflow embedded in the file like every PNG already does. CS Save Video is a fork of the official node that adds exactly those two things: a target-bitrate control for H.264 and an opt-in metadata flag. Nothing else, nothing scary - it's the export node the official one should have shipped with.

It sits at the end of any CineStyle video workflow - take the VIDEO output from CS Load Video (or any official video node) and drop it in.

How it works

This is a thin, honest wrapper. By default it writes H.264 video (with AAC audio if the source has a track) using PyAV, and it sets the stream's target bitrate from the node's bitrate value. When save_metadata is on, it stuffs the workflow prompt and source metadata into the file's metadata tags - the same "the file carries the recipe" convention that's been standard for PNGs forever in this ecosystem. The output is written with faststart, so the MP4 is web-friendly immediately.

The inputs that matter

• video - the standard ComfyUI VIDEO to save.
• filename_prefix - default video/ComfyUI. Supports the official date and node-widget formatting syntax, so video/MyRender_%date% style prefixes work.
• format - container, default auto.
• codec - the interesting one. It's a dynamic dropdown: H.264 is default and exposes the bitrate slider; auto is the alternative. Pick H.264 to control quality.
• H.264 bitrate (Mbps) - appears when H.264 is selected. Range 1.0–160.0 Mbps, default 8.0. The author's guidance is sensible: 1080p starts around 8.0, high-frame-rate 1080p likes ~12.0. If your output looks blocky in motion, this is the knob.
• save_metadata - off by default. Flip it on to write workflow + source metadata into the file.

Outputs

Just one: a video pass-through, so you can chain save-then-preview or feed the result onward. It's also marked as an output node, so ComfyUI treats it as a terminal.

Installing it

Same as the rest of the pack - ComfyUI Manager → search ComfyUI_CineStyle, or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/chflame163/ComfyUI_CineStyle.git

Then restart. Find it under 😺dzNodes/CineStyle. Because it uses PyAV for encoding, the pack's requirements.txt installs av - if your environment already has the official Save Video working, this will too.

Where people get burned

• Odd dimensions refuse to encode. H.264 requires even width and height; the node raises a clear error rather than silently producing garbage. If you sized frames manually, snap them to even numbers (or use CS Load Video's multiple rounding).
• Metadata costs you portability. The official Save Video node has the same flag; here it's just exposed by name. If you're shipping renders to clients, know that the embedded workflow is the whole graph including any prompts - leave the flag off if you don't want to hand that out.
• Bitrate is a target, not a promise. Constant-quality compressors will drop below it on static scenes and spike on motion. For predictable files, 8 Mbps at 1080p30 is a solid start; don't chase artifacts with 160 Mbps unless you're actually exporting 8K.