Question / Help Any Suggestions to Better Quality?

Arkhen92

Arkhen92

New Member
Hi,

I spent a good few hours yesterday trying to set up my stream. I had a lot of buffering issues where the video on Twitch would just be stuck in buffering. I assume due to lost frames.

Anyway, I settled on the below settings and got an alright result. However, in fast paced games or games with a lot of movement like Rocket League, DayZ or any FPS game the picture does tend to get very pixelated.

Do you have any suggestions to what I can tweak and/or adjust to get a better picture quality, or is this the best I can expect?

Example of current video quality
http://www.twitch.tv/arkhen92/v/21627443

Internet Speed
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My setup
CPU: Intel i7 5930k @ 4.5GHz (Watercooled)
RAM: 4x 4GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 @ 2800MHz
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 Ti (Watercooled)
Motherboard: Asus Rampage V Extreme (latest BIOS)
PSU: Corsair AX1500i
SSD(1): OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
SSD(2): OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
Monitor(1): Asus VG248QE 144hz 1080p
Monitor(2): BenQ 2410t 120hz 1080p
OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 (Fully updated)
Anti-Virus: ESET NOD32 Smart Security (OBS fully whitelisted in the firewall)
Router: RT-AC66U (Latest firmware and port 1935 TCP forwarded)

OBS Settings
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Twitch Test Results
I usually use Amsterdam or Stockholm, but both yield the same result (I stream from Sweden)
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FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
Unless you're a Partnered caster, you really should not exceed 2000kbps. 720p@30fps is the 'golden point' for non-partnered casters. Likewise, do NOT use a custom buffer unless you know what it is, what it does, and why you need it. There are a lot of 'best settings' guides out there that are just a massive load of manure, and a custom buffer is one of the common signs that one has been used.

You're going to get pixelation on high motion games, without running a much better bit-per-pixel density. To remain watchable by most Twitch viewers, this means dropping your resolution and/or framerate... even if your connection can handle it, theirs (or the video delivery servers) generally can't.

Don't care about being watchable? Boost to 720p@30fps, 3000kbps to reduce your amount of pixelation. Also, drop a notch or two down on the x264 preset side, as you have a CPU that should be able to handle presets below Veryfast pretty easily.
 
Arkhen92

Arkhen92

New Member
The settings you suggested only made it more sluggish and pixelated. :S

Edit: Is there no way to gain higher bitrates without being a partner? Can one pay a monthly subscription or something?
Pixelated streams looks god aweful
 
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FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
Nope.

A lower x264 setting will improve the compression used, and so make the stream look better at a given bitrate, but at the tradeoff of using more CPU. It's also not a magic bullet, just an improvement. You can use a higher bitrate, but many viewers WILL buffer, the higher your bitrate goes.
Try posting a log from the Help menu (just upload, then post the link it gives you here).

In many cases this is one of the harder things to come to terms with when starting out streaming. It isn't going to look perfect. There are realistic technical requirements that you need to work within, if you want people to be able to watch your stream. But it's also a valuable realization to come to; that you can still entertain people, and that perfect video isn't the be-all end-all.
 
Arkhen92

Arkhen92

New Member
No difference between Faster, Fast, Medium or Slow. Just attempted them all three to compare. All on 2400 bitrate and 2400 buffer size.
Had no issues with lag etc. Rocket League is a very light game to run.

:(
 
D

dping

Active Member
Arkhen92 said:
No difference between Faster, Fast, Medium or Slow. Just attempted them all three to compare. All on 2400 bitrate and 2400 buffer size.
Had no issues with lag etc. Rocket League is a very light game to run.

:(
Click to expand...
your original lag issues stemmed from an async buffer bitrate. always keep these two the same for streaming. Just note when lowering the preset beyond medium, the bitrate is often overshot by 200-500 bitrate more. none the same, keep the two settings the same. 2500-3000 bitrate should be fine, but follow what your viewers say since what FerretBomb stated is correct.

there is a big difference between fast and medium and medium and slow. the rest are minor steps. this is mainly seen with trees and foliage which is extremely hard on an encoder. That being said, dont expect to get a lot from the presets since at lower bitrates they give diminishing returns. lower bitrates as in below 2000 for 720@60 since you are basically lacking straight bitrate and the encoder works harder to make up for it.
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
No, it comes down to learning to work within a realistic technical framework.

No one will come to your stream for crystal-clear 1080p@60 video.
They sure as hell will leave though, if they're stuck in buffering hell due to running a bitrate too high to be delivered smoothly thanks to network routing issues.
It's a common thing for new streamers to get obsessed with chasing numbers, and is one of the hardest hurdles to overcome. But it needs to happen, unless you only want to stream for friends... and probably hear from them about how it's buffering constantly.

Google has nothing to do with it, just as an aside. Amazon bought Twitch, not Google.
 
Arkhen92

Arkhen92

New Member
Buffering is not an issue (it only was in the very beginning) nor have I had any complaints about it, the quality of the picture is and I have had a few complaints on that subject. I know if too high bitrate/buffer numbers are used, people with slower internet cannot watch it. I get that.

I'm not asking for crystal clear 1080p@60fps content, but I would be happy if the picture was clear without all the pixelation at downscaled 720p@30fps or even 540p@30fps. This is my main issue.

Regarding the Google part; I only remembered reading Google had settled on $1B for Twitch, didn't realize Amazon grabbed it for $970M. My bad on that part.
 
D

dping

Active Member
Arkhen92 said:
Buffering is not an issue (it only was in the very beginning) nor have I had any complaints about it, the quality of the picture is and I have had a few complaints on that subject. I know if too high bitrate/buffer numbers are used, people with slower internet cannot watch it. I get that.

I'm not asking for crystal clear 1080p@60fps content, but I would be happy if the picture was clear without all the pixelation at downscaled 720p@30fps or even 540p@30fps. This is my main issue.

Regarding the Google part; I only remembered reading Google had settled on $1B for Twitch, didn't realize Amazon grabbed it for $970M. My bad on that part.
Click to expand...
Instead of pontificating about content, how about a logfile with the recommended changes:
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720@60 medium preset 2500-3000 bitrate/buffer. if you get buffering from viewers, you can lower the bitrate on the fly...
Second, you could try OBS MP with its "Slower" preset 720@30 2000-2500 bitrate. at that, there should be no one complaining about the quality of your stream.

EDIT: also games with a lot of foliage (grass or trees) will be harder on the encoder than a game like rocket league even with its faster motion.
 
D

dping

Active Member
Arkhen92 said:
I tested using 720@60 at medium preset and 2500 bitrate/buffer. Still has the pixelated quality to it.
Log: https://gist.github.com/cb808697f0d7c9d9640f
Video result: http://www.twitch.tv/arkhen92/v/21891657
Click to expand...
to me, that looks amazing from some of the other encodes I've seen streaming from twitch. but you have room for probably one more preset. and tbh, feel free to try 3000 and as I said, just listen to your viewers.

each preset jump is somewhat worth between 200 and 500 bitrate per preset. so going from 2500 to 3000 is about the same as going from Medium to slow, doing both would give you more quality, but I will say, you've pretty much got a great looking stream and I think your expectation of what a stream should look like, is to high.

That being said, OBS MP has the slower preset, but I dont know if you could run it. feel free to prove me wrong.

Many studios use slower, with 3000-3500 bitrate, which is something to shoot for if/when you get partnered.
 
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