Audio skipping during livestream to youtube

joseph.peterson

joseph.peterson

New Member
Last Sunday during our Livestream, the audio was skipping/dropping from time to time. Most apparent during musical numbers.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be youtu.be
It can be clearly heard when either there is a split second of silence, or there is a tiny 'pop' and the beat just doesn't quite match as the song continues.
It is also apparent during spoken areas, just not as much.
The machine I was using is a beefy (but older) Toshiba Satellite S855-S5254 from about 2012.
Processor and Graphics
Intel® CoreTM i7-3610QM Processor
8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
- 2.3 GHz (3.3 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology 2.0), 6MB L3 Cache
Mobile Intel® HM76 Express Chipset
Mobile Intel® HD graphics with shared graphics memory
Click to expand...

I am using hardware encoding (I have also used x264 and experienced various issues)
Off and on I get massive dropped frames in the stats panel within OBS, but that was not the case on this particular Sunday.
We have somewhat insane broadband services (100/100) and we have ensured that there are no other funky things happening during service (like backups or anything). The computer is hardwired via gigabit ethernet and the speed test shows 80-90 up and down.
Basically, I'm beating my head against the wall here trying to figure out what to do to just fix it once and for all. We are able to throw some money at the problem if buying a new computer is the answer, but what to get?
I did grab a small form factor Dell this week and threw a Black Magic capture card in it, this week definitely worked better but I did still notice a few dropped audio frames while I was live monitoring, although they did not register on the stats pane in OBS.
(right at 23:30 there is a missed beat right in the word "join" in the phrase "and then we'll join the saints")

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be youtu.be

When we finally get back inside our sanctuary (outside due to covid and remodeling) the plan is to go back to our ATEM Television Studio mtuli-camera setup.
We would like to run the ATEM control software on the same machine as OBS, and have OBS intake the ATEM output (can do either SDI or HDMI into the Black Magic capture card) AND an NDI layer from ProPresenter. I know it is usually considered best to run OBS by itself, but I'm hoping the ATEM control software is lightweight enough to handle it. I guess the question is - what specs should we look for in a Windows 10 PC to handle this?

Thanks much!
 
Personally i don't think that the ATEM control software sucks alot from your cpu ressources, leaving aside the benefits from mixing different video sources by the external ATEM.

Your current machine on the other hand isn't quite capable to handle all things, as you know meanwhile. I saw that in your videos with left-out frames (i think, anything else would mean that the cameras aren't delivering proper frame rates).

To give more detail we need an obs-log from your session containing the streaming/recording:

Please post a log with your issue! Here's how...

OBS Studio creates a log file each time you run it which contains very useful diagnostic information. Without a log file, it's much harder for any support volunteers to figure out problems and your post may be ignored. To upload a log file, go to the Help menu > Log Files > Upload Last Log...
obsproject.com
 
konsolenritter said:
Personally i don't think that the ATEM control software sucks alot from your cpu ressources, leaving aside the benefits from mixing different video sources by the external ATEM.

Your current machine on the other hand isn't quite capable to handle all things, as you know meanwhile. I saw that in your videos with left-out frames (i think, anything else would mean that the cameras aren't delivering proper frame rates).

To give more detail we need an obs-log from your session containing the streaming/recording:

Please post a log with your issue! Here's how...

OBS Studio creates a log file each time you run it which contains very useful diagnostic information. Without a log file, it's much harder for any support volunteers to figure out problems and your post may be ignored. To upload a log file, go to the Help menu > Log Files > Upload Last Log...
obsproject.com
Click to expand...

The annoyance with logs is that a) it was two weeks ago and I've done further testing since then with that machine and b) of course, when I do extensive testing, everything works flawlessly! *headdesk*

if I'm able to reproduce, I'll update with logs right after it happens...
 
Interesting that even the log containing the live stream session doesn't contain any information about lost frames. Entries 10:57:00 til 10:57:05. The only hint given is that with the fail of correcting timestamps of lost (discarded or skipped) frames. So there are some.

Try to run OBS as admin. I can't see any kind of system/onboard sound. Is the Elgato really the one-and-only audio device in the system? :o
What happens if you go with x264 encoder at 720p30? Better then?
 
The really strange thing is I can test for hours without issue, but when it comes to showtime, everything goes pear-shaped.
I've tried elevating with no issue.
I have not tried x264 on the laptop, but the latest stream on the new desktop was x264.
 
Now it depends on what you exactly mean with "test for hours". Do you mean idling OBS without streaming and/or recording? Then it's clear: The OBS ticking (pickup of all sources) and rendering for the preview is instant acting all time. Just when you start streaming and/or recording the encoding stage steps in additionally, forcing even (alot) more cpu (or gpu) power.
 
Testing consists of starting the video source (camera/s connected to the ATEM switcher, into the OBS machine) and streaming to a 'private' YouTube link. We don't ever record with OBS. The testing is usually just the camera aimed at me and I'm talking about what I'm trying/etc. I did try pointing the camera at some music videos, but YouTube slapped my hand for broadcasting copyrighted content ;) oops.
 
Oh, I have done a "Test" (private stream) if a Christmas show rehearsal, so that contained all the normal content that a service would have, and it worked fine. But when it comes time for the ACTUAL content, that is when we have had issues.
So far, it seems that the new Desktop is functioning normally, so we'll see. Our Choir Director (and tech team) are getting fed up with the constant issues and no 'smoking gun' as to the cause or clear resolution.
 
Yepp. Sounds difficult because you're doing all the right way! Your testing conditions with real feed to YTs ingest servers is the best way to 'simulate' the hot-show earlier.

Your streaming machine is hardwired to the local network. But is it exclusively using your cable or dsl modem at service' time? Or are other people (or machines) using the same internet access during service? Maybe even a songbeamer pc, or mobile phones in the congregation (due to wellknown wireless passphrases) or something alike?

Maybe its the local daytime you are streaming at, if the local provider gets under pressure due to excessive use of its ressources?
 
So yes, we are hardwired into the LAN, and yes other devices do have access to the network, though they are on our "public" wifi, which is QoS'd down below the "internal" LAN that the streaming PC is attached to. We have 100/100 business grade DSL which *(should) be pretty robust 24/7
 
If you can, shutdown the public wifi for test over a complete service duration to see if it provides to the problem, aside of (working or not) QoS.
 
Everything worked great today! I think it is sorted using the new computer. And I have tested previously over an extended period of time (twice or more the duration of a normal service) during Christmas show rehearsal.

Anyways thanks for the suggestions, it seems that the deprecated laptop was the likely culprit here, even though we used it previously with OBS (2 years ago or so) perhaps the newer versions of OBS since then just expect better hardware.
 
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