Question / Help Best High Motion Twitch.TV Settings For My Setup?

[Lesafian]

I'm very new to live streaming with any streaming software, so I don't quite fully understand how everything works, and I ask of some advice for settings on my setup.

I'm a quality freak, so keep in mind that I'm looking for the highest possible quality for my connection. Frame Rate honestly isn't too much of an issue because I'll mainly be streaming CS:GO, which I cannot see dropping under my capped 300 fps.

Internet Speed
Download: 12mbps
Upload: 2mbps

CS:GO Settings:
Resolution: 1024x768
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (Stretched)

Important Streaming Hardware:
Monitor: Dell S2209W 60hz (5ms)
Webcam: Logitech C170 (1024x768)

PC Specs:
CPU: FX-8320 OC'd @ 4.2ghz
GPU: Sapphire TRI-X R9 290
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Rev.4
PSU: Rosewill Photon 750w 80+ Gold
Storage: 1 x Western Digital 1tb 7200rpm HDD (Storage Drive); 1 x Samsung SSD Plus 240gb (Boot Drive)
Ram: 2 x 4gb (8gb) G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600mhz.
I have sufficient cooling.

I also have an overlay, and a webcam setup for my stream if that means anything.

I just honestly do not want blurryness and pixelation while moving, if possible, I'd like my facecam to be as clear as possible. Face deformity is something I don't want, lol.

Thank you all for taking your time to read my thread, and I appreciate all contributions.

 

[FerretBomb]

720p@30fps, 2000kbps is the recommended 'Golden Point' for non-partnered Twitch streamers. This will result in some blurriness.
480p@30fps, 2000kbps will result in significantly improved visual fidelity.
360p@30fps, 2000kbps will give very good fidelity, but the resolution may be a bit small for your liking and a touch grainy.

That said, you'll notice the 2000kbps rate for each of these, as it's the recommended max bitrate for non-partners, as it is the point at which a majority of Twitch viewers will be able to watch your stream without buffering and then leaving silently for someone else's that plays back smoothly, all while not mentioning a word about it.
Exceeding that rate (even by as little as a bump to 2500kbps) will result in significantly increasing numbers of potential viewers buffering, then as noted above, leaving. Though it can make your stream look somewhat better. This is personal preference, and comes down to 'do some test recordings and watch them, and see what you think'.

There are no 'best settings' for a laundry list of hardware, as there are a lot more variables involved.
Don't get lost chasing numbers; when you first get started with Twitch, it's all about working within the realistic technical limitations available.

edit: Reading the above-mentioned laundry list a bit more carefully, as you only have 2mbps upload (2000kbps) overall, you'll need to dial it back to leave room for bandwidth variation and game overhead. Don't use more than 1500kbps (and that is pushing it) and start out at the 480p level. Also realize that audio is not counted in with the video encode rate, so you may want to try 480p@30fps, 1200kbps with 96kbps AAC audio as your starting point, and go from there based on testing.

 

[Lesafian]

Alright, so I've tried your settings. 1920x1080 downscaled to 480p.

So I started at 1200kbps, quality was bad...

^ Zoom in to see how it truly looks, (mind my salty face)



This pic is at 1300kpbs, looks even worse for some reason.

This next pic is at 1400kpbs. Better

This next pic is at 1500kpbs. Worse than 1400kpbs.

From 1200-1500, I don't really enjoy the quality of any of them. Is there something I can do to increase it?

If you have any other tips let me know!

 

[FerretBomb]

Downscale further, to 360p. Or drop your framerate; the next full-integer divisor down is 20fps. Past that is 240p and 15fps.

When it comes to real-time encoded streaming video, you can't get perfection. You will have to deal with and accept quality losses as a reality of the medium.
It's all a balancing act, trading off one aspect for another, as you don't have the ability to rerender with better compression later, or take however long to transfer a completed file to the server... you have to get the video out in real-time, all while working within the realistic technical considerations imposed by the streaming service and connection you're using.

Just remember. People come and stay for *you*, not because you have crystal-clear video.
The question is more, what can you do best with the resources available to you, and less of how to make it perfect.
You learn to accept, and deal with it. Mitigate expectations.

Also, yeah. Fullscreening a 720p image to 1080p isn't going to look great, under the best of circumstances. :b
I'd instead recommend watching the VOD at native resolution. Most viewers will not go fullscreen anyway, and you do not have the bandwidth budget to make that work to the level you seem to expect.
Even with a stronger upload speed, it wouldn't make too much difference before hitting the 2000kbps recommended limit for non-partners.

 

[Lesafian]

360p just makes it worse.

So I guess I'll just stick with 480p 1300kbps, thanks for the help FerretBomb!!