Question / Help Best settings for 1mbps upload for streaming 2 screen ?

[TheNibtoubs]

Hi all !
So with my gf we are doing a 2 screen stream wich can be viewed at http://www.twitch.tv/thenibtoubs (we are french).
And as you all can see the stream is kinda pixelated and we want to get rid of that.
Here are my settings :
Encoder : X264
CBR : On
Max bitrate : 800 kb/s
Buffer Size : 800 kb/s
Audio :
Codec : AAC
Bitrate : 48
Channel Stereo
Resolution downscale : 960x540
Filter : Lanczos
FPS : 30 (tried 60 too)

Advanced :
Multithreaded opt : High
CPU preset : Medium
Encoding profile : Main
CFR : On

Here is my rig :
I7 2600K @ 4.2 Ghz
8GB Ram
Sapphire Tri-x 290

Sooo we now need your help !
What can we change or try ? So we can get less pixels and/or better quality..

Speedtest : 31 Ping/11.42 Mbps Down/1.03 Mbps Up.

Thanks !

 

[FerretBomb]

You need more bitrate, plain and simple. Contact your ISP and ask if there is a higher upstream plan available.

You could go to an even slower encoding setting if your CPU can support it, but it isn't going to help much; you *need* more bitrate to improve your quality further.

 

[TheNibtoubs]

We can't have higher upstream unfortunately.. we already have the fastest :(.
Can't we try anything else ?
Thanks for your answer !

 

[Cryonic]

Yeah - change your ISP. 4-6mbit/s are almost always possible if you guys dont live somewhere in the jungle.
If not - forget it. Bitrate has the highest impact on the stream quality so far. While 3500 is the "max" and 2000 is the recommended amount for Twitch.TV (and it will still look awful, but thats what works there, other sites offer way higher bitrates without problems)... Your 1mbit/s is really low. Dont forget that background tasks also need bandwith (Voice clients etc) and specially if you play online, your ping will suffer really hard if you dont leave at least 500kbps for the game to work with.
If your area offers good 4G LTE coverage with reasonable prices, this might be an option. But as a streamer i highly recommend 4mbit/s or higher, with 100mbit/s being optimal and 1gbit/s being lucky as **** :-)
I suffer here with 6mbit/s on a shared connection. Thx to a good router i have the full control over the bandwith and applications, so they dont ruin the videofeed, but this is a pain in the ***...

 

[FerretBomb]

And so the eternal game of telephone rolls on, with people parroting settings they read from a guide, written by someone who heard them from somewhere else and have no damn idea what they do.

Don't use custom x264 settings unless you know EXACTLY what each of them do, and most importantly WHY you're setting them. Most 'best guides' out there are full of crap.

 

[TheNibtoubs]

Well I know that 1Mbps is not enough and that sucks..
Soo I atm we are using 850 kb/s, 480p, slow preset, it's a bit better..
Yeah FerretBomb we would never try custom x264 settings anyway don't want to mess with this.
So, no idea about what we can try ? Maybe 360p ? But that will look like shit I think :(

 

[FerretBomb]

You can drop the resolution, or the framerate.

bitrate\(height * width * framerate) = bit per pixel density. bpp density is a rough estimator of quality.

But yeah, I'd probably try at 480p@25fps (or 360p) to see if that's any better. The real problem at that point is that your gameplay (from peeking at your stream layout) is going to be TINY. I mean, it already is, but it's going to be even tinier.

You might try 480p or 360p, and try a diagonal-cross layout instead of side-by-side. It cuts off the bottom right corner of one feed and the upper left of the other, but it also allows individual webcams beside each game, and you can use the overlap in the middle for a frame/image to display your chat (so the two game feeds are balanced, instead of just one overlapping the other).