Question / Help Best Twitch.TV Encoding Settings?

[xSonic521x]

I have a fairly good internet, around 90mbps which comes to 10 MegaBytes Per Second, I have a very good cpu, a 4770K, but what I want to do, is find the perfect bit rate and buffer size "if using custom buffer is recommended" that won't give my viewers a "spike" hit and cause the video for them to lag or buffer or anything like that out of the blue for them. And aside from numbers, should the buffer size be higher, or lower than the bit rate if, again using that feature? I've seen a lot of conflicting posts on here when searching so I'm not sure. I also stream at 720p at 60 FPS. I was told a bit rate of about 2500 should be good for everyone, not sure about the buffer size if using custom, but I do tend to play a lot of fast motion games.

 

[Lain]

You can reduce the spiking a bit by reducing the buffer size to about 75% of the bitrate. I personally prefer 3000 bitrate for 720p 60fps though, but depending on your preset you could get by with less perhaps.

 

[xSonic521x]

So a lower buffer size is in a sense the cure? But what exactly does that do in terms of the video quality?

 

[Lain]

Depends on how much motion is on the stream. Using equal buffer size is better if higher motion.

 

[xSonic521x]

I figured. But that's what's been causing the spike for many people. I'm at a dilema. I want to satify most of my viewers if I can't do all in terms of bandwidth, but also want fairly good quality, like, good not just, eh so they can enjoy the quality of the video as well in very fast paced games. And I'm afraid to even go near the 3500 bit rate for their sake.

 

[Lain]

Well you have a good computer, you could always try a different preset to see if it grants you any extra quality and then set the bitrate as low as it can go without sacrificing quality (test this locally), though it may eat in to your game depending on how low you go with the preset. Generally you just need to experiment to find the best settings.

 

[xSonic521x]

I suppose. Even if I do 3500 bit rate and 3500 buffer, even on my phone it's seamless. I've had other people I know with good internet try it as well and it was fine for them too, it just kinda puzzles me how either a small change in the buffer or their internet can make a huge impact, I mean we are talking about a 5.0 megabyte download speed for the viewers (if it spikes that high) are we not? Maybe it has to do with where the data actually goes and how it gets there before arriving to the viewer. *Shrugs*

 

[xSonic521x]

Also, what cpu preset would you guys recommend? I have it set to faster, and I don't want to go too far down if the quality is very hard to notice. Also, is 3000 an acceptable bitrate with a 2500 buffer for most people?

 

[CritVV]

the 4770k is easily capable of running a fast preset at 720p @ 60 fps, since I can already run my 3570k at faster prest on 720p @ 60 fps. Though, I would suggest these settings to try:

720p @ 45 FPS
Fast Preset
Lanczos filter
3000 bitrate/buffer

The 45 FPS is a good balance between smoothness and picture quality. It will make your stream look almost as smooth as 60 fps, while having more pixels allocated per/frame, which makes your stream look less pixelated.

 

[xSonic521x]

I was told the difference between fast and faster is so small it's not worth the hit even if I do have some spare cpu room which I would like to have for anything just incase loads suddenly increase. I don't do any downscaling, and the issue I'm focusing on is my viewers, trying to find the right bit rate and buffer rate while keeping 720p with 60 fps.

 

[CritVV]

I was told the difference between fast and faster is so small it's not worth the hit even if I do have some spare cpu room which I would like to have for anything just incase loads suddenly increase. I don't do any downscaling, and the issue I'm focusing on is my viewers, trying to find the right bit rate and buffer rate while keeping 720p with 60 fps.

Although the difference is small between faster and fast settings, it is noticeable. It is more noticeable when streaming at higher resolutions and or framerate. The nice thing about compression is that it gives you the ability to achieve the same quality with less bitrate.

So for instance, 720p @ 60 FPS at Fast preset at 2500 bitrate can look as good as 720p@60 FPS on 3000 bitrate, or maybe even 3500 with a veryfast preset. The preset does not really "Enhance" picture quality from my experience. It just reduces any blocking/pixelation seen when streaming at to low of a bitrate.