Bitrate Crashes & Spikes Despite Great Connection Speed

A

AbsoluteToaster

New Member
Hi there

When I'm streaming to Facebook via OBS (happens on SLOBS too) my stream bitrate intermediately tanks and causes massive frame drops to the point the stream becomes unwatchable. I've also noticed the bitrate spiking well above my CBR setting of 6000. My upload speed is around 74 so streaming at 1080p60 with 6000 bitrate should not be an issue at all but in any case, my bitrate can also tank when I have it set as low as 4000.

The crashing is semi random as I have noticed somewhat of a pattern which includes when I start of a game of Warzone. I often notice the infamous red box on OBS appearing as I've just loaded into the pre game lobby which suggests to me it may be something to do with my router? However at the same time my internet connection is all good, I don't disconnect from the lobby, I can still see my chat angrily telling me the stream is lagging so I'm honestly stumped. When this happens I just stop and start the stream again and the stream goes back to normal until it eventually starts messing up again. I'll list some troubleshooting I have attempted already however with some expertise I'm willing to try anything again.

Disabling firewall
Opening ports 1935, 80 & 443
Disabling UPnP
Tried various bitrates, including VBR and dynamic bitrate settings
Ran OBS in Admin
Reset and restarting the router
Restarting the game (this is on Xbox fyi)

Also for the record both my PC and Xbox are connected via ethernet.

Please please please someone put me out of my misery, I've been battling this issue for months and I'd love to fix it. Let me know if you need anymore info from me.

Thanks!
 

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R

rockbottom

Active Member
You didn't drop any frames the 1st time you streamed but it went downhill from there....
21:20:59.500: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 2627 (17.4%)
21:31:38.624: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1144 (3.0%)
22:00:51.279: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1075 (1.0%)
22:11:29.369: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 2734 (7.2%)
22:52:10.537: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 2391 (1.6%)
22:59:44.975: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1197 (4.4%)
23:05:56.061: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1613 (7.3%)
23:09:10.493: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1202 (10.5%)
23:14:18.050: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 711 (3.9%)
23:57:18.617: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 2246 (1.5%)
00:15:54.534: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 3926 (5.9%)
00:24:47.153: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 998 (3.1%)
00:39:36.440: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 51 (0.1%)

Some other things that should be addressed (there may be more):

Disable Game DVR
20:44:13.577: Game DVR: On

Enable Game Mode

20:44:15.747: [DShow Device: 'Elgato HD60s'] settings updated:
20:44:15.747: video device: Game Capture HD60 S (Video) (#01)
20:44:15.747: video path: \\?\usb#vid_0fd9&pid_005e#0311fd07cf#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\{6f814be9-9af6-43cf-9249-c0340100021f}
20:44:15.747: resolution: 1920x1080
20:44:15.747: flip: 0
20:44:15.747: fps: 29.97 (interval: 333667)
20:44:15.747: format: YV12
20:44:15.751: using video device audio: no
20:44:15.751: separate audio filter
20:44:15.751: sample rate: 48000
20:44:15.751: channels: 2
20:44:15.751: audio type: Capture
20:44:35.024: A sprite cannot be drawn without a width/height
20:45:13.715: Settings changed (audio)

Audio Buffering is an issue & needs to be corrected:
20:44:14.728: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 42 milliseconds (source: Mic/Aux)
21:03:58.091: adding 234 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 277 milliseconds (source: Illuminate)
21:15:19.549: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 298 milliseconds (source: FB Reactions)
00:39:11.826: Max audio buffering reached!
00:39:11.827: adding 661 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 960 milliseconds (source: Scotland Flag)

I'm not experiencing any memory leaks with this version of OBS, even with several plugins installed (StreamFX, Multi RTMP Output & NDI), you seem to have created them on your own.
00:40:21.089: Number of memory leaks: 111

You didn't drop any frames due to encoding lag but if you do in the future, switch to the Quality Preset & uncheck Psycho Visual Tuning.
 
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A

AbsoluteToaster

New Member
Hey really appreciate you highlighting those for me. Addressed the basic ones although I'm not sure what to do re the memory leak.

Did another test stream tonight after messing about with some network adapter settings and still no joy.
 
R

rockbottom

Active Member
Your GoXLR looks cool but I'm thinking it may be the source of the leaks....

Verify everything is working as it should in your LAN & call your ISP. If you're on cable, the NODE you're connected to may be getting swamped by your neighbors.

High saturation node, slow internet speeds, intermittent drops and nothing they can do? | Cox Community

I'm hoping to get some additional assistance for our internet woes. We contacted Cox on April 15th because we experienced an outage with our internet...
forums.cox.com forums.cox.com
 
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A

AbsoluteToaster

New Member
Hey there, just regarding the bitrate issues again.

I did some test streams today and noted that every Facebook test stream I did ran into bitrate issues within an hour however I managed to stream for an hour both on twitch and Youtube without issue.

Is it possible the bitrate problem is on Facebook's side as like I said in the OP. My internet is still all working fine on all devices whenever the bitrate crashes.

Thanks!
 
A

AbsoluteToaster

New Member
Hey just updating this with further findings.

I created my own custom rtmp nginx server and tried streaming to Facebook via that and found the results interesting. The bitrate issue on Facebook's side crashed eventually as always however I did not have one dropped frame or red box on OBS.

Surely this 100% confirms this issue is on Facebook's side?

I'd also like to add I've tried every Facebook ingest server publicly available and they all crash too. Something is definitely up but it's just so frustrating as none of my fellow FB streamers in the UK are having the same problem as me.
 
R

rockbottom

Active Member
I can't say for sure, I've never used Nginx (I use MistServer) & I don't have a Facebook account.

I good test might be to give a friend or 2 access to your stream from Nginx & see how that goes.
 
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