Question / Help Bitrate Drops to 0 at set intervals

[RangerDog]

Hello,

I am having an issue where, when I stream to Twitch, my bitrate drops to 0 kb/s at regular intervals, usually every ~5 min, and lasts for almost exactly 30 seconds. After this it returns to normal for another 5 min and repeats. This has been happening consistently, every stream, since I started streaming (about a week ago).

My settings are all aligned with Twitch regulations. I have tested at bitrates from 2500 to 1000, and the problem is consistent.

ISP provides 12x4 speeds. All settings in OBS are default Twitch settings. I have tried increasing CPU Usage Preset, and this does not change the problem.

Additionally, I have tried streaming on smashcast.tv and get very similar results.

Could this be a router issue, like bad hardware?

I have talked to the ISP and they said they have their 1935 TCP port open and it is operating as it should.

Included is a log file that provides an idea of what I'm dealing with. Dropped frames consistently end at about 10% after streaming. This is consistent whether the stream is 30 min or 4 hours.

I am at a loss as to why I am getting such consistent drops. Thank you for any insight you can provide.

-RangerDog

https://gist.github.com/4e84406d9291dc2d16287d0d4490a44d

System Specs:

GPU GTX 970 (updated to latest driver)
CPU: i7 4790 3.6 GHz
16gb ram
Windows 10 (all updates)

-Edited to include github link to a log as well.

 

[Boildown]

18:52:55.064: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Interface: Killer e2200 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.30) (ethernet, 100 mbps)

Try using a non-KillerNic interface on your motherboard, if one exists. If not, disable the "Killer" features. And then see if it still happens.

I had the original KillerNic back in the day, but they refused to update the drivers for Windows 7, so its been collecting dust for a long time now. Anyways, don't have any recent experience with them, but from what I've read the few times they've shown up, they can cause problems.

 

[RangerDog]

Boildown, thank you so much.

You indeed pointed me in the correct direction: motherboard and network card.

While I did not have the KillerSuite of theirs installed, which I read causes a lot of the problems, I was able to find a really great article that talked about Network Adapter Settings that seems to have fixed the problem.

https://www.speedguide.net/articles/network-adapter-optimization-3449

The two settings I suspect that were the main issues were: QoS Packet Scheduler, and Flow Control.

Both of these settings affect packet flow in TCP connections, and disabling them seems to have fixed the problem.

I am right now testing a stream that has been live for 30 minutes and had 14 dropped frames, less than .1%! Before, I couldn't go 5 minutes without losing 10% of my frames.

Anyway, I hope that if anyone else has this issue they can solve it by adjusting their Network Adapter Advanced Settings as well.

I think I'll just buy a Gigabit card at some point to replace it though. I would rather have quality anyway.

 

[Boildown]

Unless you have QoS implemented on your LAN gear, and a reason for using it (ex: IP Phones on your network dropping calls), you should leave QoS off. It just wastes processing power and bandwidth.

 

[jvalois1]

I'm having the same issue. My stream completely drops to 0 kb/s after exactly 9-11 mins for about 5 seconds and then shoots back up to normal. I am commenting to try this tonight. I have the Intel 1211 ethernet card on my motherboard.