Question / Help Bitrate, Twitch

[Hikarigaiden]

This is not a problem with OBS per sé, rather my streaming experience in general, and I believe there might be someone here that could give me some useful input.
I've had a love/hate-relationship with twitch for years now; love because it's fun when it works, and hate because it never really works (consistently).

When twitch first started up, and on other streaming sites like own3d.tv and hashd.tv (both of which are dead now), I could stream at 4000+ (6000+ at hash).
My problem nowadays is that my stream lags. More specifically, while watching my stream on my second monitor, I see it freeze, and the new round loading animation shows up. Then it might run a few more seconds, then stop again. This happens on all bitrates above 500.
However ONLY during certain times of the day.

For example yesterday, I was going to stream some games of DotA, I start up my OBS, streaming at 1200 bitrate. Nope. Later that night (as in 3 AM) after some tweaking I can suddenly stream stably at 3200 bitrate (usually test with movies and such, it's pretty fun).
Then again today, I start up OBS and press Start Streaming with the exact same settings that could stream an entire 25 min long episode without a hiccup 15 hours earlier. Freezes continually. A few hours later I can push through 14000 bitrate through xsplits testing thingie (couldn't manage 1500 half an hour earlier). Followed by a try of freezes again now during writing.

Some information:
I can't really see anything indicating there's a problem in OBS or Xsplit. This is not a setting problem (I don't think I've ever seen a VOD with any problem).
However, I've been experimenting for literally years, and one thing I've come across is the application shown in the picture below, TCPRelay. I'm not sure exactly what it does, but it reroutes bitrates in some way, and it's been helpful at times. Anyway, it seems that when I freeze (whatever the reason is), TCPRelay looks choppy like in the picture (and OBS also shows alternating bitrate, this was between 2200 and 3300), as opposed to being smooth like in the good pic.

A typical speedtest: http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/panel-21424693-image-c833cbc5762fee0c-320.png

Anyway, I hope someone has some has some help to offer. If you need to know aything more please ask.

I dream about the day I can start my computer, open up my OBS and just press Start Streaming.

 

[R1CH]

Sounds like your internet is just unstable. Follow the guidelines in the dropped frame sticky thread, and if that fails try contacting your ISP. Also do not use TCPRelay with OBS, it will likely produce worse results as OBS send window tuning will not have a chance to run.

 

[alpinlol]

well if you dont drop frames and your vod's dont lagg that means its only a buffering problem which has been there for over 1 year now following twitch they keep improving their servers and all that stuff .... but its just never enough.

usually people say at around 2000 bitrate they get a solid stream as a non partnered streamer obviously

but if you actually drop frames it has to be something wrong with your isp

 

[Hikarigaiden]

Nope no dropped frames. And Hitbox seems to run pretty smooth at 4000+.
I guess it was always between me and Twitch.
I'll think I'll aim at just below 2000 at Twitch for a few days, and if it's too unreliable I'll just abandon it.
Thanks for the input on Relay and OBS!

 

[Hikarigaiden]

It seems I can push through 750 bitrate at all times at least. Maybe a little more, but I'm not gonna push it.
So now I'm trying to make a 480p stream look as good as possible by adjusting everything other than bitrate!

 

[Boildown]

The better Twitch makes their servers, the more people use it, which makes Twitch worse during prime time hours, and then they have to make their servers better again. That'll probably continue until they're as popular as YouTube. Not sure anything can be done other than 1) getting partnered, or 2) only use as much bitrate as absolutely necessary.

In the U.S. things seem to be much better, maybe because of our smaller population density, who knows?

 

[Hikarigaiden]

Update:

Currently lagging even at 750 bitrate... I give up.

 

[UberDragon]

Well, this might hurt, but if you're always having problems with twitch but everything works fine on hitbox you should probably consider switching over to hitbox.

 

[FerretBomb]

Except that as far as I know, Hitbox is being put together by the same schmucks who ran Own3D, and decided that paying their streamers wasn't necessary. Which is why Own3D isn't around any more.

Seriously, I see so many people recommending it, without actually looking into it.

 

[dodgepong]

If you had actually looked into it, though, you would know that the only two "schmucks" who were involved with own3d that are running hitbox were own3d's CTO (with own3d's tech being one of the reasons they were liked) and the CFO, who own3d only hired after they started sinking hoping he could save them. He couldn't, because they were too far gone, but it wasn't his fault.

So both of the people involved with hitbox who were with own3d are not to be blamed for own3d's failure or past mistakes.

 

[FerretBomb]

Wait, so the magic recipe of 'paying the people we're legally contracted to' didn't work? Far as I knew, Own3D went out without sending any more contracted payments at all... which would seem like a pretty good place to start saving the sinking ship. Unless it was more of a 'cauterize and die smoothly' sort of 'save'. Likewise, if the CTO didn't have the balls to stand up when the problems were coming to light? Just another executive saying 'not my problem' and pulling a paycheck. I've known too many of that sort over the years.

So no, I'm still steering well clear for the foreseeable future. It might be great. But it's still a little like a child molester running a charity for battered women and children at this point, given the history involved.

 

[dodgepong]

You can't pay people with money you don't have. The own3d people didn't have money, so they hired a new CFO to fix the problem. The CFO couldn't fix an unfixable problem, so own3d folded. It wasn't the CFO's fault. It was the other people's fault.

You can do whatever you want, though, but the fact is that the people in charge of hitbox are not to be blamed for own3d's failures.

 

[Yoshen]

I too have been experiencing this very same problem...

I have business class FIOS @ 150Mb down and 65up which never fluctuates

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3264073882

I have more than enough bandwidth to stream at 1080p at 10,000 bitrate if I liked.

However my video freezes often even at 3,500 on twitch. I do not experience this on instagib or hitbox.

I’ve been able to stream at 10,000 bit rate on other service besides for twitch which gives me a sharp picture even when turning a lot in game, however all services can only seem to handle it for only so long.

I have been becoming increasingly frustrated with twitch because of people complaining about the video freezing up.

I am however testing your beta build v0.60b to take advantage of Nvidia NVENC which I absolutely LOVE! The performance hit is minimal but I do see people posting on other threads that it’s blurrier when turning in game at 3500 bitrate than when not using it.

I would love to work to get this resolved.

 

[dodgepong]

If it works on other services besides Twitch, then the issue lies with your connection to Twitch. If changing ingest servers doesn't help, then there's not much we can do.

 

[Boildown]

If they're not transcoding your content (i.e. with Twitch you're not partnered), you're only hurting your viewers by uploading at a bitrate they can't download, or that Twitch can't handle. And this is on you to get resolved, not OBS, not your ISP, and not really on Twitch either, as I would have to agree that sending over 3500 for a free service is abusing their bandwidth.