Black Screen when streaming from OBS to Twitch. Please help.

[actually_pete]

Hi all, I'm having a strange problem streaming from OBS to Twitch that I'm really hoping someone can help me fix.

My stream was working perfectly 3 days ago (Tuesday evening). Then on Wednesday evening I started stream again (same as any other day), but for some reason, Twitch just shows a black screen. The stream manager notification pops up on the mobile app, and if I open the stream from there, I can hear audio, but no video... just a black screen.

On the desktop, its just black with no audio. I have no idea what caused this seemingly out of nowhere. I didn't change any settings or do anything out of the ordinary between Tuesday and Wednesday and I have been struggling to find a fix for this ever since then. A couple forum threads mentioned that the bit rate might be to high, but no adjustment I make to the bit rate seems to fix this issue. I have tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling OBS and I have checked that everything is up to date. Including my graphics drivers. If anyone can give me some feed back, it would be much appreciated. Log file attached.

 

[PaiSand]

The max resolution Twitch uses is 1920x1080 . To use other resolution you should stream to Youtube.
Twitch is testing 1440p but is limited to a few streamers only.
Also, try a direct connection to their servers avoiding the use of a VPN.

Other thing to look at are:

Analyzer | OBS

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Stream to Twitch, YouTube and many other providers or record your own videos with high quality H264 / AAC encoding.

obsproject.com

Disable HAGS
Disable Game DVR

If the issue happens when using the multi rtmp plugin, you should contact its developer.

 

[actually_pete]

Thanks for getting back to me.

I knew the max resolution was 1080p, but that should only be the height of the frame as far as I'm aware? I've been streaming for months using the ultra-wide resolution of 2560x1080 without any issues. I'm not sure why that would all of a sudden be a problem. My monitor is an ultra-wide that runs at 3440x1440 but the stream is downscaled to 2560x1080. I'd like to keep the stream in this ultra-wide resolution for the best image quality. It would look strange to simply cut off the edges of whatever game I was playing.

I can also confirm that I have tried both with and without a VPN. Neither option works.

 

[prgmitchell]

Thanks for getting back to me.

I knew the max resolution was 1080p, but that should only be the height of the frame as far as I'm aware? I've been streaming for months using the ultra-wide resolution of 2560x1080 without any issues. I'm not sure why that would all of a sudden be a problem. My monitor is an ultra-wide that runs at 3440x1440 but the stream is downscaled to 2560x1080. I'd like to keep the stream in this ultra-wide resolution for the best image quality. It would look strange to simply cut off the edges of whatever game I was playing.

I can also confirm that I have tried both with and without a VPN. Neither option works.

1920x1080 is the max supported resolution.

 

[actually_pete]

Ok, I'll try change the resolution and see if that resolves the problem. Would you have any idea why I've been able to stream for months at 2560x1080 though? It seems odd that its worked perfectly for so long and now just stopped working at random.

 

[prgmitchell]

Ok, I'll try change the resolution and see if that resolves the problem. Would you have any idea why I've been able to stream for months at 2560x1080 though? It seems odd that its worked perfectly for so long and now just stopped working at random.

Changes on the Twitch side of things, "able to do it" and "supported" are entirely different things and when things are not supported they can break at any time.

 

[actually_pete]

Thanks for the assistance. It is definitely frustrating for Twitch make changes like this without even a warning. I was really happy with the way my stream was looking. Anyway, I can confirm that dropping to a lower resolution did resolve the issue. I am using 1720x720 in order to maintain the 21:9 aspect ratio.

 

[sandrix]

Ok, I'll try change the resolution and see if that resolves the problem. Would you have any idea why I've been able to stream for months at 2560x1080 though? It seems odd that its worked perfectly for so long and now just stopped working at random.

In fact, you can even stream in 4K resolution on twitch, and that's a fact. Another thing is that it makes no sense because of the bitrate limitation and the quality will look very bad.Stick to a resolution of no more than 1920x1080 60 fps. If you are not an affiliate streamer or partner, then use a bitrate of 6000 kbps.

I know streamers who have been streaming on twitch in 2K resolution for several years and it makes more sense, but they play slow-paced games.

Previously, the black screen issue was on old mobile devices for streamers who do not have transcoding.

 

[prgmitchell]

In fact, you can even stream in 4K resolution on twitch, and that's a fact. Another thing is that it makes no sense because of the bitrate limitation and the quality will look very bad.Stick to a resolution of no more than 1920x1080 60 fps. If you are not an affiliate streamer or partner, then use a bitrate of 6000 kbps.

I know streamers who have been streaming on twitch in 2K resolution for several years and it makes more sense, but they play slow-paced games.

Previously, the black screen issue was on old mobile devices for streamers who do not have transcoding.

Incorrect...although it may work for some, sometimes, it is not supported. Just today there have been many reports of streaming past 1080p no longer working.

 

[sandrix]

Incorrect...although it may work for some, sometimes, it is not supported. Just today there have been many reports of streaming past 1080p no longer working.

 

[sandrix]

But this does not work for everyone. It's all about CDN servers, so it all depends on the region where the viewer is watching the broadcast, so for some, the original resolutions may not be available. And if the twitch does not transcode the stream, then the viewer will have a black screen.

Yes, most likely, Twitch is updating the infrastructure to provide HEVC support, so more problems have appeared.