Question / Help Bleeding/Blurry/Pixelated Stream

[WTFender]

Hello.

I am having a bit of trouble "dialing" in my settings for my stream. I have lots of pixelation/blurriness during high motion scenes and my crosshair tends to bleed on the screen (leaving a trail).

To my knowledge, I have the hardware (i7-4930k, GTX 780, 16GB RAM) and upload (60down/5up) to handle 720p@60fps, but it doesn't look as nice as I expected.

Here is a sample video: http://www.twitch.tv/wtfender/c/3700764

And my log file: http://pastebin.com/YLXStXEF

I have mostly changed my settings based off of the other threads on the forums, but would appreciate any advice on trying out some new things.

pls halp :)

 

[Sapiens]

The quality is completely in line with the settings you're using. Since you have a 4930K you have plenty of CPU power to spare for encoding, so try bumping your preset up to fast or even medium and testing again.

 

[FerretBomb]

Your stream looks quite good, for what it is... an ULTRA high-motion game.

Unfortunately, with current technology there is no way to get a 1:1 stream; to improve image clarity, you can drop to 30fps, go to a slower encoding preset (if your system has the spare CPU available; monitor this!), or theoretically raise the bitrate even further into the 'here there be dragons' realm that can make Twitch make angry-eyes at you (or cause the ingest server to crap itself on your stream).

I'd advise trying the drop to 30fps first, then add on the slower encoding preset (dropping framerate will also free up CPU cycles, allowing you to improve image fidelity).

Short version is though, when you're moving THAT much, THAT fast? You're going to pixellate. This is the 'managing expectations' point, though the above may get you better fidelity if you can deal with the lower framerate (which next to no one is going to notice, by the way... 60fps is largely unnecessary other than as an ego-stroke).

 

[Sapiens]

Streaming at 60 FPS for a game like Quake Live is almost standard, and given his specs I don't think lowering the frame rate is a reasonable suggestion.

 

[FerretBomb]

Again, it's an ego-stroke. 'Standard' or not. Are you saying that dropping to 30fps will fail to improve his image fidelity? As in, far more than dropping a step or two on the encoder speed could HOPE to do, on its own?

Which is also why I ended with noting that he's at the 'managing expectations' point.

 

[Sapiens]

It's standard because of the extremely high motion nature of Quake Live, and makes a noticeable improvement to the viewer experience in this case. Don't ask daft questions about whether I'm saying that lowering the stream frame rate wouldn't improve quality. Of course it would, but I'm tailoring my suggestions based on what he's streaming and the hardware he's working with.

 

[FerretBomb]

I would disagree. Again, it's mostly an ego-stroke, by comparison. The viewer experience is primarily psychosomatic. Label a 30 (or even a 45fps) stream as 60, and 95% of anyone watching won't be able to tell the difference without going side-by-side, or tossing it through an analyzer.

We have different opinions on the best course of action here. Just felt that a bit of push-back was necessary, as it seemed like entirely valid advice on how to improve quality (eg: the original question) was being sidelined because 'everyone is doing it'. Which is a TERRIBLE reason to offer advice. And this isn't the first time, Sapiens.

 

[WTFender]

Thank you for the suggestions guys. I stream a lot of counter-strike too, so I might just flip back and forth through the settings.

I felt kind of bad posting the thread in the first place because I know there are people with way worth issues than me.