Question / Help Blocky, pixelated streams and recordings

[scudpunk]

I'm a recently partnered streamer and I decided to up my settings from 720p 30fps 2000kbps maxbitrate up to 720p 60fps 3500kbps because I figured with quality options streaming higher fps and bitrate would be fine. Before streaming at my new settings I decided to do some local recordings to see how the stream looks and the recordings came out very pixelated and blocky during camera movement (i play rust, a fast paced fps game). Then I messed around with other resolutions, bitrates and framerates and they ALL look blocky and pixelated in the recordings. I looked at some of my old broadcasts and compared them to other streamers and I realized that my stream has always been a little bit "pixely". I'm really at a loss and the technical side of streaming has always been a bit over my head.

I noticed that my cpu usage is only at like 30-40% while recording and playing Rust, not sure if that has anything to do with the issue

Here are my specs

47mbps upload speed
Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz CPU
ASRock Z97 Anniversary Mobo
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB RAM
Geforce GTX 980TI
Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" SSD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM HDD
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CPU Cooler
Thermaltake TR2 700W ATX PSU
Corsair Carbide Series 300R Case

Thank you in advanced for any help, and please let me know if you need any other info.

 

[dping]

NVENC will give crap quality at lower bitrate for local recordings (or streaming for that matter).

either increase the bitrate/buffer to 10-15k or switch to x264, preset superfast, buffer 0

 

[scudpunk]

NVENC will give crap quality at lower bitrate for local recordings (or streaming for that matter).

either increase the bitrate/buffer to 10-15k or switch to x264, preset superfast, buffer 0

I've had the exact same results with NVENC and x264, I'm much more worried about stream quality than local recordings, I was only using local recordings to test the quality with my new settings before actually streaming with them. Only reason NVENC was enabled was because I was trying to experiment with different options. I will switch it back to x264 but the pixelation will still be present.

 

[scudpunk]

Here's another logfile of a recording I did with x264 720p 60fps 3500kbps on the medium preset, my cpu usage was under 50% the whole time I was recording, the pixalation was really gnarly with this recording.

 

[dping]

Here's another logfile of a recording I did with x264 720p 60fps 3500kbps on the medium preset, my cpu usage was under 50% the whole time I was recording, the pixalation was really gnarly with this recording.

your settings are all off for local recording. no need to use med preset, use what I said above and also turn off cbr

 

[scudpunk]

your settings are all off for local recording. no need to use med preset, use what I said above and also turn off cbr

I did another recording with the settings you specified and I still am not noticing much of a difference. If the recordings look like shit is that a good indicator that the stream will look like shit as well with the respective settings changed (obviously if i'm streaming I will change the preset to veryfast, leave cbr on and buffer 400)?

Sorry man I'm just desperate at this point, have been messing with this stuff all day and nothing seems to be helping. Like i said I'm really not even worried about recordings, I just want my stream to look good.

Here's the logfile from the last recording if your interested

 

[scudpunk]

So I decided to just try streaming on a throwaway twitch account and see if the results would be any better than the recordings, 720p, 60fps, 3500kbps, superfast preset. It looks equally as shitty as the recordings. Here's a link to the VOD and I will attach the logfile aswell http://www.twitch.tv/scudbutt/v/31977350

 

[dping]

So I decided to just try streaming on a throwaway twitch account and see if the results would be any better than the recordings, 720p, 60fps, 3500kbps, superfast preset. It looks equally as shitty as the recordings. Here's a link to the VOD and I will attach the logfile aswell http://www.twitch.tv/scudbutt/v/31977350

The settings I gave you were not for streaming but recording. sorry, didn't realize youwere doing both.

for streams, use med preset if you can, but you cannot compare the quality of a stream as being "bad" because almost all stream settings will look bad due to the limited bitrate. yes, 3500 will look like crap for local recording because you can get a whole lot more quality out of the stream than 3500.

That being said, I use your medium preset but I will say runescape will not look good due to the grass and foliage. this is because those textures are harder on encoders.. there isn't much you can do about this with a 4790k besides going down to 30fps and using slow preset with maybe 3000 bitrate.

 

[scudpunk]

The settings I gave you were not for streaming but recording. sorry, didn't realize youwere doing both.

for streams, use med preset if you can, but you cannot compare the quality of a stream as being "bad" because almost all stream settings will look bad due to the limited bitrate. yes, 3500 will look like crap for local recording because you can get a whole lot more quality out of the stream than 3500.

That being said, I use your medium preset but I will say runescape will not look good due to the grass and foliage. this is because those textures are harder on encoders.. there isn't much you can do about this with a 4790k besides going down to 30fps and using slow preset with maybe 3000 bitrate.

No worries dude! thank you so much for taking the time to try to help me out. Another partnered rust streamer with almost identical specs as me (same GPU, CPU and RAM) is streaming rust at 60fps and it looks really smooth, he without much pixelation, thats why I'm a bit confused why I can't achieve the same results with the same specs Here's a link to one of his VODS http://www.twitch.tv/cuda87/v/31419695. I reached out to him and he is also using the same settings as me (720p, 60fps, 3500kbs) I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking or something I'm doing wrong.

I will try medium preset, and maybe even just settle with 30fps at 3000kbps, Thanks again or your help. I really really appreciate it.

 

[dping]

No worries dude! thank you so much for taking the time to try to help me out. Another partnered rust streamer with almost identical specs as me (same GPU, CPU and RAM) is streaming rust at 60fps and it looks really smooth, he without much pixelation, thats why I'm a bit confused why I can't achieve the same results with the same specs Here's a link to one of his VODS http://www.twitch.tv/cuda87/v/31419695. I reached out to him and he is also using the same settings as me (720p, 60fps, 3500kbs) I'm wondering if there's something I'm overlooking or something I'm doing wrong.

I will try medium preset, and maybe even just settle with 30fps at 3000kbps, Thanks again or your help. I really really appreciate it.

well yeah, the lower the preset the better the quality but also note that your FOV is really high meaning more grass to encode. so maybe sacrificing that 60fps for 30 would get you closer to your quality goal.

 

[Robinthepoor]

NVENC will give crap quality at lower bitrate for local recordings (or streaming for that matter).

either increase the bitrate/buffer to 10-15k or switch to x264, preset superfast, buffer 0

NVENC will give crap quality ... EVEN with a MOST POWERFUL and EXPENSIVE CARD like e.g.
GTX 980Ti ?

Please i am very interested for an answer cause i have plan for streaming at 1280x720 but at lower bitrates than 3500 ... The problem is that i was try .. with 750 ti but... on moving scenes have much pixelated !!

 

[Harold]

Yes, even with the 980ti or the titan x. It's a limitation of the encoder, not the hardware itself.

 

[Robinthepoor]

Yes, even with the 980ti or the titan x. It's a limitation of the encoder, not the hardware itself.

Thank very much ! One last question ... if i will try with x.264 and the 980ti ... the CPU will be more low at USAGE ... ? Or ... doesnt mutter?

 

[Harold]

x264 is CPU based encoding, not GPU.

The CPU usage will be higher with it, but a 4770(K)/4790(K) i7 can handle it easily.

 

[Robinthepoor]

x264 is CPU based encoding, not GPU.

The CPU usage will be higher with it, but a 4770(K)/4790(K) i7 can handle it easily.

Thank you very much for your answer !!

 

[dping]

Thank you very much for your answer !!

Did you seriously hijack a thread for your questions? please, next time just start a new thread.