Question / Help Dedicated PC = better quality? At wit's end here...

[Thebigcheese]

I stream a couple days a week on Beam using OBS FTL (which is really just OBS Studio with a couple tweaks) and am getting really frustrated at the low quality of my video during my streams. I have asked a couple other streamers I watch what they use for settings and in it seems they all have things set the same as I do or even lower but are still getting better results than I am. It makes no sense and it is driving me crazy! Here is how I have it set:

Encoder: x264
Bitrate: 4000 (the max allowed in FTL)
CPU: veryfast
Keyframe Interval: 1 (I have also set it to 3, as they suggest, but it seems to be a little less smooth)
Profile: baseline (no b frames allowed for FTL)
Tune: (none)
Video is 720p @ 60 FPS

I am using the same computer for both streaming and gaming. When I set it to faster, it was using too much CPU for doing both and was looking really choppy, so I switched it back. The stream looks smooth and the game plays well at veryfast, but the video still looks super blocky despite the relatively high bitrate (example here: https://beam.pro/noodohs?vod=708855). And yet, I see other streams where I am told they are running the bitrate at 3500 or even 3000 with the keyframe at 3 (profile has to be baseline or at least have custom options for bframes=0) and getting better video quality. It makes no sense! Am I doing something wrong? For reference, my CPU is an FX6350.

 

[C-Dude]

A dedicated pc for streaming does NOT directly improve the quality of your stream. Twitch allows a maximum bitrate of 3500 so do NOT use 4000. Next, 720p30 looks a lot better/smoother than 720p60 in a lot of cases I would recommend trying it out. However, what matters the msot is your CPU preset, if it is on 'ultrafast' you will be getting terrible compression quality and thus terrible stream quality. the slower you go the better compression you will be able to get.

On your processor you would want to set it to probably veryfast.

Also if you already have it set to veryfast then upload a log

 

[wallrik]

Let me congratulate you on your mic and webcam setup with Chroma Key. It looks super crisp and sounds nice. :)

To add on to above answer, since you're already running a veryfast preset, I think you could first try going back to a Main or High profile. That should give a slight noticeable difference. But it will also increase the latency slightly, so that promised 200ms delay of FTL may not be accurate. (But honestly from what I've been reading it seems gimmicky. I would stick to RTMP if I were you)

After that you can try to increase the keyframe interval to 2 seconds. That's what Twitch and YouTube recommends. It means that the viewer will have to wait up to 2 seconds before a keyframe is encountered and can start seeing the video. It shouldn't make it feel "less smooth". If anything it allows slightly better compression by only inserting I-frames every 120 frames instead of every 60 frames.

Now something more important is that there's something wrong here... As suggested, you can help by uploading your latest log. Because either the VOD is changed, or your settings are not what you think they are. This is your VOD. It is not 60fps and it is not 4000kbps.

 

[Thebigcheese]

Thanks for the responses. Please remember I am not using Twitch, I am using Beam, which has a max bitrate of 4000. FTL requires the baseline profile or it does not work (well, I have set it to main or high and added bframes=0 as a custom option, but I'm not convinced that improved it much). I'm not sure why you think it is gimmicky; it's actually pretty awesome.

Anyway, I did some experiments last night and recorded gameplay using my encoder settings and discovered a couple things. First, zerolatency is a big quality killer and doesn't reduce the delay by much, so turn that off. Second, switching from veryfast to faster really cuts down on blockiness, but my CPU cannot handle faster at 60fps while also playing a game. Seems keeping CPU usage under 40% is key. I will have to experiment with profiles and keyframe intervals, but so far, keeping bitrate at 4000, 30fps on faster produces pretty nice quality at the cost of smoothness whereas 60fps on veryfast is a little blockier but smoother. So in that sense, having a dedicated PC where I could set it to 60fps faster would help. But I cannot afford that, so now I know... Thanks.

Also, thanks for taking the time to watch the video. I have put it a lot of effort trying to get the mic sounding good, experimenting with a lot of different ways of processing the signal. Right now, I am using Voicemeeter because it seems to be the only software of its kind (unfortunate, since the gate pretty much sucks and the compressor is not fantastic and those are the main reasons to use it). I finally got one of those pop-up green screens, which made that easier, too. I'm not sure why the stats show it at a lower bitrate - maybe it has something to do with transcoding it in the player? I am definitely using 4000.

 

[Thebigcheese]

Okay, I take it back. It is definitely noticeably worse looking at the VOD than looking at a recorded version of the same game with the same settings. I am not sure if the stream itself is suffering the same fate, but I am running 720p60 @4000 kbps, veryfast preset, baseline profile, keyframe interval 3, everything else at default. It looks... well, it is acceptable on the recorded footage, but just as blocky as the VOD posted above. Here is my latest VOD: https://beam.pro/noodohs?vod=718776. This starts with Mighty No. 9, which looks fine, then later I moved to Skyrim (about an hour fifteen in) and it looks basically the same as the previous video.

 

[C-Dude]

Sorry I just assumed you were using twitch my bad.

This is why I run at 720p30 with a preset on faster. Veryfast is acceptable though. 60fps is overrated in livestreams in my opinion. Sadly since you have a FX6350 you won't be able to. I don't know why you run on baseline, I've never had a problem with main for streaming. Also whats the advantage of using FTL rather than the normal version?

 

[Thebigcheese]

FTL means subsecond delay. Interacting with chat is amazing - not that it matters for me right now. Currently, FTL has major stuttering if you use anything other than baseline. It does not accept anything that uses B frames. Maybe that will change in the future, but for right now it has to be baseline. To be honest, in the testing I did, I don't notice a huge difference between baseline and high, at least with recorded footage. Veryfast and faster is more noticeable. I think next stream I am going to leave my stream up and watch and also record using the stream encoder and compare them all to try to get to the bottom of this. My recorded tests show that it should look fine, but it doesn't.