Question / Help Difference in Quality (XSplit/OBS)?

[colb]

So, I've been trying to make the switch from XSplit to OBS... mainly because it offers a lot more options & it's free. I like the built in Noise Gate, etc. Generally, just seems like it's more thought out.

My issue, however, is that when using OBS... I find myself with a lower overall stream quality, during high motion scenes. This is puzzling, as both are using the same h.264 codec, with the same bitrates, and as close to the same settings as possible. The only real difference, that I can see, is XSplit offers a "Strict CBR" setting, whereas OBS offers a "CBR Padding" setting.

Below are two streams from the same night, on the same Twitch server. During low/no motion scenes (lobby), they look exactly the same. If you fast forward to a high motion titan battle... XSplit starts to flex it's muscles a bit. So, my question is: Why? Is it falling back on that Strict CBR setting? Is there something I'm missing, such as a codec parameter I can enter manually?

I've Googled and Googled, and I've read several pages of this forum. I've seen answers ranging from "Just enable CBR padding" to "That's as good as it gets with a high motion game". This is frustrating, as I'm ready to drop XSplit already. Halpppp!



OBS: http://www.twitch.tv/mynameiscolb/b/509984531

X-Split: http://www.twitch.tv/mynameiscolb/b/510060311




Quality settings:

540p @ 60fps (downscaled from 720p)
H.264 codec @ 4000 bit rate w/ CBR, 2 second keyframe interval (Strict CBR on XSplit, Tried Padding on & off w/ OBS)
Streaming to Twitch.tv Dallas server
Using default preset for CPU encoding

 

[MysticSpade]

from my personal experience I get far better picture quality using OBS. I do feel your pain in regards to the CBR strict/padding issues. When I stream at 60fps using OBS it'll occasionally drop down to 45fps causing a small stutter on my stream. Also one thing you should know that you may not be aware of unless you're a twitch partner the MAX bitrate you're allowed to stream at is 3500kbps. They actually can warn/ban you for streaming over which is a dick move but they can, so just a heads up.

Random side note... I'm a dallas boy myself.

 

[FerretBomb]

Actually, the max for ANYONE that Twitch wants is 3500kbps; the ingest servers tend to crap themselves if your feed is much past that, and it can be considered a denial-of-service attack as it can impact everyone sending to that ingest server, which is choking on an overly-large feed from one person.

For non-partners the recommended max is 2000kbps.

 

[colb]

Point taken about the bitrate. However, I normally stream at 3000 and the difference is even worse. I was using 4k to test it out, thinking maybe slanted highest bitrate would help.