Question / Help Dropped frames streaming (red light status)

[blueyou]

Hello,

I tried looking through alot of Q&A's on the forums and there was no definite answer to my problem so here goes...I have been using obs for months on/off and recently (mid july to present) ive been having issues streaming. I used to stream a 720p@4000kb/s 60fps but then the problem occurred. my status would start green, then 10 seconds later it would start flickering and then id get alot of dropped frames. I thought id be patient and wait until twitch someday resets their servers, or less people were online and give it a go but no luck. Im getting roughly around 50% dropped frames at times and ive tried different settings for about 3 days straight now and im dumbfounded. i cant even push out 1000kb's w/o dropped frames on just a pic or even a black screen.


ive contacted my isp many times through the phone and online for the past month but they are ensuring me its not throttling. i have come to believe them now that i tried many tests (http://testmy.net, speedtest etc) and other methods of tracking bitrate but they all seem fine Im actually getting 100mb/s more than advertised on my dl


im running an i5 3570k & gtx 670.
up 250mb/s down 10mb/s


heres my logfile: http://pastebin.com/4hPD1GNu

 

[Kharay]

Your DL doesn't matter when streaming. So, please, do a test on testmy.net/upload, making sure to use a test server near the stream server you would prefer to stream to. Really, do make sure to actually pick the proper test server. Thing is, we need to establish just how much you can maintain to the stream server's location.

To determine whether your ISP actually is shaping your traffic or not, use Shaper Probe -- http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~partha/diffpr ... probe.html

 

[blueyou]

I never said my dl matters,I stated that i was getting more than advertised speeds. its all upload. I already used testmy.net (as stated above) i did a 6 and 33 mb test, results were fine. shaper probe also.

However, after going through my logfile i noticed that certain buffer frames were not going through?
"Number of b-frames dropped: 941 (32%), Number of p-frames dropped: 967 (32%), Total 1908 (64%)"
im not sure if something like this matters, but seems abnormal to me.

 

[Kharay]

Dropped frames -- Connection falling behind (for whatever reason).
Late frames -- PC falling behind (for whatever reason).

In this case, it is your connection to Twitch that somehow is falling short. I am not implying it is your Internet connection in itself. Just saying that you are experiencing issues with your connection to Twitch. Which is not OBS' fault. ;)

Either try a different Twitch.TV server (actually has been known to help) or drop the bitrate in steps of 50 Kbps until it stops dropping frames. Nothing is wrong with OBS' netcode, it's fine.

 

[blueyou]

ive dropped my bitrate from 4k down by 100's to 1k and still the same results occur. at one point i wouldnt get much dropped frames @ 2300kb/s but the status light would change from green/yellow/orange/red with about 3% dropped frames. I can just be streaming an image at 800kb/s still dropped frames.

Switching servers, same results happen from ashburn, ashburn secondary, new york ny, and the texas servers.

 

[alpinlol]

your isp doesnt like that upload ... so lower your bitrate start at 2000 and go slightly up to a point where you start dropping frames and then stay like 50-100 under that bitrate ... problem solved

 

[Kharay]

I can just be streaming an image at 800kb/s still dropped frames.

Try disabling any and all firewalls you have installed on your PC; try rebooting the router; try scanning for malware eating up bandwidth; try connecting your PC directly to your modem.

Again, OBS' netcode is not this flawed. As any piece of software, there is always room for improvement but... not this much.

 

[blueyou]

thanks for the help but ive already tried both of the above mentioned...@2300 bitrate it was most stable & ive read through the forums for days and tried many many solutions...im also aware that obs is not flawed. never stated once it was, but i think ill focus on why b and p frames are being dropped (as stated in the log)

 

[Kharay]

The type of frames being dropped is completely irrelevant; frames are being dropped either way. It has nothing to do with their type. In fact, go and do the following, add bframes=0 to the custom x264 settings and I am telling you, it won't matter. The number of p-frames dropped will simply double (as there are no more b-frames).