Question / Help Encoding problems: at the end of my wits

A

Alphena

New Member
So, I'm having serious encoding problems. I'm not sure what the cause is anymore. And I don't even know what all to make sure I include to explain the problem and the steps I've taken, so I'm going to walk through everything that's happened.

I stream full time, 30+ hours a week. I've been using the same settings since I got my new desktop in July 2016.
Desktop Specs:
- i5 6600 K
- Nvidia GTX 1060
- 16 GB RAM
- Samsung 250 GB SSD (boot drive)
- Western Digital 1 TB (storage drive)

Starting Saturday, I encountered a new problem. I booted Skyrim to stream it again, and I received an "Encoding Overload" message that buffered my stream so bad, we restarted stream and went to Borderlands 2 - no problems. I came back to stream Tuesday, and had the same "Encoding Overload " occur - this time the game was Ori and the Blind Forest. I turned off Motion Blur and we continued stream without a problem. Tuesday night I go to stream Minecraft - and the Encoding Overload happens again, and I decide instead of looking into it more when I had time, I needed to fix it now.

I found things in the OBS forums that said it was the "Game Setting" on Windows 10, I turned that off. Test Stream : Encoding Overload.
I changed my settings in OBS to "Ultrafast" : Encoding Overload.
I've verified to have the newest update for OBS : No fix.
I've uninstalled and reinstalled OBS: No Fix.

I checked my Task Manager during a test stream, found a WMI Provider Host error attached to Discord, Reinstalled Discord to keep those now both below 4% CPU. Still got Encoding Overloads.

I'm at my wits end trying to fix this, and streaming is currently what I do for a living. I need to get this fixed as soon as possible, and I'm open to any ideas for fixes anyone has.




Current Stream Settings in OBS
https://gyazo.com/f5aaff1e0ba6fcd6279d3be0a8287183


My last log from a test stream:

https://gist.github.com/b58b5043a1d8c7a4bc0828f18f4b9e8c

- if you can explain how to get some older logs, I'd be happy to provide those as well.
 
Boildown

Boildown

Active Member
15:15:03.712: Output 'adv_stream': Total encoded frames: 16667
15:15:03.712: Output 'adv_stream': Total drawn frames: 16667
15:15:03.712: Output 'adv_stream': Number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 1721 (10.3%)
15:15:03.712: Output 'adv_stream': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 636 (3.8%)
15:15:03.712: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 431 (2.6%)
Click to expand...

So yeah, that's no good at all, especially for UltraFast preset using only 720p.

Possibly your webcam, try disabling it and see if it improves.

Otherwise I think you should check and monitor your CPU temperatures while you do test streams. Often performance going to crap out of the blue is caused by the CPU heatsink getting dislodged, or something like that, and the CPU is throttling itself to keep from burning up.

Other causes could be a driver change of some kind. This is why I'm still on Windows 7, I don't want Microsoft deciding when stuff gets changed on my computer. Also, its a lot easier to troubleshoot if I know for a fact no drivers were changed, whereas if you're not a poweruser on Windows 10, you can't be sure. Anyways, try to find out if any driver level updates got pushed down to you recently.

One more thing...

15:15:03.712: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 431 (2.6%)
Click to expand...

This part is (almost certainly) caused by you using wireless instead of wired. It doesn't explain the other problems, but is an issue unto itself. Use a wired connection. String a temporary cable if you have to, the spec allows up to 100 meters.
 
The_Nothing

The_Nothing

New Member
I am having this same issue.

Boildown, per your previous answer I monitored my CPU while I tried streaming again last night. But I am having the same issue. I just built a new PC a little over two weeks ago. For two weeks it streamed perfectly with no issues, then two days ago it started giving me the same error out of the blue. While streaming, my CPU stays around 38C, and doesn't show any abnormally high usage while monitoring. I do not use a webcam, and I am wired with 300Mbps down and 50Mbps up.

log: https://pastebin.com/7D1fxAm3

Thanks.
 
TaisiHyuuga

TaisiHyuuga

New Member
I'm having the exact same issue as well. Same time frame. Started having issues on Monday and keep getting told it's encoding issues when nothing has changed in my settings.
 
A

Alphena

New Member
Disabling Avast fixed it for most games: However, minecraft is still unstreamable due to the encoding overload. Are there any ideas for that, or should I just give up my minecraft streams?
 
Fenrir

Fenrir

Forum Admin
Grab a clean log file after disabling Game Mode with Avast.

To make a clean log file, first restart OBS, then start your stream/recording for ~30 seconds and stop it again. Make sure you replicate any issues as best you can, which means having any games/apps open and captured, etc. When you're done select Help > Log Files > Upload Current Log File. Copy the URL and paste it here.
 
The_Nothing

The_Nothing

New Member
I just decided to uninstall Avast altogether. I did a test run after in a round of PUBG last night and it didn't seem to have any issues. So I think it may have indeed been Avast. Appreciate everyone's help. If I start to have issues again, I will follow Fenrir's instructions to make a clean log file and post it here.
 
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