Question / Help Exhausted all other options, please help

[@ryselethal]

Hello, i made a post a few days ago about how i was dropping frames for no apparent reason. i have read all forums concerning this issue. I did a speedtest to chicago (the closest streaming server too me) and had 10 down and 4.56 upload. I have an i5 4440 processor. now heres what happens, i will start up my stream, say at 1700 bits and everything will be fine, the indicator will stay green for awhile, then it will say im streaming at like 250 bits or something ridiculously low like that then after a few seconds it will return to normal. at first this appeared to be an isp related issue, i did the shaper probe test and my median upload was 4300, to be sure i called my isp and asked if they were throttling my upload speed and they looked into it and they were not. i have been trying to fix this issue for about a week now, i didnt want to make a long post before i tried everything else. if i could get someones help via teamviewer or skype or something, even to just verify that it is a connection problem. i replaced my old router with a Netgear nighthawk r700 and changed all my ca5 cables to cat6 550 htz cables to be sure it was not a hardware problem. thank you for taking the time to read this

 

[@ryselethal]

here is some more information

 

[FerretBomb]

A logfile would be more useful than screenshots; it will tell us everything those screenshots will (aside from the speedtest.net results, which are worthless for livestreamers as it tests a different type of connection than livestreaming uses) plus more information that isn't included there about what's actually happening on the back end. Also, Cat5->Cat6 likely wasn't necessary, but good on you for being proactive.

All of that said though, the Chicago and Dallas ingests seem to be having problems lately; I'll start dropping a mess of frames out of nowhere for no apparent reason (and it's not on my end, I have appropriate throughput monitoring in place).

Likewise, ~2100kbps is nowhere NEAR enough for 1080p@30fps... and an i5 likely isn't going to be able to handle that kind of encoding load while also playing a game without skipping/duping frames anyway. Likely unrelated if they're actual *dropped* frames though.

 

[Hopewithinchaos]

Ferret had a great set of information there. Also, think of streaming at 1080P this way: Most people are on Laptops. Laptops average max resolution is 1366x768. only slightly more than 720P's 1280x720. Knock it down to 720 and chill on the encoding power a bit.

 

[@ryselethal]

hey guys, thanks for the responses, i tried downscaling my resolution and within 2 mins i dropped over 300 frames. heres the log. just got off the phone with the manager at my isp and i asked him if is was on their end and once again they blamed it on my computer or program

 

[Jack0r]

Well, have you tried different servers? As ferret mentioned he also drops frames to Chicago/Dallas sometimes. And twitch.tv servers can easily be overloaded at spike times. There is also no downside in using a further away server as long as the connection is good.

 

[@ryselethal]

i will try this right now> i will try new york and virginia and post my results. thanks again for the continued help

 

[@ryselethal]

streamed for 3 minutes, 400 frames dropped. i dont think there is much hope for me lol.

 

[Boildown]

Find out how low you have to set your bitrate until it stops dropping frames. Use 480p30 for your tests.

 

[@ryselethal]

no matter what bitrate i use, it finds a way to drop frames, honestly going to give up. thanks for the help.

 

[Mizhka Romanov]

Hi @ryselethal,

Try using these settings:

On the ENCODING SETTINGS:

1) Uncheck CBR.
2) Set Quality Balance to 10.
3) Set Max Bitrate to 256Kbs.
4) Set Buffer Size Limit to 512Kbit.

On the VIDEO SETTINGS:

1) Do not use the CUSTOM, instead, choose which monitor you wish to capture (e.g. Monitor 1).
2) On the RESOLUTION DOWNSCALE, choose the last option.
3) If it is possible to disable aero, then have it disabled.


Stop preview then start preview stream again.

See if everything goes fine and if you are satisfied with the results.

While doing the preview stream, open up your computer's system monitor and make sure that your CPU and RAM usage is not at it's peak.

As long as your computer can handle the load of the GAME and the OBS streaming side-by-side, you may change/modify the ENCODING SETTINGS into a higher bitrate GRADUALLY to satisfy your needs. Just keep in mind to make the MAX BITRATE lower than the BUFFER SIZE LIMIT (I suggest, use the ratio of 1:2).

If the FRAMES are still dropping, go to the ADVANCED SETTINGS, and change the PROCESS PRIORITY CLASS, and set it to "HIGH".

I hope this helps.

 

[DryRoastedLemon]

I'm not an expert, but those are some really obscure settings. I'm not sure how those encoding settings are going to work, but I don't see why you would do this. @ryselethal has approximately 4.5Mbps upstream, so streaming at 720p@30FPS should be no problem using the regular CBR settings. His CPU also should have zero issues with this.

Also, there are no benefits from choosing the monitor instead of a custom resolution. They are the exact same, depending on how you configure the downscaling. Like I said, his computer should be more than capable of streaming at 720p, and he is currently using a lower resolution than that. That said, it is a proper 16:9 resolution, so there should be no issues there.

Disabling Aero is unnecessary and often even unwanted. You only want to disable Aero if you want to use monitor capture when you're using Windows 7 or Vista. If you're going to stream gameplay footage, you're not going to use monitor capture. You will be using either Window or Game Capture, and in both cases it is unnecessary to disable Aero. In fact, disabling Aero is not recommended if you use the Window Capture method.

@ryselethal, can you upload a screenshot of your broadcast settings? In terms of video settings there is absolutely nothing wrong, except that I would suggest you don't stream at 1080p. At that bitrate 720p is more appropriate. The videocard isn't ideal, though.

EDIT: Although you have already tested different servers, try out JTVPing (link). Run it for a minute or two, and check what the readings are. Post a screenshot, if you can.

 

[alpinlol]

im just going to ignore all the posts above since i read through them and except for ferret and jackor theres not much input

since you changed all your network hardware and your isp said theres also no problem and shaper probe didnt found anything its save to say that your internet should be stable.

your i5 can stream 720p30 just fine its bit of an weak i5 but it should do just finebut 1080p is kind of an no go for you

your bitrate you use less than 50% of your upload. i'd say 2k bitrate (you are using something around 2,1k) is enough for 720p30 for the most games.

your settings keyint, preset, and so on look so far all good.

the one thing you can do now is changing through all the ingest servers and see if theres a better one and also make sure that "minimize network impact" is disabled

if the problem is still there try every ingest server again but this time check the "minimize network impact" and see if this helps


finding a good server and the best settings is a shitton of testing if you are unlucky.

judging by your screens and log you are running windows 8 so dont even bother about disabling aero thats of no need.
you are free to use monitor, window or game capture. game capture will probably benefit with the best over all performance

make sure your next log is of an actual streaming sessing of around 5-10 minutes while you are playing and so on