Question / Help Freezing/Stuttering NDI Plugin

[PauloCosta]

Hello my friends. So i got my laptop back and finished my desktop. What i want to do is to use both PC as a dual setup for streaming. Using the desktop as main game pc and using the laptop as dedicated streaming pc. Im using the NDI Plugin with obs installed on both PC's till i get my hands on an ElGato HD60S. Connection seems perfectly fine, made sure my NDI was Input and Output to assure sound also. Thing is... as soon as i start playing a game, i keep getting constant image freezes on the streaming pc and also on the stream but gaming on main pc is fine. I dont get those freezes on the gaming pc.

-My gaming pc:

System Builder

pcpartpicker.com

-My Laptop: HP Omen DC15 / i7 8750Ghz 2.2Ghz (it runs at more than that obviously) GeForce GTX 1070 Max Q 8GB / 16GB RAM / 250GB SSD & 1TB HDD.

Everything on this laptop is set to max performance and OBS is also set for High priority when i execute it as admin.

My options for OBS are the following:

Gaming PC
VIDEO
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
Output (base) Resolution: 1600x900
Downscale Filter: Lanczos
FPS: 60

Since i just use OBS opened on my gaming pc without streaming on it there's no need to change output settings on this one i supose. Now, for the streaming laptop my options are:

Streaming PC
VIDEO
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
Output (base) Resolution: 1600x900
Downscale Filter: Lanczos
FPS: 60

OUTPUT ADVANCED
Encoder: NVIDIA NVENC H.264 (new)
Enforce Streaming service encoder settings is enabled.
Rescale output off.
Rate Control: CBR
Bitrrate: 6000Kbps
Keyframe Interval: 2
Preset: Quality
Profile: High
Look ahead disabled.
Psycho Visual Tuning enabled.
GPU: 0.
Max B-frames: 2.

Both pcs are directly connected to my router through cat6 cables.
My internet speed test came as:
PING: 13
DOWNLOAD Mbps: 205.53
UPLOAD Mbps: 19.45

But ofc it fluctuates between those values sometimes and now due to quarantine even more people are using network, counting with my fiance using wifi on her phone or tablet. I still get good connections through cables though.
As i explained before, Im getting the signal from my gaming pc to my laptop through the NDI plugin. I made sure is set as Input and Output for sound also. I get the image and all, crispy, good quality, even OBS is set for high priority but once i started playing a game it runs smooth except for the freezes during seconds. I also want to mention that my Gaming PC has a 240Hz monitor 1920x1080 and my laptop as a 144Hz 1920x1080. I think there's nothing left to point out. I hope someone can help me getting the stream smooth without freezing. The whole purpose of 1 year of building my gaming desktop was to be able to stream games.
Apreciate in advance any help.

 

[vapeahoy]

Canvas / base should be same, turn off psycho visual tuning. Using a laptop as encoding solution here does not make logical sense when u have a 2070 card and the encoding machine, with a lesser encoder, is infact a laptop. Certainly for a high stress workload as streaming games. It's going to drain your laptops lifespan quite fast at the very least.
Why just not use the laptop as a dedicated chat machine instead?

 

[PauloCosta]

So you suggesting streaming directly from my gaming pc? My i7 9700k does not have hyperthreading... it does have 8 cores but still... is my gaming pc alone able to stream and play games? I might use laptrop just for chat yes...

 

[vapeahoy]

use your nvidia encoder to stream with.

 

[towfieee]

This fixed NDI feed freeze between two PCs for me. Here is my setup:
1 - Gaming pc:

• windows 10
• OBS with NDI transmitting feed over 1G

2- Streaming PC:

• MX Linux
• OBS with NDI Source displaying the feed from my gaming pc

Symptom:
The NDI feed freezes exactly every 4 seconds for about 3 seconds nonstop.

Solution:
I turned off the firewall on the mx linux streaming pc. This auto-magically fixed the problem.
I might be able to add an exception later on. But at least I know what caused the issue.

 

[MintCollie]

This fixed NDI feed freeze between two PCs for me. Here is my setup:
1 - Gaming pc:

• windows 10
• OBS with NDI transmitting feed over 1G

2- Streaming PC:

• MX Linux
• OBS with NDI Source displaying the feed from my gaming pc

Symptom:
The NDI feed freezes exactly every 4 seconds for about 3 seconds nonstop.

Solution:
I turned off the firewall on the mx linux streaming pc. This auto-magically fixed the problem.
I might be able to add an exception later on. But at least I know what caused the issue.

I'm having the same exact issue but on my M1 Mac Mini.
Do you have any suggestions on what might be the issue? My firewall is already off.

 

[MintCollie]

I'm having the same exact issue but on my M1 Mac Mini.
Do you have any suggestions on what might be the issue? My firewall is already off.

disregard this.
I guess the main NDI output gave me this issue, switching it to preview instantly solved this.