Question / Help Good News! Twitch Bitrate update!

[Ruhai Hu]

https://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/1253460-broadcast-requirements

So it seems there is some GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!...

Video Requirements

• Encoding Profile: Main (preferred) or Baseline
• Mode: Strict CBR
• Keyframe Interval: 2 seconds
• Framerates: 25/30 or 50/60 frames per second
• Recommended bitrate range - 3-6 megabits per second

Audio Requirements

• Codec: H.264 (x264)
• Codec: AAC-LC. Stereo or Mono
• Recommended Bitrate (for maximum compatibility) 96kbps
• Maximum audio bit rate: 160 kbps (AAC)
• Sampling frequency: any (AAC)

Other Broadcasting defaults:

• Max Broadcast Length: 48 hours

Figured I would post this here as an FYI.


Also Question if anyone reads this far. The reddit post for this on reddit has people saying to disable enforce encoding! Is this hard coded into OBS or does it get it from service at time of stream? If its in OBS then we have to wait for update?

 

[WizardCM]

I love how they "recommend" 3-6 mbps when a lot of viewers struggle with anything above 2, and the screenshot of the Inspector has it set to 300kbps.

This is going to result in a lot of people coming into the support chat saying their stream buffers a lot.

 

[Ruhai Hu]

@WizardCM Well they also have been increasing their transcoding of streams in general. I tend to not have many or any people watching and I have noticed that I get transcoding for some time now. So they might be getting to the point where they are on par with Youtube's transcoding of live streams by default.

Also form the the twitch blog last year https://blog.twitch.tv/transcodes-are-leveling-up-98d40f2c8405#.ykuzidlit . They might start implementing similar quality levels like youtube and other sites also. Amazon has the money, and definitely has the servers for it.

EDIT
Now if people decide to watch at bitrates they can't handle then that's on them. Though I do wish the browser/desktop would auto select better.

 

[wessla]

This means i can get a good quality stream with NVENC at 6mbit. It really looks good,

Is there still a lot of ppl sitting on 2mbit cable?

 

[Dan_deville]

I love how they "recommend" 3-6 mbps when a lot of viewers struggle with anything above 2, and the screenshot of the Inspector has it set to 300kbps.

This is going to result in a lot of people coming into the support chat saying their stream buffers a lot.

Pardon me but can't this be fixed by just not choosing Source on the settings wheel and accepting that your internet can't handle more than it does? I mean quality in itself isn't gonna suffer, you just have to bite the pill if your internet connection can't take it and step down a notch.

 

[wessla]

Pardon me but can't this be fixed by just not choosing Source on the settings wheel and accepting that your internet can't handle more than it does? I mean quality in itself isn't gonna suffer, you just have to bite the pill if your internet connection can't take it and step down a notch.

Not all streamers do have transcoding.

 

[Sapiens]

And not all playback issues are the result of lacking bandwidth. Check out the buffering post that's stickied up top.

 

[wallrik]

Also Question if anyone reads this far. The reddit post for this on reddit has people saying to disable enforce encoding! Is this hard coded into OBS or does it get it from service at time of stream? If its in OBS then we have to wait for update?

@Rodney already submitted a code change for this last night. I hope it can get pushed live soon.
(I also tried to bring some attention to it last night)

Based off recent GitHub activity, maybe @Gol D. Ace or @R1CH can help? (◕‿◕✿)

 

[Ruhai Hu]

@wallrik Ah I did not see that. I did a bit of looking but wasn't thinking Service.

@Sapiens I Completely understand that. I tend to run into interconnect/ISP issues between A B and C sometimes. Troubleshooting these issues is a nightmare with the first line of ISP support. Especially when they think that speedtest.net is perfect and if it's showing perfect and their test is perfect then there is no issue, but the issue is traceable to being specifically the ISP, and not an interconnect. Last issue I had went on for 2 weeks before it magically fixed itself. Up and download fluctuating between usable and not with in minutes.

@wessla & @Dan_deville I completely understand the not everyone is getting transcoding. Partially why I use restream.io to stream to youtube at the same time, and beam but beam seems to have very small viewer base in general. But transcoding of streams live is happening more often on small streams. How they are handing it out is weird though. I get transcoding with 0-1 viewers most of the time. But Amazon definitely has the money to get it to cover everyone, and catch up with Youtube.

I do wonder if twitch transcoding being handed out is based on the broadcast settings of the streamer. Some of the streams I see broadcasting are using like 720p with low bit rate or some odd resolution with low / high bitrate.

Maybe Twitch is handing out transcoding based on how the streamer is conforming to the specifications? I know when dealing with bad recordings that it can make processing harder. I would assume same would be said for a live stream, if it goes bad too often makes processing it to different bitrate/resolution/fps harder and more resource consuming.

I AM NO EXPERT... Fyi.

 

[sneaky4oe]

I wonder which bitrate is the actual maximum now to get stream suspended. Because previously it was 6 mbit/s. And most people with transcoding enabled rarely have any difficulties with showing source stream to viewers.

 

[Rab1dGaming]

I am curious about the transcoding and such as well. I would love to at least go up to 3000 from my current 2000, I run my cpui preset at medium and at a 2000 bitrate I get compliments on my quality often, I can only imagine the higher bit rate would make a huge difference. but if no one can view it there is no point