Question / Help I'd like to iron out how my stream looks and sounds!

[Ohsix]

Basically, trying to stream has always been something I wanted to try for a year or so now. I've tried it before, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and occasional lag spikes and such have always deterred me. The reason being is, I don't really know how to exactly iron out the flaws of a stream, as I don't really know all that much about the fundamentals of streaming, and I'm sort of hardware/software impaired! So, any help would be greatly appreciated. As of right now, the message I see is "Taking too long to encode: skipping" and I'd like to never see that message if possible. Also, idealistically, I'd like to stream while playing League of Legends, listening to Grooveshark, and skyping with friends if at all possible.

I'm not totally sure what information is needed, so I'll just throw some of this out here.

The internet speeds I'm working with. http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3057701268 (The download speed jumps around sometimes, going as high as 20-25 mbps)

Some computer specs I'm working with. If more specs are needed, please say so. Also, I only listed these because I remember these ones. As for other specs, I can't even remember what they are, and don't know how to find out what they're called! Please don't make fun of me hahaha.
AMD Phenom II X4 960T
AMD Radeon HD 7600 Series

A couple of VODS from Twitch from testing playing League against bots.
http://www.twitch.tv/ohsix/b/473263116 (this one can be a little bit choppy once I'm in skype with a friend starting at about 10 minutes I believe)
http://www.twitch.tv/ohsix/b/473490623 (No skype in this one. However, I started with Grooveshark, and noticed the "Taking too long to encode message" and switched to itunes to see if it would go away. It would still pop up every now and then)
http://www.twitch.tv/ohsix/b/473510997 (This one the lag seemed a bit more noticeable, actual game starts at about 4 minutes)

As for obs settings, I don't know which ones to post, and whatever else. If that's needed, again, please say so!

If more information is needed, just say so! And if I put in anything unnecessary or left out something really important, please don't make fun of me. :( If you think the stream looks fine and I'm just a perfectonist (possibly true) I'd still appreciate any feedback to improve the visual and audio quality of the stream! Please, and thank you. (:

 

[FerretBomb]

Heya! Welcome to livestreaming. :)

First thing, your downstream speed almost doesn't matter. Your upstream speed is king when it comes to streaming, as you're sending large volumes of data. Also, speedtest.net is next to worthless for livestreaming, as it tests overall averaged speed, not constant throughput.
Instead, run a 6MB test at http://www.testmy.net/upload to see what you actually have to work with.

Next, if you're getting the 'too long to encode: skipping', it means that you're using settings that are too high for your hardware to keep up with. You will need to move to a faster preset most likely, downscale your video feed, or drop your framerate to allow your CPU the time it needs to composite and encode each frame.

Check the top of the forum; there's a sticky explaining how to post a logfile there. There was also a link to it when you opened this thread, and one if you use the 'Post Reply' button as well. This isn't by mistake; posting a logfile of a live streaming session (not just an offline test, or a 5-30 second quickfire) will let us look deeper at what's happening, and offer suggestions and tweaks. :)



Also, on a side note; playing copyrighted music on-stream, whether it be from Grooveshark, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, iTunes or what-have-you, even if you've paid for the album or pay a subscription fee, is copyright infringement. You need a rebroadcasting license agreement... which are NOT cheap.
And while no streamer has been sued for it yet... that last word is the key point. Yet. If you thought the lawsuits for music piracy were insane, with tens of thousands of dollars demanded for a single song... imagine what will happen for a public performance of one. Yeah. Add a few zeroes to the end. For each track.

Short version? Not advised. Strongly.

 

[Ohsix]

Awesome, thank you so much! Never really thought about the music copyright stuff. Crazy! But again, thank you!