Question / Help Is it possible to have a pixelation free stream?

[emmhor]

Hello,

I have been browsing through some post/videos for the best settings I came to some settings and tested them out.
I also tried to my customs settings:
Bit rate 2.5/3/3.5k very fast/faster/fast
What are the differences between the CPU pre sets?
Are there bitrate and cpu combinations(ex 3.5k fast) which work very well? For the games CSGO/GTA V
What is the main source causing pixelation?
What are ways to prevent pixelation?
What are the advantages of a streaming PC with capture card? Higher performance on gaming pc?

I will provide a picture with my settings/rig and speed test.

Besides that my stream sometimes buffers for 1-5 seconds when I watch it myself is there a way to fix that?
Frames never drop
http://i.imgur.com/CCaFqG7.png cpu@4ghz

Can I try streaming on 1080P60 FPS with my rig? Or is a second streaming pc required
1080p60 caused a lot of buffering I have no idea why with my 120mb down and 12 up
The preview window in OBS shows everything smooth but the live stream itself was messing up for myself I haven't tested with someone else watching it.

 

[dping]

Bit rate 2.5/3/3.5k very fast/faster/fast

What are the differences between the CPU pre sets?

http://dev.beandog.org/x264_preset_reference.html

TL;DR lower preset means CPU spends more time on each frame. there is a big load difference between Fast and Medium and good sized jump between Medium and Slow

Are there bitrate and cpu combinations(ex 3.5k fast) which work very well? For the games CSGO/GTA V?

720@60 3500 is the sweet spot for high performance CPUs. this is dependent on the game as well. if the game is CPU heavy then you wont be able to do much with dropping the preset. If its GPU intensive, you might be able to drop it a bit further.

Note that 3500 will not always be well vieable for viewers. some might say it buffers. even if you watch your own stream which uses up more of your CPU so dont waist the CPU on watching your own stream.
https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...oads-constantly-for-my-viewers-but-why.18465/

What is the main source causing pixelation?

lack of bitrate. In the end, the encoder will try and squeeze all the quality it can out of the bitrate you choose at the speed the preset it set to. with streaming, the quality will always be less than perfect for everyone because h264 encoding was meant for high quality raw video compression that can get rid of the unnecessary quality for the ones that the eye would actually look at, enabling video to be compressed as lossless as possible but able to fit on a DVD.

What are ways to prevent pixelation?

Higher bitrate or better compression (i.e. lowering the preset)

What are the advantages of a streaming PC with capture card? Higher performance on gaming pc?

Having a dedicated stream PC means that you will get the advantages of the majority of the CPU dedicated to the x264 encoding instead of trying to do that AND the game simultaneously.

I will provide a picture with my settings/rig and speed test.

Better yet, post your logfile and a twitch speed test for your region:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/tech-support/478845-twitchtest-twitch-bandwidth-tester

AND

Besides that my stream sometimes buffers for 1-5 seconds when I watch it myself is there a way to fix that?

you probably shouldn't watch your own stream but listen to your viewers, if they are saying its lagging for them, all you can really do is lower the bitrate. In the end, that issues is between twitch and the viewers (even if that viewer is you)

Can I try streaming on 1080P60 FPS with my rig? Or is a second streaming pc required
1080p60 caused a lot of buffering I have no idea why with my 120mb down and 12 up

1080@60 needs around 5000kbps to look decent and 8000 to look good, but the bitrate is all dependent on the game. If you are playing a card game then you might only need 3000 bitrate because the picture will be mostly static.
If you are doing a first person shooter then you will need all the bitrate you can get.

Just note that anthing above 3500 is out of twitch's recommended bitrate and WILL cause a lot of viewers to buffer. and cut out all possibilities of mobile viewers. in fact, anything over 720@30 pretty much cuts out the majority of mobile viewers

 

[Geordy]

Guys I need your help!
I have a max. upload of 2000 kb/s and Im having trouble getting a tolerable picture while streaming Witcher 2 to Twitch. I tried almost every combination of switches and settings out there - but pixelation is here to stay it seems :( And Im talking very noticeable pixelation.

Im streaming in a resolution of 720p@25FPS. I lowered the gamma of the game capture item a bit to save bandwidth. Ive set the graphics fidelity ingame to medium or off on most functionalities to save bandwidth. Im setting the bitrate to 1900 with a buffer of 1900, CBR activated. I tried CBR off, 1000 bitrate and buffer set to 0 in combination with the custom x264 setting "crf =" but I ended up having to set it to 28 or 29 and I still got spikes that resulted in noticeable framedrops. I even tried the "ratetol" command. I tried playing the game in 720p itself without downsizing and playing it in 1080p with downsizing by factor 1.5/Lanczos. I lowered audio to 96 bit and 44.1 kHz. I took down the CPU preset a few steps down to even just "fast". (I think that looked a bit better but acc. to task manager my 4 cores were at 100% so not an option.)

I am at a loss here. What else can I try? Do I have to live with a very poor picture? I mean 2000kb/s is certainly on the lower end of the spectrum but is it THAT bad?
(Does the crf= option do anything when CBR is activated and bitrate and buffer are set to 1900?)

 

[dping]

Guys I need your help!
I have a max. upload of 2000 kb/s and Im having trouble getting a tolerable picture while streaming Witcher 2 to Twitch. I tried almost every combination of switches and settings out there - but pixelation is here to stay it seems :( And Im talking very noticeable pixelation.

Im streaming in a resolution of 720p@25FPS. I lowered the gamma of the game capture item a bit to save bandwidth. Ive set the graphics fidelity ingame to medium or off on most functionalities to save bandwidth. Im setting the bitrate to 1900 with a buffer of 1900, CBR activated. I tried CBR off, 1000 bitrate and buffer set to 0 in combination with the custom x264 setting "crf =" but I ended up having to set it to 28 or 29 and I still got spikes that resulted in noticeable framedrops. I even tried the "ratetol" command. I tried playing the game in 720p itself without downsizing and playing it in 1080p with downsizing by factor 1.5/Lanczos. I lowered audio to 96 bit and 44.1 kHz. I took down the CPU preset a few steps down to even just "fast". (I think that looked a bit better but acc. to task manager my 4 cores were at 100% so not an option.)

I am at a loss here. What else can I try? Do I have to live with a very poor picture? I mean 2000kb/s is certainly on the lower end of the spectrum but is it THAT bad?
(Does the crf= option do anything when CBR is activated and bitrate and buffer are set to 1900?)

Start your own thread. I do tend to try and read them all.