Major Bitrate Issues

[exxxxtacy]

So for the past month I have been having major bitrate issues. Bitrate dropping so low that my stream has just shut down.

I started streaming in November 2020. Followed OBS guides for proper set up based on your computer and internet. Streamed at 900p 60 FPS for a while with little issues. Some days were worse then others with performance but for the most part I kept steady bitrate's between 4500 on the low to 6000 easily. In January I decided to upgrade my internet to the highest tier which was 1GB down/40 mbps Up. I also managed to get my hands on a 3090 FE GPU not long after upgrading my internet package. With these 2 upgrades I thought I was going to be GOLDEN with stream quality.

One day, roughly a month ago, I started my stream up and had insane bitrate drops. Started to do some speed tests and for the most part I was getting near what I should have been getting. Called my ISP and they blamed in on my router. Okay thanks for the help. A couple days later it seem to have resolved itself and I could stream at my normal settings with ease. Fast forward to a few days later and it came back. Did speed tests and noticed it was VERY low and got random disconnects from my internet without my route/modem restarting. Did some more digging and found that TwitchTest program that showed the quality to twitch servers. When I ran my tests I was getting 0 quality across my entire country (USA). Called my ISP and they sent a tech out. I was able to show the tech the low uploads. He replaced the "drop" to my house. This fixed the random disconnects and appeared to fix my upload speeds on speed test, but I was still getting unstable bitrate's.

Things I have done and replaced

• Router was replaced back in August. (I direct connected into my modem without my router even on and the issue still happens)
• Modem was replaced before I upgraded to 1Gb speed due to issues. They gave me the newest modem that already allowed up to 1GB speeds.
• Bought my OWN modem
• Bought all new ethernet cables
• Turned off my firewall to see if my antivirus was blocking connections.
• Dropped my OBS settings down to stream at 720P 60FPS
• All drivers have been updated.

PC Specs

• i7- 9700k 3.6MHz
• Nvidia 3090 FE GPU - I was using a EVGA 1070ti before issues
• 32GB G Skill Trident Z - 3600

I am at a stand still on where to go to trace this issue. Could it still be my ISP? I'm afraid if I keep pushing this issue to them that I will just get the "Well your speed test prove you are receiving what you should be by us. The problem is on your end." Could this actually hardware issues on my end? I find it hard to believe but I could always be wrong.

Right now I am doing a test stream on OBS and average bitrate is 1486 and even drops below 1000. I'm lucky if I can hold a solid bitrate of 3000. I cant even go above that anymore. When looking at my twitch inspector for my streams they are just constant drops to climbing back to drops. No way consistent or stable.

Any help on where to go?

 

[FerretBomb]

If TwitchTest is showing a Quality score of zero, it's definitely a connection problem.

Just to state it and avoid missing any steps, make sure you're streaming over a wired connection, not wifi.

I'd recommend downloading a piece of software called Pingplotter (they have a free version) and pointing it at the ingest server you use. Leave it running while you stream.
The last hop will ALWAYS be 100% packet loss as Twitch have ICMP traffic disabled on their servers.
You're looking for the first hop in your route with something in the PL column. If there are none, look for a node with a very large (>300ms) latency spread bar on the far right.

If it's in the first couple of hops, it may be within your home network, and so be fixable by you. If it's not, at least you'll be able to contact your ISP and say "I'm having problems with my connection, I show packet loss from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX IP address".

 

[exxxxtacy]

If TwitchTest is showing a Quality score of zero, it's definitely a connection problem.

Just to state it and avoid missing any steps, make sure you're streaming over a wired connection, not wifi.

I'd recommend downloading a piece of software called Pingplotter (they have a free version) and pointing it at the ingest server you use. Leave it running while you stream.
The last hop will ALWAYS be 100% packet loss as Twitch have ICMP traffic disabled on their servers.
You're looking for the first hop in your route with something in the PL column. If there are none, look for a node with a very large (>300ms) latency spread bar on the far right.

If it's in the first couple of hops, it may be within your home network, and so be fixable by you. If it's not, at least you'll be able to contact your ISP and say "I'm having problems with my connection, I show packet loss from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX IP address".

Thank you for your advice. I will be sure to give this a try. Very much appreciated.

 

[exxxxtacy]

If TwitchTest is showing a Quality score of zero, it's definitely a connection problem.

Just to state it and avoid missing any steps, make sure you're streaming over a wired connection, not wifi.

I'd recommend downloading a piece of software called Pingplotter (they have a free version) and pointing it at the ingest server you use. Leave it running while you stream.
The last hop will ALWAYS be 100% packet loss as Twitch have ICMP traffic disabled on their servers.
You're looking for the first hop in your route with something in the PL column. If there are none, look for a node with a very large (>300ms) latency spread bar on the far right.

If it's in the first couple of hops, it may be within your home network, and so be fixable by you. If it's not, at least you'll be able to contact your ISP and say "I'm having problems with my connection, I show packet loss from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX IP address".

Question regarding the ingest server and ping plotter (sorry never used anything like this) - What am I exactly putting into pingplotter? Is it this? rtmp://jfk.contribute.live-video.net/app/{stream_key} <--- If so am I putting my stream key in the { } or am I removing them and pasting my streamkey after the app/ ?

 

[FerretBomb]

Just " jfk.contribute.live-video.net ". That's the server hostname.
The rest is the protocol (rtmp) and a subdirectory used to pass login information (/app/[streamkey]), and isn't needed or used by PP.

 

[exxxxtacy]

Just " jfk.contribute.live-video.net ". That's the server hostname.
The rest is the protocol (rtmp) and a subdirectory used to pass login information (/app/[streamkey]), and isn't needed or used by PP.

Thank you for the clarification. So I ran a PingPlotter for the entire duration of my stream and this is what is seen for the most part.

The only packet loss I seen was .4% from hop 2 and hop 3 randomly. Today I was able to stream at a stable 3k bitrate. It still is no where near where I was before but I was able to stream at least.

 

[FerretBomb]

Any packet loss at all, even 0.1% will cause streaming problems. Streaming relies on stable minimum constant throughput.
The graph you've posted doesn't show any issues, and actually is an insanely short routing chain.

 

[exxxxtacy]

Any packet loss at all, even 0.1% will cause streaming problems. Streaming relies on stable minimum constant throughput.
The graph you've posted doesn't show any issues, and actually is an insanely short routing chain.

Yeah I was seeing random .4% packet loss through out the stream. I just didn't capture it on my screen shot. I will keep trying to capture on days with more severe issues. Since I was able to see packet loss, given it was random, do you think that is enough to take to my ISP and say "Hey I have seen several random .4% packet loss between these nodes and its causing me issues."?

 

[FerretBomb]

It looks like both hops are within your ISP's intranet unless they're pulling some shenanigans, so "I'm showing appreciable packet loss on [ip address]" should at least give them something to start looking into. Whichever the first node showing it happens to be (later nodes might show false PL results caused by the earlier node in the route dropping the ICMP traffic to the later node).

If the first node is your modem/router and you haven't fully power-cycled it in a bit, can be worth doing that too, preemptively.

 

[exxxxtacy]

It looks like both hops are within your ISP's intranet unless they're pulling some shenanigans, so "I'm showing appreciable packet loss on [ip address]" should at least give them something to start looking into. Whichever the first node showing it happens to be (later nodes might show false PL results caused by the earlier node in the route dropping the ICMP traffic to the later node).

If the first node is your modem/router and you haven't fully power-cycled it in a bit, can be worth doing that too, preemptively.

So I ran another PingPlotter while streaming and found a steady packetloss coming from hop 1.

 

[FerretBomb]

So I ran another PingPlotter while streaming and found a steady packetloss coming from hop 1.

That would be your modem/router, or possibly your computer's NIC then.
-Power-cycle the modem if you haven't already. Unplug it, wait 1-2 minutes, re-plug.
-Switch network cables
-Switch which port you plug into on the modem, if it has multiple ports
-Try it from another machine connected to the modem, if you have one (preferably at the same time, to ensure the issue is being seen by both systems)

-Report the issue to your ISP, if they own/provided it. If the above do not fix the issue, it will need replacement.

 

[N7Soul]

Hello! I have been having the same issues as exxxxtacy here, and I have searched the internet over and over trying to find a solution, and I think this is the best path I've been on since. I've been experiencing this issue for 2 years now, and it ultimately stopped me from streaming. I have become more than frustrated with it, and I am now determined to figure out the core issue. I have followed all the steps that have been put in this article, and even built a new computer in between with the same outcome. The only thing I haven't done has been contact my ISP, because I knew it would be a headache and hassle. I decided to use PingPlotter on a 5 minute test stream, streaming 1080p60fps downscaled to 720p60fps at 3000 bitrate (which I know that my internet can handle because my speedtests average at 300up/10down) and this is what PingPlotter has shown. It's definitely a problem all over the place, but I am trying to determine if this is something totally at fault with my ISP, or something I can troubleshoot. All my hardware is my ISPs (except for my computer of course) so is this 100% their issue? or is there something I can do as well to help?


Thanks in advance! :)