JupiterSoundLive
New Member
Hi there!
Here's the TL;DR
I'm broadcasting from OBS on a Mac to OBS on two different machines via NDI, and I am experiencing frequent and long audio dropouts on only ONE machine.
If you're interested in How/Why I got into this situation, I've included that down below after the technical specs/actual problem.
I tried to lay this out as simply as possible because it's a LOT.
THE PROBLEM:
Audio from NDI frequently drops on the Windows based machine, sometimes for up to 25 seconds. It happens often enough that people complain about it in my TikTok Live, or think I'm an idiot who has muted themselves. This does not happen on the MacBook Air broadcasting to Twitch.
This problem only happens on the Lenovo, and occurs whether I am live or not.
It also occurs when I have both OBS and TikTok Live Studio open, or just OBS alone by itself.
THE FACTS:
- M1 Mac mini acting as my main machine, with OBS broadcasting its program feed over NDI via the DistroAV plugin.
- M2 MacBook Air receives NDI into OBS
- This instance of OBS broadcasts to my Twitch channel and is ROCK SOLID all the time, zero issues at all.
- Lenovo IdeaPad receives NDI into OBS
- TikTok Live Studio receives video from OBS via Virtual Camera.
- The connection to TikTok from TT Live Studio is reported as "excellent" by TikTok when I am live.
- All hardware and software are as updated as possible
- All three machines are using a wired internet connections to a 48 port Ubiquiti switch
- If you suggest it's an ISP issue or want details about speeds I get from the ISP, you're going to need to leave your gun and your badge on the desk when you leave the room
THE HARDWARE SPECS:
Lenovo IdeaPad (2023) - AMD Ryzen 5 7520U 8GB RAM, integrated AMD graphics
Apple Mac mini (2020) - M1 8 Core, 8GB Memory
Apple MacBook Air (2022) - M2 8 Core, 16GB Memory
Ubiquiti US 48 500W.
- I'm using a total of 10 ports, and a network report is healthy and clear.
I've fixed these things so far
- Network/Switch/Router settings such as IGMP snooping, LAN settings, etc
- Audio/Video quality mismatches in OBS such as bitrate, sample rate, and FPS
- network settings on the Windows PC (very limited knowledge here)
This has resulted in some marginal improvement, but I'm still experiencing frequent audio drop-outs, but only on the Windows machine.
POTENTIAL CAUSES:
- the USB-C to Ethernet adapter I am using cannot keep up (it's an Anker brand, new in the last 6 months)
- The AMD Ryzen processor cannot keep up (AMD Ryzen 5 7520U [2.80 GHz], 8GB RAM, integrated AMD graphics)
- Windows is just not great at this (this occurs on Win10 and Win11)
- there are windows network settings I don't know about
Any thoughts or experience with this? Essentially, broadcasting from Mac to Windows is wonky, but Mac to Mac is perfectly fine?
THE STORY: (totally inconsequential to the problem)
I'm a really huge audio/video nerd, but recently got back into gaming occasionally. I found it was getting harder to play for any amount of time via controller on the couch in the living room, so I moved my Xbox to the basement with my work setup, and started using a keyboard and mouse. Great Success! Im kinda ok at Fortnite and Halo now!
Eventually it dawned on me that I own all the random pieces of gear you need to broadcast yourself gaming, so I began doing so on Twitch.
My wife began encouraging me to go Live on TikTok doing the same thing because they're incentivizing gaming content right now, but I found that TikTok does not use publically available Stream Keys, and instead want you to use their own software that is developed for Windows only. I tried going the Virtual Machine route with parallels, but TikTok Live Studio does not support Apple's CPU/GPUs at all, so this was a bust.
Eventually, we found this IdeaPad that was normally in the $530 range on sale at Best Buy for around $300 and made the purchase.
It really seems like the laptop itself handles all I'm asking it to do perfectly fine, the issue is something causing Audio to snag as it comes into OBS on the Windows machine via NDI.
Cheers in advance, and i wish you many goods and cheese.
Here's the TL;DR
I'm broadcasting from OBS on a Mac to OBS on two different machines via NDI, and I am experiencing frequent and long audio dropouts on only ONE machine.
If you're interested in How/Why I got into this situation, I've included that down below after the technical specs/actual problem.
I tried to lay this out as simply as possible because it's a LOT.
THE PROBLEM:
Audio from NDI frequently drops on the Windows based machine, sometimes for up to 25 seconds. It happens often enough that people complain about it in my TikTok Live, or think I'm an idiot who has muted themselves. This does not happen on the MacBook Air broadcasting to Twitch.
This problem only happens on the Lenovo, and occurs whether I am live or not.
It also occurs when I have both OBS and TikTok Live Studio open, or just OBS alone by itself.
THE FACTS:
- M1 Mac mini acting as my main machine, with OBS broadcasting its program feed over NDI via the DistroAV plugin.
- M2 MacBook Air receives NDI into OBS
- This instance of OBS broadcasts to my Twitch channel and is ROCK SOLID all the time, zero issues at all.
- Lenovo IdeaPad receives NDI into OBS
- TikTok Live Studio receives video from OBS via Virtual Camera.
- The connection to TikTok from TT Live Studio is reported as "excellent" by TikTok when I am live.
- All hardware and software are as updated as possible
- All three machines are using a wired internet connections to a 48 port Ubiquiti switch
- If you suggest it's an ISP issue or want details about speeds I get from the ISP, you're going to need to leave your gun and your badge on the desk when you leave the room
THE HARDWARE SPECS:
Lenovo IdeaPad (2023) - AMD Ryzen 5 7520U 8GB RAM, integrated AMD graphics
Apple Mac mini (2020) - M1 8 Core, 8GB Memory
Apple MacBook Air (2022) - M2 8 Core, 16GB Memory
Ubiquiti US 48 500W.
- I'm using a total of 10 ports, and a network report is healthy and clear.
I've fixed these things so far
- Network/Switch/Router settings such as IGMP snooping, LAN settings, etc
- Audio/Video quality mismatches in OBS such as bitrate, sample rate, and FPS
- network settings on the Windows PC (very limited knowledge here)
This has resulted in some marginal improvement, but I'm still experiencing frequent audio drop-outs, but only on the Windows machine.
POTENTIAL CAUSES:
- the USB-C to Ethernet adapter I am using cannot keep up (it's an Anker brand, new in the last 6 months)
- The AMD Ryzen processor cannot keep up (AMD Ryzen 5 7520U [2.80 GHz], 8GB RAM, integrated AMD graphics)
- Windows is just not great at this (this occurs on Win10 and Win11)
- there are windows network settings I don't know about
Any thoughts or experience with this? Essentially, broadcasting from Mac to Windows is wonky, but Mac to Mac is perfectly fine?
THE STORY: (totally inconsequential to the problem)
I'm a really huge audio/video nerd, but recently got back into gaming occasionally. I found it was getting harder to play for any amount of time via controller on the couch in the living room, so I moved my Xbox to the basement with my work setup, and started using a keyboard and mouse. Great Success! Im kinda ok at Fortnite and Halo now!
Eventually it dawned on me that I own all the random pieces of gear you need to broadcast yourself gaming, so I began doing so on Twitch.
My wife began encouraging me to go Live on TikTok doing the same thing because they're incentivizing gaming content right now, but I found that TikTok does not use publically available Stream Keys, and instead want you to use their own software that is developed for Windows only. I tried going the Virtual Machine route with parallels, but TikTok Live Studio does not support Apple's CPU/GPUs at all, so this was a bust.
Eventually, we found this IdeaPad that was normally in the $530 range on sale at Best Buy for around $300 and made the purchase.
It really seems like the laptop itself handles all I'm asking it to do perfectly fine, the issue is something causing Audio to snag as it comes into OBS on the Windows machine via NDI.
Cheers in advance, and i wish you many goods and cheese.