Question / Help Need clarification on Canvas resolution in Video settings

[Laocorn]

So I've been seeing people say to have the Canvas resolution set to your monitors resolution, and if yours is 1080p, do that. But always have the output at 720p, if you're a newer twitch streamer and don't have a strong enough PC, stuff like that.

But then I also see people say that the canvas resolution and output MUST match.
Who's in the right?
So my monitor is 1080p, and have been doing the former for a while. Will my twitch stream quality raise (less pixelation) if i started doing the latter? It'd be at 720p in that case.

 

[koala]

Canvas and output don't need to match. If they had to match, there would not be two different configuration options for it.

You set the canvas resolution to the native resolution of your most important sources, usually the game or app you want to stream or record. This way, you have the original picture information of your important source. If you set the canvas smaller, you have to fit (rescale) your sources into it. Every single source. By using the native resolution of your monitor and placing the unscaled sources, things are easier. Only one rescale will take place: from canvas to output. Not from each source individually to canvas.
I am unable to describe it properly how it works, but the resulting output frame simply looks better and more natural, if you compose your frame with the native resolution and rescale the whole frame by setting the output resolution. It's not more pixelated or less pixelated, it's looking more natural. This is of course only true, if you are composing your video from multiple sources. If you have only one source, you will not see any difference.