Question / Help Need help to tweak and improve stream quality.

[LSG]

Hey guys, I'm not really sure what I am doing on OBS yet. There are a few options I have no idea what they do and after a few hours of tweaking and changing stuff I can't seem to improve anything noticeably. I'm going to post my specs and internet speed below and hopefully some of you can recommend some settings for me to try. I'm using the test client of OBS for the mic silence option.

Specs:
Processor: Core™ i7-2600K Processor, 4GHz w/ 8MB Cache
CPU Cooler: H100 Corsair Liquid Cooler
Motherboard: GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
Memory: Vengeance LP 16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Videocard: GTX 570 1.2 GB DDR5

These are my current OBS settings.
Video Encoding:
Use CBR: unchecked
Quality Balance: 10
Max Bitrate: 1400
Buffer Size: 1400
Audio Encoding:
ACC 128 bitrate

Video:
1366 x 768 (Yea this is my recommended resolution for my monitor 32") =/
Resolution Downscale: None.
FPS: 30 (I tried 60 with no drop frames or lag)

Advanced:
Use Multithreaded Optimizations
Process Priority Class: Above Normal
Scene buffering time: 400

Video:
x264 CPU preset: Fast
Use CFR: checked

What I'm trying to do is fix my stream quality to make it more clear, I use to stream like 7 months ago with the same internet speed on dayz. I'm trying to stream CS:GO, from what people say its clear when I'm standing still and not moving. But when I start moving around and shooting at people it gets pixel and isn't so clear anymore.

I'm open to all suggestions anything will help if you can, thanks.

 

[Krazy]

That resolution with only 1400 bitrate on a FPS game like CS:GO will not give great results. Downscale more.

 

[dodgepong]

Do you think you could post a log? viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97

Do you have a video of your stream's current condition you could post?

 

[LSG]

Ok as you guys request I did a quick stream vs bots in cs for a sample video. I used the reduce resolution 1.50 before streaming but everything else is the same settings. I tried to do as much nades and spraying as possible to make as much action going on the screen as possible.
http://www.twitch.tv/lookmomimstreaming/b/395239049

Here is my log from it.

=====Stream Start: 2013-04-24, 17:22:57===============================================
Multithreaded optimizations: On
Base resolution: 1366x768
Output resolution: 908x512
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
Playback device Default
------------------------------------------
Using desktop audio input: Headset (Sound Blaster Tactic(3D) Sigma)
------------------------------------------
Using auxilary audio input: Microphone (Blue Snowball )
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
bitrate: 128
Using graphics capture
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
fps: 30
width: 908, height: 512
preset: fast
CBR: no
CFR: yes
max bitrate: 1400
buffer size: 1400
quality: 10
------------------------------------------
Syncing audio to video time (WARNING: you should not be doing this if you are just having webcam desync, that's a separate issue)
Using RTMP service: Twitch / Justin.tv
Server selection: rtmp://live-ord.justin.tv/app
SO_SNDBUF was at 8192
SO_SNDBUF is now 65536
SharedTexCapture hooked
SharedTexCapture hooked
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
New Scene
Using Monitor Capture
Total frames rendered: 12800, number of frames that lagged: 14 (0.11%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Total duplicated frames: 91 (0.71%)
RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Aborting due to bStopping
Number of times waited to send: 0, Waited for a total of 0 bytes
Number of b-frames dropped: 0 (0%), Number of p-frames dropped: 0 (0%), Total 0 (0%)
=====Stream End: 2013-04-24, 17:30:07=================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 2.085 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 65.5%] [unaccounted: 34.5%]
| scene->Preprocess - [27.1%] [avg time: 0.565 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [38.4%] [avg time: 0.801 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 36.3%] [unaccounted: 2.16%]
| | CopyResource - [0.576%] [avg time: 0.012 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [0.24%] [avg time: 0.005 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | call to encoder - [34.7%] [avg time: 0.724 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| | sending stuff out - [0.719%] [avg time: 0.015 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
==============================================================

 

[Krazy]

K, that vod looks pretty good, and that's probably about as good as you are going to get it.

Uncheck Sync audio to video time in advanced. Don't do this unless specifically instructed to as it's completely unnecessary in most cases and can possibly cause issues.

Definitely avoid Monitor Capture unless it's just for a scene where you are tabbed out or something.

 

[Floatingthru]

Looks good to me for a 1400 bitrate stream. Not much else you can really do about it given your upload constraints. I would be happy with that quality for sure. The good thing about having a lower bitrate stream is that more people will be able to watch and it is not horribly pixelated. Sure there are people that only watch 720p or 1080p streams, but who cares about those guys!

 

[LSG]

Yeah it was just my desktop scene which is capture monitor. Alright thanks guys I turned off the audio sync setting and I guess it's as good as its going to get. Just one question relating to resolution reduce there are some filter settings, I have it on the middle setting 16 samples. Are there big differences in these 3 filters?

 

[Floatingthru]

Bilinear is definitely blurry compred to bicubic and lanczos. Those filters use your gpu so if you don't see much fps drop feel free to use lanczos as that it technically the best looking. I myself can't really tell that much difference between bicubic or lanczos. Try the 36 sample one for yourself and see if you can tell the difference.

 

[Warchamp7]

I would turn quality down to 7 or 8 for an FPS game

 

[LSG]

Could you explain why? I'm trying to improve quality as much as I can, I don't in anyway lag or anything.

 

[Warchamp7]

Quality is a balance between high quality during static scenes and high quality during moving scenes. A high quality setting will cause the encoder to use a lot of bandwidth to make the stream look really good, and then not have the resources available when there is movement.

 

[LSG]

Thanks for the info, I will lower it to 8 and see how it is.