Question / Help New Streamer, Questions!

[fish225]

Hello all,

I'm very new to streaming and was told OBS was great software to do it. So far, I'm liking it. I've done a little bit of streaming to test and now I have a few questions. So, I'll jump right in:

Dark Video: My first question is about the video being pretty dark. The game looks great while playing, but on the stream (and recordings after) it's pretty dark. Do you normally deal with this by turning up the brightness in the game a bit? Or is there a setting in OBS I'm missing to help with this?

Estimator: The estimator told me to set quality balance to "6 or 7." It is my understanding that the lower the setting, the more optimized it is for fast-moving videos and vice versa, is this correct? I play a mix of fairly fast-paced games and some slower paced. Would this make a 5 (theoretically a balance between the two) the best choice for that setting?

The estimator also advised that I use a 4000 bitrate/buffer (I have 8Mbps upload according to testmy.net). That works great. But does this mean that my viewers have to have a 4000kbps connection or they won't see my stream properly? Is that something I really even need to worry about? If so, what bitrate would you recommend to ensure that the maximum amount of people can watch the stream without issue, but not sacrificing too much quality?


I use Dxtory as my game capture software and just have it setup to stream into OBS. Is this OK to do, or would it be better to setup OBS to handle everything on it's own? With this setup, I'm hitting 100% CPU use while in certain games, with an i5 2500k @4.6Ghz. Would a hyperthreaded CPU like an i7 2600k help? Or maybe would removing Dxtory from the loop help?


Sorry to just dump all these questions on everyone. I have a lot of them, this being my first real experience with live streaming. :)

Thanks everyone!

EDIT: I should specify that my CPU Preset is "Very Fast."

 

[Smoky]

Hi fish,

Dark Video: Your monitor seems to be pretty bright - yes, turning up the ingame brightness might fix this issue.

Estimator: Quality 6 or 7 is fine - there is no really advantage in going higher or lower for mixed-gamestyle.

Bitrates: Yep, your viewers need to have a 4k download aswell, so streaming at 3000 is definitely enough for a good 720p stream. 3000 is also enough to stream in 1080p in most cases.

Dxtory: I don't see any advantage in using other software except OBS. I'm using a 3500k@3.3Ghz and can stream nearly every game in 720p with a good looking result.

Preset "very fast" is fine - also there, no advantage in using faster or everything else except you're owning a monster of a computer.

What you can do: If you're able to stream 720p@30fps without a high cpu load you can try to turn it up to 60fps - this turns up the fluently of the stream and is mandatory for some viewers (hell knows why...)

Have a good time streaming!

Cya,
Smoky

 

[Wehs]

I can't give much input on the video brightness issue. I can help you out with the stream settings though.

Some people go about the boat of always leaving quality balance at 10, and others lowering it for fast-paced games. Personally, I play WoW, and I leave my quality at 8, about an even balance between what OBS recommends and the highest quality option by default. Ultimately up to you to decide, really depends on what you're comfortable with quality-wise. If you use a 4mb upload, you might be fine leaving it at 10.

However, a 4mb upload stream can be rough on some of your users that don't have a download of 4mb. You'd be surprised how many people don't have a 4mb download (universities suck with this). 3000 is a good number to upload with, but I wouldn't go any higher than 3250. Again personally, I stream at 1080p 30 fps, quality at 8, with a 2750 upload. So having a 3000 upload with your preferred quality choice would be great. I would also recommend you stream in 1080p @ 30 fps, as those are comfortable numbers guaranteed for your processor without pushing the limits. (source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... 0NWc#gid=0)

If you have been using Dxtory, I would instead use the Game Source. OBS handles it just fine, and you won't be wasting extra resources in another program to pick up something that OBS can do just fine.

So in summary:
3000 upload, quality 6-10 (personal choice), 1080p, 30fps, Game Source. That spreadsheet I linked helped me really get my feet in the mud with streaming. Really about experimenting and seeing what works for you. Good luck!

edit: If your source is 720p, use a 720p output instead with 30fps. You can *try* bumping up to 45fps output, but that's more in the region of i7' processors and beyond.

 

[fish225]

Thanks a bunch. I'll try lowering the bitrate to 3k and give that a go. I'll also try removing Dxtory from the mix. I think the only reason I threw that in there is simply because I'm so used to it (used it for years now). :P

Thanks for the tips.

 

[fish225]

@Wehs,

Thanks for the input. I'll give 1080p a go at 3k bitrate. I honestly didn't think that would be something I could do in the long run. :P I'll give this a go without Dxtory and see how it goes. :)

Thanks again.

 

[fish225]

Ok,

The cause of the CPU spike was most definitely Dxtory. Tried it without Dxtory and CPU use went WAY down. Unfortunately, so did the quality of the video. The resulting stream freezes and skips constantly. I suspect it's because I have SLI. Does OBS not like SLI setups? This seems to be fairly common in recording/streaming software.

EDIT: I take that back about the CPU use. Settings are 3000 bitrate, 1080p, 30fps. I'm getting 100% CPU use on an i5 2500k @4.6Ghz, using Game Source. =/

 

[Wehs]

EDIT: I take that back about the CPU use. Settings are 3000 bitrate, 1080p, 30fps. I'm getting 100% CPU use on an i5 2500k @4.6Ghz, using Game Source. =/

Go through all of your settings again and make sure that they're what you set them to. 100% CPU usage normally means a veryfast setting is at faster, fast, medium, etc. It could be something else you had not intended was being done. If anything, I would restart, open up what you need for streaming, and try it again. Did task manager say the CPU usage was all coming from OBS?

I know I use about the same settings with a crap-mobile i7 @ 2.6ghz, and my CPU usage only runs around 20-30% when streaming.

I'm not sure about your possible SLI issue. The freezing and skipping is also uncommon, and that is usually associated with a bad upload. But your upload is fairly high, so I'm not sure where that may be coming from. Just for clarification, you do have a 1080p source? (i.e. your monitor is 1920x1080?)

 

[Krazy]

SLI does not play well with streaming in general, it's recommended to disable it.

What game are you playing where your CPU usage spikes up so high? Some games use a lot more CPU than others, and you may not be able to stream some of them @1080p.

Please post a log file or two so I can see more exactly what is going on. Instructions on how to post a log file are stickied at the top of every forums section.

 

[fish225]

I'm currently not at home, so I can't post a log. I'll do that as soon as I can. For now I can answer some questions, post some of my observations. I'll start with my system specs:

Asus Maximus V Extreme
Intel i5 2500k @ 4.6Ghz (Thinking of dropping this down, but if I'm hitting 100% here....)
16GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 RAM
2x GTX 570's in SLI
80GB Intel SSD for OS and base programs
120GB Intell SSD for Games
2x 1TB 7200 RPM Western Digital Caviar Black in RAID 0 dedicated to nothing but recording
Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
100Mbps down / 10 Mbps up cable internet connection

It really seems like I have a beast of a system that shouldn't have any trouble with this stuff. But people with lesser systems seem to always report better performance than me. I'm a pretty technically-inclined person and have built my own computers since I was 13 years old. But maybe all these years there's some magic check-box or setting I've always been missing to make my computers perform as magical as other people claim their's do?


The game I was using for testing was Dishonored. I'd stream about 3 minutes of it just for testing purposes, to Twitch.TV. I run my desktop and games in 1080p, but nothing fancy like dual/triple monitors or 3D.

When streaming 720p/30FPS using nothing but OBS I would get 100% CPU use (about 40% for the game, the majority of the rest was OBS). The game still ran pretty much pegged at 130 FPS (which I think the game is hard-capped at) or 60 FPS with Vsync on. But the game and the resulting stream was choppy and would freeze for a second or two here and there, despite reading 130 FPS for the framerate.

When using Dxtory to feed OBS, my system still hits 100% use but the stream runs super smooth and I can even stream 60 FPS and still keep the game running smooth, mostly. Dxtory causes the game (not the stream) to microstutter at times, though.

Dishonored isn't really known for eating up CPU power, though. So I tried out Planetside 2. Streaming 720P at 30 FPS, using Dxtory to feed OBS, Planetside 2 is basically unplayable. It states that it is running at ~30 FPS but stutters a lot and has significant input lag.

All games give bout a 1/2 second input lag with Vsync enabled while streaming. The lag goes away when I stop streaming.

 

[fish225]

I'm thinking, just because I'm anal about this stuff, I'm going to set up a second computer as a dedicated streaming/recording machine. :P I have a spare computer that has decent enough stats to record and stream. Just need to figure out how to get the video and audio signal from one computer to another, then back to speakers/monitor. :P

 

[zaimun]

As Wesh already asked, what is your x264 CPU preset?

I've been using the same settings as you more or less, with a i5-2500k 4.2GHz with no problems. However, when I messed around with the settings, the x264 CPU preset specifically, I would drop frames like crazy

 

[fish225]

It's set to the default veryfast.

 

[fish225]

Thank you all for you help. I found the problem...

I must have accidentally changed the Process Priority Class to "Above Normal." I noticed that and changed it back to normal. I'm bouncing between 90 and 100% CPU use now while streaming (1080p, 30FPS, 3000 bitrate). But the stream runs smooth and looks great. The game also runs extremely smooth while doing so. The CPU use still feels a bit high (still testing with Dishonored). But overall, I'm happy with the result. :)

Incidentally, I also lowered my overclock to 4.2GHz. I doubt that had anything to do with the improvement though.

Now to stop testing and actually start streaming!

 

[Dariofubar]

A 2 pc setup is the absolute best bet for streaming . You will need a capture card for your second pc which gets connected with your first pc's graphics card(you will use the capture card as a source in OBS then).

I have bought a capture card myself to get rid of the weird feeling i get in some games while streaming. the benefit of a 2 pc setup is that you can lower the preset = better quality with lower bandwidth (without your primary pc taking a performance hit ). this way you will have a really good looking stream that even viewers a with low speed connection can watch and you don't notice it at all that you are streaming.

 

[fish225]

A 2 pc setup is the absolute best bet for streaming . You will need a capture card for your second pc which gets connected with your first pc's graphics card(you will use the capture card as a source in OBS then).

I have bought a capture card myself to get rid of the weird feeling i get in some games while streaming. the benefit of a 2 pc setup is that you can lower the preset = better quality with lower bandwidth (without your primary pc taking a performance hit ). this way you will have a really good looking stream that even viewers a with low speed connection can watch and you don't notice it at all that you are streaming.

Ya. It would be really nice to set it up. Any suggestions on a capture card? I've tried the Live Gamer HD and returned it a few weeks after getting it. Low quality audio, unsynced audio, variable framerates and a lot more, to name a few issues...

I have concerns about audio, with capture cards. How do you manage to get mic + game audio over to the recording PC? I realize game audio can be transferred with HDMI, but what about the mic? Is there a way to avoid using HDMI audio? I have a pretty nice sound card and don't want to have to buy a receiver to get the audio off of HDMI and on to speakers. =/ I'm definitely no audio technician though, so my guess is there's a solution out there I'm just unaware of.

 

[Grimio]

All consumer capture cards are quite bad. Live gamer HD might be the best in this category. The next best tier is probably around $500+ and is only available through specialized distributors.

 

[fish225]

All consumer capture cards are quite bad. Live gamer HD might be the best in this category. The next best tier is probably around $500+ and is only available through specialized distributors.

You're saying the Live Gamer HD is better than the Blackmagic Intensity lineup? That doesn't give me much hope. =/

 

[Grimio]

I have no personal experience with Blackmagic hardware, but I don't think there is any magic in it to make it noticeably better.

 

[fish225]

I have no personal experience with Blackmagic hardware, but I don't think there is any magic in it to make it noticeably better.

For me (and the 3 other people I know who tried it) the Live Gamer HD literally produced unusable videos. Even through editing you couldn't repair the audio sync issues because it would get more and more out of sync with time. Plus the variable framerate would completely kill video quality, even after editing. :/ Even if you check their forums now, you'll see TONS of people reporting the same issues and AverMedia seems to have completely given up on trying to fix it -- They haven't responded or had a driver/firmware update in several months.

I can't imagine referring to it as the "best in class" capture card. But obviously your experience was different and much better than mine.

 

[Grimio]

AFAIK while capturing, the frame rate is fixed. Are you encoding with the live gamer HD? Because no one should do that, it's shit.