Question / Help Optimizing my OBS settings?

[slimabob]

Hey guys, I recently got into livestreaming and chose OBS because it seems very nice and powerful (plus the fact that it's completely free doesn't hurt my opinion if it either!).

I'm planning to livestream various games such as Dota 2 and CS:GO- but I'm not too knowledgeable about what I should be doing in order to stream as well as I can.


Speedtest Info:

System Settings:


OS- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Graphics card- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 v2
Processor- Intel Core i5-2500k CPU @ 3.30GHz (4CPUs), ~3.3GHz
Monitor- 1920x1200 (59Hz)



Current OBS settings:

So guys, how can I change my settings in order to get the smoothest, highest quality stream, without dropping any frames?

(Oh and if I missed some specs that you need, let me know)

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it! :D

 

[dodgepong]

Can you post your log? http://obsproject.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97

That bit rate is too high for Twitch, drop it down to 3500 and disable your custom buffer. Drop your audio bit rate to no higher than 160kbps, and also set your Keyframe interval to 2 seconds in Advanced settings,

Don't stream at 1200p...you'll definitely want to downscale that by at least 1.25. Also, 50fps is kind of a weird frame rate (Yes, I know it's PAL-ish, but it's still weird and doesn't make sense in the world of computer video). I recommend starting at 30fps and seeing how well it performs, and maybe bump to 48 later on.

 

[Xphome]

Can you please post a log file. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7144

Start by lowering FPS to 48 (better than 50 for timing reasons), don't use a bitrate over 3500kbit/s.

 

[slimabob]

Oh hey, sorry guys! Here's a log!

http://pastebin.com/s0UcAkT3

Can you post your log? http://obsproject.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97

That bit rate is too high for Twitch, drop it down to 3500 and disable your custom buffer. Drop your audio bit rate to no higher than 160kbps, and also set your Keyframe interval to 2 seconds in Advanced settings,

Don't stream at 1200p...you'll definitely want to downscale that by at least 1.25. Also, 50fps is kind of a weird frame rate (Yes, I know it's PAL-ish, but it's still weird and doesn't make sense in the world of computer video). I recommend starting at 30fps and seeing how well it performs, and maybe bump to 48 later on.

Thanks, I'll be sure to drop my bitrate as well as change my resolution/ fps cap! Anything else I should be changing?

Also, what resolution do you think I should stream at? I'd like to stream 1080, but I have a feeling I can't accomplish that, and if I can get away with 720- that's fine.

 

[dodgepong]

I see that later on you tried changing your x264 preset to fast instead of veryfast. That seemed to be a bad idea, since it gave you a ton of late frames, which is what happens when you are taxing your CPU too much. Stay at veryfast for now.

 

[slimabob]

I see that later on you tried changing your x264 preset to fast instead of veryfast. That seemed to be a bad idea, since it gave you a ton of late frames, which is what happens when you are taxing your CPU too much. Stay at veryfast for now.

Alright, I changed it back to VeryFast in the Advanced Settings. Would setting it to Fast have modified any other settings anywhere else that I'll have to go back and change?

 

[Xphome]

I see that later on you tried changing your x264 preset to fast instead of veryfast. That seemed to be a bad idea, since it gave you a ton of late frames, which is what happens when you are taxing your CPU too much. Stay at veryfast for now.

Alright, I changed it back to VeryFast in the Advanced Settings. Would setting it to Fast have modified any other settings anywhere else that I'll have to go back and change?

No

 

[slimabob]

No

Excellent! Anything else that needs to be changed?

Also, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to help me figure this stuff out. Thanks.

 

[dodgepong]

That's all I can think of for now...try streaming with it and see how it goes. If you're still having problems, post a new log with the new settings here.

 

[alpinlol]

dont stream at that resolution and fps at all either your 1200 with 30 fps or 720p with 60 fps your cpu shouldnt have any problem with 720@60 since i used to stream at that resolution with my old system which also had an i5 2500k

 

[slimabob]

Alright, so I took what all of you guys suggested, downscaled by 1.25 (1536x960), set my max FPS to 30, and setting the CPU preset to veryfast, and it runs very smooth and the quality is great!

However when I stream now- my video has two black boxes along the side. Here's my log again, and a screenshot:

http://pastebin.com/reVsHjjU

(As you can see, there is a black box on either side of the video)


I've already tried going to my sources and going to Position/Size -> Fit to Screen, but that doesn't seem to change anything. How do I remove these black boxes/borders?

 

[alpinlol]

sure you got black bars... you are streaming in a 16:10 aspect ratio because thats what your monitor got while the flash player on twitch is 16:9 optimized

 

[dodgepong]

Like aplinlol said, the Twitch player is 16:9, and you are streaming a 16:10 stream. If you fullscreen your stream, you'll notice it will take up your full monitor because you have a 16:10 monitor. It's not really a big deal, but if you really want to get rid of the black bars, the easiest way to do that is to buy a 16:9 monitor. Either that, or you can play the game in a Windowed mode in a 16:9 resolution, or maybe even fullscreen, and then change your OBS base resolution to a 16:9 resolution.

 

[slimabob]

Like aplinlol said, the Twitch player is 16:9, and you are streaming a 16:10 stream. If you fullscreen your stream, you'll notice it will take up your full monitor because you have a 16:10 monitor. It's not really a big deal, but if you really want to get rid of the black bars, the easiest way to do that is to buy a 16:9 monitor. Either that, or you can play the game in a Windowed mode in a 16:9 resolution, or maybe even fullscreen, and then change your OBS base resolution to a 16:9 resolution.

Ah, I see. I'll just deal with the black bars until I can purchase a 16:9 monitor- thanks!