Question / Help Optimizing my stream quality

[Dingle]

Hello! I've been a pretty low time streamer up until now. I'm trying to get more serious about it, and that has included setting up a green screen, buying lighting and a camera, etc etc. I want to make my streams output quality as best I can with my poor computer, if you would be so kind to help.

My rig is vastly unimpressive, with:

GPU: AMD Radeon R7 370 Series
CPU: Intel® Xeon® Processor W3565 3.20 GHz
RAM: 8.0 GB DDR3
Camera: Logitech C920
(if you need any more specs, ask me!)

Internet:

I stream low strain games mostly because I accept that my computer isn't super good to do much more than what I do. On a good day, I can stream overwatch at really low quality, but recently I stream Minecraft because it's easy on the computer and easy to watch.

Right now, I don't know what it is I need to do to help make my stream better quality. I currently have resolution at 1080p, bitrate at 3500, and fps output at 30. I've noticed that while I'm doing things in any given game I'm streaming, my camera in the bottom left of my stream and only my camera seems to drop in resolution.

Again, I'm looking to optimize my stream for highest quality and performance. If you need any more information, please ask!

 

[Boildown]

Run your webcam at no more than 540p. If you're already doing that, post an OBS log file. If not, make that change, then do a test stream for 5 minutes or longer of high action content, then post that OBS log file.

Your CPU is fairly outdated, although for an outdated CPU, you could have a lot worse. Anyways, limit expectations.

 

[Dingle]

Sorry it took me a bit to get to this. Here's an 8 minute test stream log, and apparently someone in chat was pointing out that I had especially bad cam quality here.

 

[Dingle]

Looking through the log myself, there was an abnormal amount of frame lag for this little test. something might have been up with this

 

[Boildown]

You're using the AMD encoder, which I don't know much about. Maybe someone else can pipe in. The one thing I will say is to run your webcam in progressive scan instead of interlaced, to avoid a lot of potential issues.

 

[Dingle]

How do I go about doing that? I don't really know what I'm doing

 

[Boildown]

Not sure I don't have that webcam. I assume its in some Logitech configuration utility. How do you normally change its resolution? In the same general place, look for something where you can choose an I for Interlaced vs a P for Progressive, and make sure its on P.

 

[Dingle]

Eh?

 

[Boildown]

Was concerned about this:

12:43:27.816: format: I420

But I think that just means that the video is in 4:2:0 color mode, not that its in I frame type.

Which means, nevermind about adjusting your webcam settings, they're probably fine. Sorry about the confusion.