Question / Help Significant artifacts while streaming

[bertieb]

I have been streaming with OBS for a few years but have only just encountered this issue. I stream to Twitch and Mixer via Restream.io, and record locally. In the last week, I have noticed severe intermittent artifacting, see the following still:

There are gif examples on Imgur, not included here for size reasons. The artifact appears for a anywhere from half a second to a few seconds or more.

This has only started happening within the last week or so. My searches have been fruitless because I find it hard to describe the artifacting! It almost looks like digital TV when you have insufficient signal. Many searches lead to folks with dropped frames, which is not relevant here (0%, both network and skipped due to encoding lag).

Is it a bitrate issue? I have streamed at CBR 3500 for years without issue. An I-frame issue? I have the interval set to 2, in line with Twitch's / Mixer's / Restream.io's suggestions. I have tried varying bandwidth down, using a slower CPU preset, have changed from full YUV to partial (in line with log analyser recommendation) all to no avail.

All relevant Windows Game stuff is disabled- Game Mode, Game Bar, Background Recording.

Network/ping seems okay:

Twitch/Restream.io's 'stream health' monitors don't report any issues- Twitch reports the stream is 'Excellent'.

I can't think of anything I have changed anything recently that would account for this. My gut says bitrate or I-frame related but I'm not sure. I'm hoping that someone will recognise the pattern and point me in the right direction :)

Most recent log file: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/...92af7c58f4e1ec89/2019-07-01%5C%2010-05-00.txt
Analysis: https://h4ndy.eu/obslog?url=https://hastebin.com/necajodeyi.log

 

[R1CH]

Is this also present in your recordings? What are you playing it back with?

 

[bertieb]

Is this also present in your recordings? What are you playing it back with?

This is not present in my recordings (VBR, crf 21 or 22 at superfast I think), which I play back with VLC.

I am playing the stream live via the Twitch and Mixer web players on Chrome. Others see the glitches when I am streaming too.

 

[R1CH]

Have you tried streaming directly to Twitch or Mixer instead of Restream?

Also, your log link seems to be empty for me.

 

[bertieb]

Have you tried streaming directly to Twitch or Mixer instead of Restream?

I haven't tried that yet, I guess it's another link in the chain but didn't think they modified the stream they ingest for rebroadcast. is it worth a shot?

Also, your log link seems to be empty for me.

Hastebin seems to be having some issue - for me at least - as I can no longer access that paste, nor save a new paste. I have updated the first post with a link to a gist, and thanks for the heads-up :)

I also have an even more recent log, gist: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/bertiebaggio/960f3ec16667fb4e04c5e3a5ba892e81/raw/ca7e72caaa192ac89219db6babcb500179f3ce37/2019-07-01%2018-11-48.txt

The public version of the log analyser doesn't seem to accept GH gists (anymore?). I am happy to repost elsewhere if desired, just let me know where.

 

[Narcogen]

I also had artifacting like this a few weeks ago. I think it was Restream having a problem, as I also use them, and the problem went away when I stopped using them (temporarily). The same content, on the same machine, when streamed either directly to Twitch or YouTube, or to a local NGINX-RTMP server, did not display the issue.

 

[bertieb]

I also had artifacting like this a few weeks ago. I think it was Restream having a problem, as I also use them, and the problem went away when I stopped using them (temporarily). The same content, on the same machine, when streamed either directly to Twitch or YouTube, or to a local NGINX-RTMP server, did not display the issue.

Ah! That's useful information, thanks. I will do a test run bypassing Restream.io. Out of curiosity, were you using FTL with them?

I originally started using Mixer for lower latency than Twitch, and happily Restream supported FTL. I'd hate to lose Mixer or Twitch, and the low latency...

 

[Narcogen]

Yes.

One of my targets with them is Mixer, so I enabled FTL when they announced support for it.

 

[bertieb]

Yes.

One of my targets with them is Mixer, so I enabled FTL when they announced support for it.

Thanks, did you update your graphics drivers before it resolved on their end? Their 'FTL troubleshooting' page (https://support.restream.io/en/articles/2849273-restream-ftl-troubleshooting) suggests that:

I'm Getting Screen Tearing and/or Pink or Green Color Distortion.

• Please make sure that your graphics card drivers are up-to-date and try again

Seems unlikely but I may give it a shot.

 

[Narcogen]

They were already the latest; and the issue resolved without my actually doing anything, because I couldn't duplicate.

I think R1CH's suggestion is a good one-- first make sure you can duplicate this issue without involving Restream. If they can't...

 

[bertieb]

They were already the latest; and the issue resolved without my actually doing anything, because I couldn't duplicate.

I think R1CH's suggestion is a good one-- first make sure you can duplicate this issue without involving Restream. If they can't...

Fair enough :) This has been going on for a few days now so I'll double check drivers in any case.

Yup, agreed, your data point also points in that direction. Will give it a test when i stream next, either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Cheers!

 

[bertieb]

I ran a quick test with Restream.io last night and got very little distortion. I streamed for a while this morning using RTMP instead of FTL and had no noticeable distortion. I'm not sure if the different method made a difference or if Restream.io changed things on their end - I had to re-log in in OBS and to their web interface, though that may have been coincidence.

I will keep an eye on the situation, but for now it looks like a Restream.io issue rather than an OBS or PEBCAK issue.

Thanks :)