Question / Help Slow/laggy stream, no in game lag

[Keyla]

Hello OBS community!

I have installed OBS with the purpose of streaming games on Twitch. I am currently testing it out with Hearthstone and have noticed that my preview and stream are both laggy and slow, my actual game runs fine and so does the rest of my Macbook. My audio is fine. This is my first time trying to set up a stream, so I've been reading other threads on what the recommended settings are, but nothing has helped. I have just kept playing with the settings to see if something fixes it with no luck. I did notice that when I make my game window smaller it actually makes the stream run with less lag.

I figured someone here could help me identify and possibly fix the problem. I have included my settings below, please let me know if I am missing any info that could be helpful.

Thanks,
Keyla

Upload: 10.1mbps
http://testmy.net/db/2XqgpAeYV

Macbook Specs:
OS X Yosemite
Macbook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)
Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel Iris 1536 MB

OBS Output Settings:
Rate Control: CBR
Bitrate: 2000
CPU Usage Preset: Ultra Fast
Profile: baseline

OBS Video Settings:
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 2560x1600
Output (Scaled) Resolution: 960x540
Downscale filter: Bilinear
30fps

Filelog in attachment.

 

[Narcogen]

Profile should be Main or High, not baseline.

Try upping the bitrate to 2500 and see if that has any effect. You're asking for a lot of scaling, and encoding at a low bitrate, but you're using the ultrafast CPU setting, meaning the program doesn't have much time to do the work. A higher bitrate means less compression to do, although I suspect the problem is something I've read many other people having a problem with on Retina macbooks and imacs-- that the canvas resolution is so large that OBS has trouble scaling it, and that the only solution to getting a smooth stream is to set the computer to a lower, scaled resolution.

 

[amsyar ZeRo]

@Narcogen Sorry to go off-topic,but what is the difference in baseline,main & high?And does it give significant impact to the CPU usage?

 

[keybounce]

... but you're using the ultrafast CPU setting, meaning the program doesn't have much time to do the work.

Actually, UltraFast means "turn off x.264 options that would take more time". It's still going to do the compression.

My understanding of the bitrate compression: You build up a matrix of data that represents the picture, then throw away those numbers that there is not room to send. The matrix takes the "same amount of time" to make (well, at better quality settings, it spends more time to make a better matrix), but for a given bitrate, you simply use less of the matrix already computed.

 

[Narcogen]

@Narcogen Sorry to go off-topic,but what is the difference in baseline,main & high?And does it give significant impact to the CPU usage?

It's a question of which features are supported when encoding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles

Main delivers the broadest platform compatibility and is standard for SD video; High is the standard profile for HD video. Baseline is mostly for videoconferencing and mobile applications.

I haven't seen any performance impact myself, but in this case what is relevant is that Twitch recommends either High or Main, but not Baseline:

• 6. x264 Encoding profile: This setting changes what profile you record on. Some devices (notably tablets and phones) may have issues with decoding streams with "high" profiles, so you are recommended to use main if you want to have the highest compatibility at the sacrifice of some quality

https://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/1262922-open-broadcaster-software#Encoder Settings