Specs, or what PC do I need?

N

Not Bob

New Member
I recently installed OBS for our prayer service livestream. But my PC, while not old, doesn't have the horsepower for OBS, and broadcasts drop because of 100% CPU use. We're not looking for film studio quality, just a reliable broadcast. And we're not-for-profit, so top-of-the-line is likely beyond our budget. Is somewhere under $2000 doable? How about closer to $1000?

I've seen similar posts from 2020, and wonder if things have changed since.

What specs do I need in a new Windows PC for...
  • Processor?
  • RAM?
  • Graphics card?
  • Anything else?
Thanks.
 
L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
Check my recent posts on specs for just this request
short version
For your budget you can get a more than powerful enough PC. Last Oct, I spent $1,500 delivered for a business class i7-10700K, nVidia GTX 1660Super, 16GB RAM, and 1TB HDD with 5 yr next business day onsite service and premium local phone support. I then added an SSD for cheap. A GTX 1650 Super or better is recommended for Turing NVENC .. in my case, vendor didn't sell model of PC with that GPU. This month Intel's 11th generation desktop CPUs coming out (late, and underwhelming, but finally). I'd have preferred an 8c/16t Ryzen CPU, but couldn't get that with business class motherboard, etc. so had to compromise somewhere
With this, I can play pre-recorded 4K videos, run live video from USB webcam and/or NDI PTZ camera, etc, and have CPU and GPU in 12-13% range. Therefore I can focus on content and delivery vs trying to optimize OBS. This PC should be able to last 5 years, handle higher res streaming once Facebook allows such for House of Worship, and can do video editing of resulting locally recorded files. You can get a similar spec'ed PC (I avoid consumer grade PCs at almost any cost) without the NBD support, for closer to $1K, and a deal for even less.
 
N

Not Bob

New Member
Thank you, @deFrisselle and @Lawrence_SoCal ,and apologies for not responding to your kind replies until now.

The new computer, which we went ahead with, is a Dell G5 Gaming PC - Abyss Black (Intel Core i7-10700F/1TB SSD/16GB RAM/RTX 2060 Super). The camera is a Panasonic AG-CX10. The sound comes directly from the sound board in the room via cable to the camera. The computer is on the same network that the camera connects to, and so I can use NDI to see the camera on my pc.

Now I have discovered (!) from forum searches a) how to see log files, and b) that there is a setting called Output Timer that turns streams off after a while. I got all excited to learn this (really! and please excuse my newbiness), and came in today confident that I knew why the stream turned off after a few hours instead of staying on for the next morning's service. I opened up Tools>Output Timer ... and was disappointed to see that it is not in fact set to turn off. It's all at zero, which I take to mean that the timer isn't running.

1616453450191.png


OK, on to the log file. There are a couple of things that are apparently missing or not configured. The first several starts/stops are mine as I configured OBS to match what Streamspot, my streaming service, wants. As far as I can see, though, nothing happened that was recorded in the log to explain why the stream stopped a few hours later.

I have the stream running again now, and can see it play on our site. On Streamspot, here is the live data they show:
1616453747691.png


The screen looks dark, but it really is on. It's just late in the day. Streamspot wants me to "Update Codec Level from 4.2 to 4.0". Not sure what this means or how to do it.

I'm grateful for any help/suggestions. Thanks!
 
L

Lawrence_SoCal

Active Member
PC should be fine

15:45:06.139: Output 'simple_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1759 (8.5%)
you have bitrate at 10000

You need to test/monitor your available upstream consistent bandwidth availability

For House of Worship, typically 30 fps is plenty, and at 1080, I'd think 6-8Mb/s should be plenty (I use 5mb/s for a 720p and even that is overkill)

And I don't get the use case. I stream for a service, then stop stream. I don't get letting the stream keep running?
 
N

Not Bob

New Member
Thanks - I've adjusted my settings, and we're also upgrading our bandwidth and modem.
Re use case, we want to turn everything on before our Sabbath starts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top