Question / Help Stream quality not improving

[The Realyst]

Hello everyone.

Been trying to improve my stream quality with no success. No matter what setting I change, my stream quality does not improve. Doesn't matter if I'm using OBS, Xsplit, the streaming software that came with my capture device, the quality is unchanged. I've messed with resolutions, bitrates, changed the x264 CPU Preset... everything. No change. Also, I've tried this at two different locations with two different internet connections. I'm getting 18 down and 5.33 up with the current internet connection I'm using. So at this point, I'm thinking it has to be some sort of hardware issue. So..., here are my specs. Does something stand out in particular that should be upgraded to improve the quality? I thought my computer was good enough to handle streaming better, but I guess not.

Intel i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30 GHz
8.00 GB ram
Windows 7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Elgate Game Capture HD

Here is my stream archives of me testing.

http://www.twitch.tv/therealyst/profile

Thanks in advance.

Log attached, but really I think I tried everything.

 

[Jack0r]

I assume you are recording a console with your Elgato?

In this case I would start with the following:
Base Resolution in OBS should be your Elgato resolution, Elgato resolution should be what your console outputs.
(For example your console outputs 1080p then set the elgato and obs to 1920x1080 as the base resolution)
Then you can downscale the resolution, for example to 720p (1280x720) also in the OBS video settings. For the framerate I would recommend to use 30fps.
Now for twitch.tv you will want to start with 2000-2500kbit as your video bitrate (that will allow possible viewers to watch your stream just fine while higher bitrates can be a problem for non-partnered streams). Audio should be fine on default.
To improve the quality of the resulting video you can now tweak the encoding preset, but you need to keep an eye on your cpu usage while doing so. In the log you went down to the slower preset, thats just too much. Veryfast is the default preset, so try faster, then fast and see if the stream is smooth and your cpu usage never goes above 95% for longer periods and you should be fine.

You can downscale to a lower resolution while keeping the rest of the settings the same to improve the visual quality further, but be aware downscaling also removes details because of the lower resolution. Its something you have to tweak. And make yourself aware of the fact that an online stream will never look as perfect as what you see on your screen while playing.