Question / Help Stream Randomly Goes Offline

[lasnuggie]

Ever since i started streaming, i've been having issues with my stream randomly going offline. It's extremely annoying because i lose half of my viewers every time it goes down. I have a 30 download 5 upload connection and i'm streaming at a 1500 bitrate. I don't think it's because my connection can't handle it. My guess is that the problem is the twitch server that i'm connected to... I'm connected to the US West: LA server, but even after changing to the secondary LA server, i still had the same problems. If someone can please help me get this sorted out, i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for your time!

Here's a log from last night when the stream went down
http://pastebin.com/B2u4Rx65

 

[R1CH]

Neither of those logs seem to show an actual stream, only a preview or local recording.

 

[lasnuggie]

Neither of those logs seem to show an actual stream, only a preview or local recording.

I apologize, I have multiple log files from last night and I'm not sure which ones which.
I updated the link with one of the last log files i have from last night.

 

[R1CH]

You seem to be using wireless, which is not really suited for streaming as a short burst of interference can cause a drop in data rate which is enough to drop frames or disconnect you from twitch. See if you can use a wired connection and see if it helps.

 

[Lain]

Yea, it sucks to have to tell that to people, but streaming really transfers a lot of data and wireless connections just tend to cause issues for streaming. I'm sure with some tweaking you could get it to be more stable (lowering bitrate and such), but I'd really recommend a wired connection for serious streaming. Especially since the new CBR requirements came out for twitch it's caused it to be more problematic for wireless connections.

 

[lasnuggie]

Yea, it sucks to have to tell that to people, but streaming really transfers a lot of data and wireless connections just tend to cause issues for streaming. I'm sure with some tweaking you could get it to be more stable (lowering bitrate and such), but I'd really recommend a wired connection for serious streaming. Especially since the new CBR requirements came out for twitch it's caused it to be more problematic for wireless connections.

So will disabling CBR help or make it worse?
I'm not even sure what CBR does...

 

[dodgepong]

You should leave CBR enabled when streaming to Twitch, and streaming in general.

CBR (constant bit rate) makes it so that you more or less always stream at or near the bit rate you specify, rather than jumping up and down as needed. This leads to a more stable stream, but also means that you are sending more data across the wire than you would otherwise. Some people who could stream with VBR find they can't stream with CBR because the bit rate they set with VBR was too high, but they never reached that bit rate under VBR because the encoder never really needed it.

 

[lasnuggie]

Thank you for helping guys.

One more question,
I'm having problems with my webcam being laggy. Both game volume and mic volume are perfectly synced, but my webcam image seems to be like a second behind. Is there anything i can do to fix this? It's not EXTREMELY noticeable, but it'd be nice if i can fix it and get it synced up with everything else.

 

[dodgepong]

What resolution is your webcam set to in the properties of the source? If you keep your webcam shrunk down, make sure you set a custom resolution that comes close to matching the size you shrink it down to.

 

[lasnuggie]

What resolution is your webcam set to in the properties of the source? If you keep your webcam shrunk down, make sure you set a custom resolution that comes close to matching the size you shrink it down to.

I have my webcam set to 1280x720 and then i shrink it down to fit my overlay.
But making it smaller/close to the size it shrunk down to, should fix the delay?

 

[dodgepong]

I'm not sure if it will fix the delay (it might help), but you shouldn't be using the webcam's full resolution if you're not showing it that large on the screen.

 

[Lain]

Lagging webcam image can usually be solved by checking these things: 1.) that the webcam is plugged into a USB 3.0 port if available to maximize transmission rate, 2.) making sure it uses UYVY or I420 output or something similar 3.) making sure the drivers are updated