Stutter-free preview : What hardware do I need?

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Witty4ever

Member
Hi again from a newbie, and this is my second question.

I am experiencing intermittent stuttering when live previewing at 1080p 50fps on OBS studio through my HD TV (no streaming or recording). It happens when the picture changes like a sudden increase of light or significant movement. I am using a £40 Soomfon USB capture device from Amazon and have no idea if the Elgato would be the same. I use an i7 4790 CPU and an RX580 GPU, although my mainboard is very old using cheap DDR3 ram. It still handles modern games well enough.

I am not really complaining, as it's great to see 1080/50p camera feed coming through my pc, so a bit of stuttering didn't surprise me, nor is it a big problem as the framerate is settled most of the time. I would upgrade hardware if only I knew where my issue was. I don't see my GPU or CPU working very hard when it's connected, which makes me think there could be a fix. Would an expensive Elgato USB device give me 100% stutter-free live preview, or would a mainboard and ram upgrade be the answer?

The stuttering improved when I unplugged unused USB devices, which led to me buying a powered USB3 hub, Sadly, it wasn't the solution (although nice to have a decent USB hub!).

I will always be on the look-out for a fix for this, as one thing I hate in life is stutter.

Mucho gracias.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
I am new to OBS and don't know how to make a log file yet. I was hoping someone might know the main cause for it. My PC meets the requirements set by Soomfon. The stuttering happens after a couple of minutes, then settles down again. I would rather know it's my PC than the device I bought.
 
PaiSand

PaiSand

Active Member
Please restart OBS and perform a test stream/recording for more than 30 seconds doing as you normally do, including playing games, full camera or whatever you normally do.
Now look inside Help menu. Upload the current log file and paste the url to the log in here. Click on the Analize button to start troubleshooting common issues.
 
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bugreport987

Member
you really need a usb c usb 3.1 gen 2 capture card or an elgato. its not easy to stream from a capture card. when I played through a computer and upscaled years ago. I had 32 gigabytes of ram. a 7700t. set the reference clock to 101.0 using intel xtu. set the processor performance state min/max to 50 percent to decrease heat output and decrease strain on the processor because of the reference clock increase. reference clock increases improve memory bandwidth performance by a decent amount. youll want to disable buffering in settings. use the capture cards default resolution setting. you may want a lower refresh rate on your monitor than the framerate your streaming it on your capture card. youll want to decrease the canvas framerate to something like 24 so the information your getting is more live although by definition youll be dropping frames. technically its frame skipping.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
Thanks for your replies. When I get the chance, I will test again, wait for the stuttering to appear, and get the log file. Just to remind you though, this is not to play games or stream or even record, This is simply for live chromakey from the preview. Perhaps there is another software that would be better suited to me?

Soomfon has replied to me, so maybe I will try their troubleshooting procedure. I didn't realise just how useful the capture device would be when I bought it, and if I could buy it again, I would go for the Elgato. I kept seeing how these cheap devices were working for people. so I went for it. There must be a reason for the price difference though. The Amazon title is "4K Video Capture Card - SOOMFON HDMI Camera Capture Card 4K30fps Input, USB3.0 Type C Capture 4K30fps,1080P60fps". My camera is 1080 50p being in the UK with the PAL system. I wish there was a way to know if the capture device is poor, or my PC is poor.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
Hi guys,

I would like to try again and solve this mystery. Should I start a new thread or will continuing this be OK?

My system is (2013) Gigabyte H81m DS2V, with an i7-4790, RX-580 with 12gb of value ram. The USB3 capture device is (SOOMFON) "SF-CT003". PSU is a decent Corsair, and I have tried using a powered USB3 hub (I have now plugged it back into the PC direct to rule out USB hub). I use a Sony AX53 camcorder outputting 1080p 50fps HDMI display, and I watch with an LG HDTV. I do not record or stream with OBS, just the live output and it's "filter" effects. I also have Windows power on high performance.

TEST: So I ran it for 10 minutes. It started out with a stuttery low fps, but after 30 seconds it settled down and I was getting a buttery smooth 50 FPS (I was focused on a swinging object). After 5 minutes, I tried altering the ambient lights and adding more movement to the picture, and it resulted with stuttering and low fps. Usually it recovers and settles down again, but this time the framerate did not recover for a further 5 minutes, so I switched off and recorded the log file. https://obsproject.com/logs/WEG1WQy9g86Y7IoM

Analysing the file did not help me, and the only "issue" it found was the frame rate. However, I don't understand why OBS isn't taking into consideration people in countries with the PAL system using their cameras with indoor lighting. As the AX53 camera is set to PAL, I need to change my windows display to 50hz right??

I am looking at updating the 9 year old main board and benefiting with DDR4 ram with gaming, but it would be nice to know exactly the cause of this issue first. Amazon's return policy is so good, I am thinking about ordering an Elgato just to test it.

Any experts who know where my bottle-neck is?

I would be really grateful for any solutions.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
Anyone out there?

Soomfon asked that I try recording a video and see if the stutter happens, and it does not. I started recording on OBS, waited for the stuttering to happen, and then played back the MKV file and it was smooth. So what now? Why do the stutters occur when my TV is connected to the RX-580 via HDMI? If the PC is recording without dropped-frames, why do they appear on the live output? Are there other free programs like OBS that I could try? Itching to upgrade my PC, but I really want to diagnose this problem first.

Thanks for any ideas.
 
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rockbottom

Active Member
USB3 from that era sucked. I can confirm that the USB3 on my Gigabyte Z68 was just brutal, never could get a capture card to work correctly. Wi-Fi adaptors either. If it wasn't for that fact, I would have used that PC for 2 or 3 years more. Instead my wife used it until the beginning of this year.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
Thanks for the reply. I do try hard to keep drivers up to date, but I also know windows update grabs the important stuff and the only one I need is perhaps the chipset driver. It sure might be worth reinstalling USB3 drivers, but it's weird that the PC (GPU I presume) is taking the capture card's signal through a USB3 port and making a perfect recording, but between that and the feed-back display something is struggling.

I get what you say about old USB3 ports, but I am not sure it explains the symptoms.

Cheers anyway. I think will go ahead and get a new case, an ATX mainboard and 6 core CPU; maybe the problem will be gone after that. The PSU is a Corsair TX-650M, so hoping I can keep that along with the RX-580 and SSDs.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
OK thanks. Looks like there is a signifiant speed upgrade with the later USB3.1. Hopefully this issue will disappear after I have changed out the mainboard. Soomfon suspect the RX-580 isn't good enough. Thanks for conversing with me.
 
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rockbottom

Active Member
Yep

The RX-580 is a bit long in the tooth. I looked at your 11/9 log again to check your render times but it's not complete. When you're using OBS, have stats open & look at Average Time To Render Frame. Is it high?

View > Stats

What happens if you remove the filters &/or switch to 720p instead of 1080p?
 
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rockbottom

Active Member
FYI, OBS log shows W10/11 but the GPU driver you have installed (22.6.1) is for Windows 7. Might want to give 22.5.1 a shot.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
That is weird. I swear windows update is reinstalling gpu driver automatically. Can you explain where you saw "22.6.1"? I am not so careless to install a Win 7 driver on Win 10, but I am in the process of investigating it.
 
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Witty4ever

Member
Yeah, someone else is saying it's a windows update driver. I don't like Win 10 for this kind of thing. I will grab the driver again and disable that auto update. I don't think it's going to make a difference, but worth a shot. Cheers.
 
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