Question / Help Sudden frame drops about an hour into streaming, doesn't stop until I restart stream.

[LoneHawk]

Here's the issue as best as I can explain it. I have 23-24 mb upload on every bandwidth test. My internet is stable, not capped, and not throttled. I literally have never had any issues connecting to twitch and have not changed any settings recently.

For the last 4 or 5 days, I'll be streaming for an hour or 2, no dropped frames, cpu usage fine, and suddenly OBS Studio will just start dropping frames out of nowhere, and won't stop until I actually stop the stream, then I immediately start up again with no issues...until an hour or two later then boom, it happens again. I've had to do this multiple times a night for the last few days. It's almost like once it's triggered, it doesn't automatically reconnect. I'm well versed with OBS Studio, but this is the first thing I haven't been able to figure out. I'm at my wits end my dudes. Anyone think they have an answer?

In the attached log, 07:52:12.564 is where I am forced to restart the stream, because it became unwatchable with lag.

Edit:
My Hardware includes an i7-5820k, a gtx 1080, and I stream over a wired connection.

 

[Boildown]

Does the recording have the problem or just the stream?

If the recording does have the problem, I would check your CPU temperatures while you do this next time to see if its overheating (gradually).

If the recording does not have the problem, then I'd suspect your ISP is doing something to you after you exceed some bit or bitrate threshold.

 

[LoneHawk]

The recording never seems to have the problem. I only restart the stream and it fixes it. I'll call my ISP and ask to see if they have anything to say.

 

[LoneHawk]

Comcast says it's nothing on their end, any ideas as to what the problem could be?

 

[Boildown]

Yeah, something on their end.

07:52:12.565: Output 'simple_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 1355 (0.5%)

 

[LoneHawk]

I'll call again!

 

[Biggusbennus]

I've had the same thing happen to me - any luck? Just 2hrs in and boom, it decides not to send any more data unless I reload OBS, even though my internet continues to work. Log files don't show anything unusual other than I've stopped the stream and it's dropped frames

 

[LoneHawk]

I tried getting the highest level support technician comcast would allow me, and the guy swears its on my end. Says my connection isn't being throttled at any point, and it seems like a software issue.

 

[Boildown]

You might check your router settings then. Maybe you're throttling yourself somehow.

 

[fj49]

Do you have the gigabit package from comcast?

 

[Harold]

They can swear up and down that it's your end all they want, it's probably not.

 

[Biggusbennus]

I fixed mine by removing the firewall on my router. Dunno why it suddenly caused it to drop but it's been no bother for a couple of days now.

 

[SumDim]

You're not the only one. It happens. Usually just rebooting solves the problem.

When that doesn't work, its usually a network related problem. A 1Kbps drop in upload speed can have devastating effects if you set your bitrate too tight. Best rule of thumb is to give it some slack, like 10-20% less than what you observe to handle the draw downs and spikes. Watch a real time chart of your data outflow to get a sense of what is "stable".

Know what apps are running in your system. Something even like sitting idle with a browser window open can cause data to be sent out. If something sends out 8Kbps of data at the same time you are sending out 12Kbps and you have a bitrate of less than the two combined, you are going to lose frames.

 

[LoneHawk]

I have done some testing, and the problem does NOT occur when using any other streaming program, including XSplit and Shadowplay. This is a problem with OBS for me, If anyone has any other solutions or knows of any hardware incompatibility or settings that cause this please do let me know! I have also disabled the firewall on my router, it didn't help.

Edit: furthermore, with xsplit I can stream at stupid high bitrates and still not receive this issue. Really wanna use OBS, but I can't until this problem is solved.

 

[Harold]

xsplit auto-throttles your bitrates down.

 

[LoneHawk]

xsplit auto-throttles your bitrates down.

Not the case. I used twitch analyzer and had constantly stupid high bitrates with no problems whatsoever. This IS an OBS problem, no way around it.

 

[Harold]

https://github.com/jp9000/obs-studio/wiki/Dropped-Frames-and-General-Connection-Issues

 

[LoneHawk]

https://github.com/jp9000/obs-studio/wiki/Dropped-Frames-and-General-Connection-Issues

Harold, I don't mean to be rude, but that post isn't very relevant. I've tried all conventional solutions. My problem isn't frame drops in general, its a specific moment in stream where bitrate drops to almost 0 and all frames are dropped. That post mentions nothing of the sort.

 

[Harold]

Except it does. That guide is for ALL connection issues, including your sudden disconnect situation.

 

[LoneHawk]

Well that may be the case, however, I've tried EVERYTHING on there, but nothing helps. I cannot figure out what the problem is. What I hate the most, is when I run a test stream, the problem never occurs. It only occurs when I actually live stream. Is there a certain scene element that causes problems that people know of? Or something else it could be? Once again, I am sorry if I came off as rude. This is just extremely frustrating.