Question / Help Super Blurry stream output on all settings

[Jack Franzen]

https://hastebin.com/ufeduvojev

Hello, I've been having problems with a fresh install of OBS on a fresh-install "streaming" PC. I've always targeted 720p 60fps with 4500 without a problem.

But now, no matter what quality options I choose, the stream output looks like it's coming out at a bitrate of 3000 or less. It gets incredibly blurry while moving, or when I'm moving on camera, and never really hits the full 720p.I've gone up to 6000 bitrate and it hardly looks different than 3000, and OBS is reporting that everything is going through fine in the bottom right.

I've tried every combination of settings, twitch vs youtube, GPU cs CPU, every bitrate, scaling option, bitrate control, Driver updates, software updates, performance tweaks.

This setup is nearly identical to one I was running a week ago, same network conditions. The only difference is that I'm using a 1060 (instead of 1080ti), have a slightly older processor (i7 3rd gen) and I'm using an elgato capture card.

One thing to note is that I can take recordings of the stream using the stream encoder settings and everything is recording just fine, it just seems to be a problem when it actually hits the network. Does anyone have any ideas of where to go from here?

 

[RytoEX]

Have you always streamed using NVENC? NVENC, even on the 10 series, does not quite match x264 for quality (though it can come very close, and is probably indistinguishable to most viewers).

Where do you usually stream to?

For now, please revert back to your original settings, and get a log from a short streaming/recording session (whichever you would normally be doing).

Also, you shouldn't manually set the Level, and you shouldn't stream using the Bluray preset. If you don't know what the advanced settings do, it's generally best not to change them. It's also usually a good idea to stay on Simple Output Mode unless you have a specific need to move to Advanced Output Mode.

 

[Jack Franzen]

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure how the log really works, I thought that's what I uploaded above.

I've always used NVENC and had reliable video quality in the past. I realize it's not the best quality, but it works great for my purposes. Visually though I can see no difference between 3000 and 6000 which strikes me as a major issue. Changing my bitrate before used to yield a variety of different results. I usually stream to twitch, although I have been using youtube to test as it allows for private streams.

I am changing all sorts of settings, that's why you see the ridiculous settings like blu-ray. Simple mode does the same thing, as does every other combination of settings.

Going back to my original rig with my original settings (or 5k bitrate w/ basic nvec setup) I cannot get the stream back to the original quality either.
It is as though the the windows 10 april update caused this blur to happen or something has happened to my network. I'll keep looking

 

[RytoEX]

You did upload a log file, and I looked through it. It's just that with all the settings changes, it's very difficult to isolate which settings you felt produced better results, and a clean log file with a single session is generally easier to evaluate. When trying to isolate an issue, it's fairly common that we'll ask you to provide new logs any time we ask you to make a change.

Twitch and YouTube provide different transcoding options (Twitch only transcodes for some streamers, YouTube transcodes for everyone). You need to make sure that you're viewing the highest resolution available on each service (if you have the option to change it) to really see what is being pushed to the service. Don't trust that "auto" is delivering the highest resolution to you.

6,000 kbps for NVENC at 720p60 should be doable, though on high action games it may still get a bit blurry. I tested on a GTX 1060 using NVENC with 4,000 kbps and 5,000 kbps streaming Overwatch to a private YouTube Live Event. It was watchable, but high-action scenes got a bit blurry, and text got a bit blurry. I tested recording Overwatch with those same settings, and saw more or less the same results. It was watchable, though a bit blurry during high action scenes (text crispness is usually first to go during high action scenes).

If you're testing on YouTube, the Low-latency or Ultra low-latency options may also affect transcoding/buffering (their documentation implies this, but isn't very clear).

It is possible that any OS update or driver update could cause such changes, although it is generally unlikely. Blur isn't usually introduced by network issues, though network congestion could induce frame dropping.

 

[Jack Franzen]

Gotcha, one thing I noticed about youtube is it will actually go back down to 144p mid stream, but I am taking note to check the quality settings every time. I appreciate you running those tests, but I'm sure that 5k works for me, even 4k worked for me last week. What I am getting now looks like 2500. I will provide some examples here, though they may not stay up for long. It's just the blur, no frame drops.

https://youtu.be/PdsnD-_k0UU (This week, Youtube, 5k, normal latency)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/278217272 (Last week, twitch, 4.5k)

I've replaced some of my network hardware, but haven't gotten any closer.

My log feature is bugging out like in the video, never gives me a URL on this pc. I'm not sure what Current vs Last Log mean, but here's my Log after doing one of those quick youtube streams. The settings are also visible in the video.

[Deleted Log file]

 

[RytoEX]

That YouTube stream is live streaming an already encoded video as a source, which means it's getting encoded twice. If that was made with your recording settings shown in that video, that's also not the best video quality for a recording. Please consult this guide for local recording settings. Use Lanczos instead of Bicubic for your Downscale Filter - Bicubic is generally not as sharp as Lanczos.

The version of OBS featured in that video is 20.1.1, which is not the same as the log you posted in the original post. Why is that? Log files cannot be uploaded with that version because the service that was used for log files in that version no longer works the way it used to. OBS Studio 20.1.1 is also not comparable to OBS Studio 21.1.2.

When posting log files, please post full log files. You can attach the full log file to the post (don't paste them in the post itself), or you can upload the file to a text file hosting service like https://gist.github.com/, https://hastebin.com/, or https://pastebin.com/.


It just occurred to me while rereading this thread... Is this a two PC streaming setup? Does the footage coming in on the Elgato look okay by itself? I also noticed that your Elgato is set to 144 FPS. The official guide says to set it to 60 FPS, even if the incoming signal is higher.

 

[Jack Franzen]

Just checking that I'm doing this right,

If I target 1080 output with Lanczos in the video settings, then rescale output to 720 for the stream encoder, will that use Lanczos to scale or do I have to do the scaling in the video tab? I still want the recordings in 1080, scaling down to 720 then back up to 1080 in the recording tab feels wrong.