Question / Help "The current bitrate for the video stream is lower than the recommended bitrate."

T

TechieRock

Member
Hey all,

I had a 2 part question for you all.

I recently bought an Intel NUC 3.5 (up to 4.0 Turbo Boost) GHz Intel Core i7-7567U dual-core processor with 16 GB of ram. It is hardwired to an Ethernet cable that is on a gigabit plan.

I stream to two different supported server at the same time using two instances of OBS. I'm streaming 720P video at 3,000 kbps with audio at 128 bit.They are identically set up. I left the settings on the default settings except the resolution and downscaling to 720p. However, I am noticing that one of the streams that actually give you live feedback on your stream quality sometimes says "The current bitrate for the audio stream is lower than the recommended bitrate." It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen. So, to remedy this, I bumped only that stream to 3,500 kbps. The message has since gone away. The CPU usage on the higher bitrate stream is 31% and the other is 21% for the most part. 0 dropped frames.

My question to you all is, #1 is this an encoding issue in disguise? My internet connection is perfectly stable and should be able to handle this. I also was pretty confident this computer can handle two streams. There are no other issues. #2 Do I need to upgrade my computer to an even better CPU? I'm still within the return period.

I can submit my logs if you need them.

Thanks!!!
 
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Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
The service is warning you about your audio bitrate, not the video bitrate.

Look in Settings > Output > Audio

Usual value is 160Kbps.
 
T

TechieRock

Member
Oh, I can't believe I missed that. I think I had a typo on the error message. It's supposed to be an error message for VIDEO, not audio. I updated the title!
 
T

TechieRock

Member
The top log file was indicating "Warning Encoder Overload. Please consider lowering your video quality. etc. etc. I streamed for 30 minutes with 2 streams. Those are the results.

The bottom log file is the 2nd stream that I was doing at the same time as the 1st log.

Can anyone comment on what is going on? I updated my drivers, etc. I thought my processor was able to handle 2 720p streams. I need to know this soon because my return window is coming up on the Intel NUC.
 
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carlmmii

carlmmii

Active Member
I wouldn't be doing 2 720p streams on that box. As you've seen, you're coming up against an encoding limit. You're trying to push a small form factor 2-core CPU to its limits here... with no real GPU to use as backup for encoding.

There are still quite a few things you can do to try to reduce loading though.
  • Turn off Game DVR
  • Reduce canvas size (less VRAM taken up by iGPU)
  • Lower CPU preset
  • Set CPU affinity between OBS instances to use separate cores (probably won't help, but it's worth a shot)
 
T

TechieRock

Member
This is frustrating. I was told before i made the purchase it would be fine for streaming x2 720p streams. It WAS handling it for a few days, but I'm now noticing the encoder message in OBS. I'm wondering if maybe I changed something. The only thing I can think of is I altered the canvas size at some point from 1080p to 1440p. Not sure if that matters.

*Game DVR. I just turned that off.

*I turned the canvas size down to 1920x1080.

*I turned the CPU present to Very Fast.

I will try this for 30 minutes and post my results.
 
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T

TechieRock

Member
I started streaming. Within the first 4 minutes I didn't get any encoder messages UNTIL I started playing music from Spotify. Almost immediately I got 2 encoder overload warnings with a minute of each other. However, the warnings are only appearing on the stream that has the higher bitrate, but same resolution, etc. The other OBS client does seem to be displaying any warnings. I got a total of 4 warnings that I could see in 15 minutes. I tried pausing/playing, and switching tracks on Spotify and that seemed to produce more encoder warnings as opposed to just leaving the music play unmolested. It's possible that I missed it. Anyway, here's my logs.

If you don't mind, please also comment on the HP mini computer. :).


https://obsproject.com/logs/K9UYMi9b4kwYqEVn

https://obsproject.com/logs/6FN3REs9_g0RPaXd
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
15:26:22.640: Windows 10 Gaming Features:
15:26:22.640: Game DVR: On

Turn that off, it negatively impacts performance.

19:57:56.995: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 162/29541 (0.5%)

Very minor lag-- you're close to getting a workable setup, but you really need to have enough headroom so that you don't drop any frames, even when things are at their worst-- the most on-screen action, the most particle effects, whatever.

If you can't get that at veryfast, back off to superfast.

Don't really feel comfortable commenting on the hardware, but in general those "mini" machines are a lot like laptops and laptops in general are not good for streaming.

The expensive one is OK on CPU, but only has an Intel GPU, which is not ideal. I have no idea what kind of content you're streaming, but even if what you're doing isn't gaming, OBS needs GPU performance to render frames prior to encoding.

The cheaper machine, with the Quadro card, would make a great HTPC because those cards are great at decoding, but I don't think that's what you really need.
 
T

TechieRock

Member
I turned off Windows 10 Gaming Features by going into the "Settings" menu and turning off "Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcasting using Game bar." I don't know how else to turn this feature off.

I'll try superfast now and see what happens. I'm only streaming x2 web cams.

I used to do all of this on my old 2012 Mac Mini Quad Core, but noticed it had similar issue with 2 streams after a while, however I was never even close to 720p. That had an Intel Integrated 4000 Graphics Card. That was my primary setup for years and decided to upgrade after I just couldn't take the packet loss, and the slowness of the machine. I just want the machine the be capable of the encoding I want. Other than that, I barely do anything on it except basic home office tasks.
 
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T

TechieRock

Member
3000 kbps stream
https://obsproject.com/logs/fOQUd85byJ_3U0Cf

3500 kbps stream
https://obsproject.com/logs/3DPsXTbSwFgUL0v5

I had to bump the CPU preset back to "veryfast". The quality difference between the two was noticeable on the viewer's end. It looks like the stream is holding fine after about 90 minutes. I didn't get a single encoder message. I still don't know how to turn off Windows 10 Gaming Features.

The only warning sign I get is "Your btrate is unstable which can indicate a poor connection." It is raining currently where I live. It's not often that I get the message, but it has come up several times. I restarted my network, etc. So there's not a whole lot I can do with that. I do have a gigabit internet plan, so I should be more than fine.

Do you think my computer is handling things ok?

What do you all think? Should I keep the PC?
 
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Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
Those two logs show very minimal lag, which means probably everything is OK, but also that you're on the edge of what the machine can do-- any more load for any reason and frames might start to drop.

Where are you seeing the "bitrate is unstable message"?

Not comfortable giving purchasing advice, sorry.
 
T

TechieRock

Member
No problem! I don't think I'll be pushing the machine any further. x2 streams is the heaviest of tasks I'll ever be using the Intel NUC for. At some point, I MIGHT put all my movies on the SSD and turn it into a Plex Media Server, however that wouldn't be used at the same time during any kind of streaming. It would be one or the other.

The "Bitrate is unstable message" comes from the website's live quality feed graphic when I'm streaming. It's only on one of the sites I use. It shows the current bitrate, and encoding quality as the video is going out. I originally was streaming at 3000 on one site, but more often then not I would dip below 3000 and get a warning message that was kind of annoying. To remedy this, I raised the bitrate to 3500 instead. The warning sign seems to be more rare now. It does happen once in a while, but I chalk that up to the weather mostly.

I really do appreciate your input. This has been an annoying hassle for me!

How do I turn off the Windows 10 Gaming Features? I can't find any other options for it.
 
T

TechieRock

Member
Thank you. I just completed the regedit part.

Not that I think I still need to make the switch, B&H told me the used HP machine I linked you was the appropriate one for my application.
 
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