Unstable Stream/Low Bitrate, but settings are good and internet speeds are fine

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sidewinderninety

New Member
So long story short I have a feeling I'm being throttled by my ISP when attempting to stream, but I'm not entirely sure how all that works. For the past week or so I've been unable to keep a stable stream. Starts out fine usually but then I get the red square and the corner and the bitrate speed tanks completely. I haven't changed any settings in OBS (apart from testing initially when the problem started) to trigger the issue, so I'm not sure what it could be unless I'm being capped. My roommate streams periodically as well and has been having the exact same issues, so that makes me even more certain it may be an internet issue, but as stated in the title, when not attempting to stream, internet down/up speeds are fine for the most part.

Here's the log for my most recent session, which doesn't seem to show any critical issues outside of a bit of rendering lag.

Would appreciate any input anyone could provide on this, as I'm still a bit green when it comes to under the hood OBS stuff.

Thanks in advance!
 
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sidewinderninety

New Member
R1CH said:
Check your connection to Twitch with https://r1ch.net/projects/twitchtest

Definitely sounds like an ISP issue.
Click to expand...

I've actually done that as well, and almost all of the servers in my area are at or near 100 quality, including the one I mainly use.

As I said I'm guessing it's probably related to my provider but I just wanted to make sure there wasn't an oversight on my end. Anything else you think it could be before I get to have a lovely chat with my ISP?
 
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sidewinderninety

New Member
R1CH said:
Try turning off dynamic bitrate and turning on network optimizations.
Click to expand...

On further inspection my initial twitchtest results were from Short test duration. I switched to 5 minute durations for the main servers in my area and this is what I got. Significantly worse than the Short duration test. Not sure if that helps identify the problem.

Just tested with dynamic bitrate off and network optimizations on and got about 5 minutes of stable streaming before it tanked completely.
 

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R1CH

Forum Admin
Developer
Your ISP might be throttling longer-lived connections or is just unstable in general.
 
Sukiyucky

Sukiyucky

Member
18:28:43.855: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Dynamic bitrate enabled. Dropped frames begone!
18:28:43.855: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Connecting to RTMP URL rtmp://live-atl.twitch.tv/app...
18:28:43.902: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Interface: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V (ethernet, 1000 mbps)

Your log says you have at least two Ethernet connections. Something setup wrong there in Windows?
 
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R1CH

Forum Admin
Developer
That driver inserts (2) in the name even when there's only a single adapter. Had one before.
 
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sidewinderninety

New Member
R1CH said:
Your ISP might be throttling longer-lived connections or is just unstable in general.
Click to expand...

It's a recent development, this is a first-time occurrence that began about a week ago. No issues streaming to speak of before that, so it definitely leans toward throttling.

Sukiyucky said:
18:28:43.855: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Dynamic bitrate enabled. Dropped frames begone!
18:28:43.855: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Connecting to RTMP URL rtmp://live-atl.twitch.tv/app...
18:28:43.902: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Interface: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V (ethernet, 1000 mbps)

Your log says you have at least two Ethernet connections. Something setup wrong there in Windows?
Click to expand...

As for multiple connections, I live with roommates who are also wired in via ethernet to our router.
 
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sarahbitethis

Member
First and foremost make sure you're running OBS as admin, and yes also disable dynamic bitrate. I had this problem for over a month and all i had to do was change my MTU. You can do it in cmd.

  1. Open cmd as admin and type netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces
  2. Check the number on the same line as your network adpater (Ethernet/Wi-FI), usually its1500
    • If its not 1500, change it to it because its the most accurate baseline. You can do this by using netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Name of Adapter” mtu=1500 store=persistent (Name is under Interface of the first command)
  3. After thats established follow the steps in this article https://hide.me/en/knowledgebase/how-to-find-correct-mtu-values/
  4. After that (make sure you add 28) change the MTU using the same command netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Name of Adapter” mtu=(number) store=persistent
  5. Once thats set you can go ahead and type netsh winsock reset and netsh int ip reset then reset the PC. Not required but kind of a full refresh of the network, so just a mention
I tried just about everything to fix the problem and this ended up doing it. I did change some other things as well so it IS possible this in combination of something else worked, but I did this after I fully reinstalled Windows. There are some network adpater changes that could help a little by clicking on your Network Connections>Adapter>Change settings of this connection:
But as far as the MTU stuff, I didn't find that anywhere until i found a post that said he changed his to 1400 and was able to stream again. Also make sure your Base and Output Resolution match. With those specs your PC can handle 1080p no problem, only thing would be if your upload is proper speed. I hope this helps

How are your monitors setup btw?
 
R

R1CH

Forum Admin
Developer
You should never change your MTU manually unless you really know what you're doing (generally a network administrator). If you have a < 1500 MTU, your router should be sending MTU exceeded messages, if not something is going very wrong (and even then, a modern OS has black hole PMTU discovery to work around it). An incorrect MTU would prevent pretty much everything from working, not just streams.
 
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sarahbitethis

Member
Well I'm definitely not saying its a first option, I couldn't even find it as an option. But that is what fixed my problem, it didn't start until a windows update a couple months ago which is why I knew it was something with the computer itself. Re-installed twice, everything was updated, no corruption literally nothing was wrong. So I blame Windows
 
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ItzSteele

New Member
sidewinderninety said:
So long story short I have a feeling I'm being throttled by my ISP when attempting to stream, but I'm not entirely sure how all that works. For the past week or so I've been unable to keep a stable stream. Starts out fine usually but then I get the red square and the corner and the bitrate speed tanks completely. I haven't changed any settings in OBS (apart from testing initially when the problem started) to trigger the issue, so I'm not sure what it could be unless I'm being capped. My roommate streams periodically as well and has been having the exact same issues, so that makes me even more certain it may be an internet issue, but as stated in the title, when not attempting to stream, internet down/up speeds are fine for the most part.

Here's the log for my most recent session, which doesn't seem to show any critical issues outside of a bit of rendering lag.

Would appreciate any input anyone could provide on this, as I'm still a bit green when it comes to under the hood OBS stuff.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Have you found a fix for this problem yet? The exact same problem started happening to me late June into July. I currently us Xfinity and I have had 2 if not 3 techs come out and replace some old wiring and check connections and run tests, but the problem still remains. I have upgraded to Xfinity's XB7 modem. Everything is wired. I have updated pretty much every program I can think of. Saturday night I streamed and didnt have a problem for the first time in a month but I tried Sunday night and the problem came back. I have also switched out all of my ethernet cables for upgraded Cat7 cables.

I want to try and stream to a different platform to see if this has any difference (I stream to twitch currently)
I had another friend that encountered the same problem and switched ISPs and the problem just magically went away for him.
I have not turned off Dynamic Bitrate yet- I am going to try that next, but if anybody else has any suggestions - that would be great!

Also- My internet is 800-900 down / 40-45 up depending on ping
 
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fitzy925

New Member
im having this same issue out of nowhere, i ran this test and i have 0 percent across the board for some reason....but my internet speed iss 400 down 400 up. and my pc specs are well and above whats needed to stream 1080p 60fps, ive thried every solution offered here and nothing has worked. im assuming it has something to do with the twitch servers but i cant be sure i guess but everything on my end is completely fine
 
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