Question / Help Webcam severely pixelated when Live

[Lucky Chappy]

My webcam is severely pixelated when live. I have down immense amounts of tests on everything hardware and connection wise with no red flags? Is there any simple fixes that other people have made? Like is there something common that occurs with Logitech C920s, a simple fix that I am just not trying or seeing?

It is not blurry or pixelated in preview or during recordings.

 

[Banyarola]

Try using a different USB port...That may help..

 

[TryHD]

Try using a different USB port...That may help..

That will not help, the described issue is caused by to low bitrate.

 

[amcic1998]

That will not pornjk porn800 redtube help, the described issue is caused by to low bitrate.

It is not blurry or pixelated in preview or during recordings.

 

[Banyarola]

Try another USB port like I suggested...

 

[Lucky Chappy]

Tried another USB port and did not work. Even as high as 8k bitrate my webcam gets pixelated albeit, less pixelated but it’s still there.

I have friends who stream at 6k bitrate with the same settings and their webcam works fine.

 

[TryHD]

well than https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/please-post-a-log-with-your-issue-heres-how.23074/

 

[Banyarola]

I read that a wireless connection can cause that problem...
There is a lot of info if you google the problem...

I'm just guessing...

 

[carlmmii]

As TryHD said, if you're not seeing pixelization in the preview or recordings, then the only thing that will be affecting the quality of the streamed output is the bitrate... and the frame complexity.

If you don't have much movement on screen, you will probably have a cleaner webcam image. But as soon as your scene starts including more information it needs to store in the limited bitrate, your webcam quality is going to suffer.

This is called "Interframe Compression". It's a normal thing, and Tom Scott does a great job of explaining it.

There's several things you can do, to varying degrees of impact
- Increase your bitrate (highest impact)
- Increase your compression quality (lower impact, very diminishing returns past the "fast" preset on x264)
- Reduce your output resolution (higher impact -- gives more data per pixel, at the cost of overall image sharpness)
- Lower your framerate (very high impact -- fewer frames, gives more bitrate per frame, but at the cost of video smoothness)
- Increase your webcam size (depends -- this is more to cover the compression artifacting, as well as have less to compress from the more complex area)

 

[Lucky Chappy]

I read that a wireless connection can cause that problem...
There is a lot of info if you google the problem...

I'm just guessing...

I am using a wired connection.

 

[Lucky Chappy]

As TryHD said, if you're not seeing pixelization in the preview or recordings, then the only thing that will be affecting the quality of the streamed output is the bitrate... and the frame complexity.

If you don't have much movement on screen, you will probably have a cleaner webcam image. But as soon as your scene starts including more information it needs to store in the limited bitrate, your webcam quality is going to suffer.

This is called "Interframe Compression". It's a normal thing, and Tom Scott does a great job of explaining it.

There's several things you can do, to varying degrees of impact
- Increase your bitrate (highest impact)
- Increase your compression quality (lower impact, very diminishing returns past the "fast" preset on x264)
- Reduce your output resolution (higher impact -- gives more data per pixel, at the cost of overall image sharpness)
- Lower your framerate (very high impact -- fewer frames, gives more bitrate per frame, but at the cost of video smoothness)
- Increase your webcam size (depends -- this is more to cover the compression artifacting, as well as have less to compress from the more complex area)

Here is the log. No matter the bitrate I use I am still getting severe pixelation, not only in the webcam but in the stream too. I have tried lowering the resolution to 720p and am still getting the craziest form of pixelation, I also getting freezing but no dropped frames. I have no idea how to read these log files so any help is appreciated.

 

[carlmmii]

Your settings don't have any kind of consistency to them -- change one thing only, and see what the result is. For example, when you lowered your resolution to 1280x720, you also lowered your bitrate to 3000kbps -- of course you're going to see the effect of compression there.

This is also definitely one of those times where we need screen caps of your stream output to see what exactly you're dealing with, just to make sure we actually are talking about the right thing.

 

[Lucky Chappy]

Your settings don't have any kind of consistency to them -- change one thing only, and see what the result is. For example, when you lowered your resolution to 1280x720, you also lowered your bitrate to 3000kbps -- of course you're going to see the effect of compression there.

This is also definitely one of those times where we need screen caps of your stream output to see what exactly you're dealing with, just to make sure we actually are talking about the right thing.

Man I have tried everything and I have tried one step at a time, NOTHING works.
Basically when I’m moving on screen the webcam pixelated and when I’m still it catches up. I know that’s how bitrate works but it’s severe to the point where my face looks completely blurred where it looks like slender man.

 

[Lucky Chappy]

Your settings don't have any kind of consistency to them -- change one thing only, and see what the result is. For example, when you lowered your resolution to 1280x720, you also lowered your bitrate to 3000kbps -- of course you're going to see the effect of compression there.

This is also definitely one of those times where we need screen caps of your stream output to see what exactly you're dealing with, just to make sure we actually are talking about the right thing.

the reason I changed it so much was to see the results of heaps of different variables

 

[Lucky Chappy]

Here is the latest log, I have stopped the freezing but not the webcam pixelation. The image attached shows it to an extent, it gets much more severe however this was the only image I could get.

Would love someone to have a look.

 

[Malic]

They are going to need full sized images, not thumbnails.

Taking a look at your twitch channel, two things stand out to me immediately.

1) You are trying to stream at 1920x1080 @ 60 fps
2) You are not a partner, you are not an affiliate

You can not stream at that high of settings, as you do not get transcoding ( the bit that takes source signal and transcodes into all the different viewable resolutions), and Twitch will not allow you to run it that high.

720p @ 30 fps is standard until you get affiliate and gain transcoding at least.

Does not matter what your machine at home is capable of, until you are allowed to stream at higher res and frame rates, it is going to lower it for you without your input.


Edit:

Looking at the .txt file, you are also running your camera at 1080p, yet you resized it to fit in a tiny bit at the bottom of the screen, you are maxing out the bandwidth of the camera, which it should by like 480p maybe. Unless you are doing scenes where you go full screen and need the utmost detail, that is just a waste of camera bandwidth. I can get away with 1080p with my camera because of Partner and transcoding options so I can so detail when going full screen, that camera turns off and a different setting one at 480p runs when I am just using game to maintain higher frame rates and not require OBS to resizes all those pixels. You might be having to scale and it filters out like 3/4 of the data that camera is picking up because of running it so high settings and squashed so small

 

[Lucky Chappy]

I stream on Facebook and am part of their level up program which allows 1080p, I have a scene that enlarges me webcam quite substantially.
As for the images, no idea why the badge come out like they have but they’re not really necessary when all that happens is the webcam gets severely pixelated when moving.
However I will try changing the resolution.
Does it work having 2 webcam sources? One resolution lower and one higher?

 

[TryHD]

2) You are not a partner, you are not an affiliate

You can not stream at that high of settings, as you do not get transcoding ( the bit that takes source signal and transcodes into all the different viewable resolutions), and Twitch will not allow you to run it that high.

720p @ 30 fps is standard until you get affiliate and gain transcoding at least.

Does not matter what your machine at home is capable of, until you are allowed to stream at higher res and frame rates, it is going to lower it for you without your input.

This is complete nonsense
1. Twitch doesn't give a fuck what resolution and FPS you stream
2. You don't get transcoding by beeing a affiliate, you need enough viewers, that is all what matters
3. Twitch will lower nothing for you because they would need to reencode your stream for that.

@Lucky Chappy does Facebook reencode everything like youtube does or does it have a source option in which they passthrough your stream directly as the highest quality option like on twitch? If it does work like youtube you are out of luck because than they simply don't encode with enough bitrate for your footage and you can't do anything about it.

 

[Lucky Chappy]

This is complete nonsense
1. Twitch doesn't give a fuck what resolution and FPS you stream
2. You don't get transcoding by beeing a affiliate, you need enough viewers, that is all what matters
3. Twitch will lower nothing for you because they would need to reencode your stream for that.

@Lucky Chappy does Facebook reencode everything like youtube does or does it have a source option in which they passthrough your stream directly as the highest quality option like on twitch? If it does work like youtube you are out of luck because than they simply don't encode with enough bitrate for your footage and you can't do anything about it.

Some streams I watch have the source option, however I don’t see it on every stream. But I see it on small or big streamers so I believe they do allow source. The thing is I use their recommended bitrate and also below or above and get the same issues

 

[Malic]

1. Twitch doesn't give a fuck what resolution and FPS you stream

You are correct, Twitch does not care what you upload at, but that is like saying "it got rid of the spider" while the fire department is hosing down the house. Yes, you can do it, but you lose something.

Basically, Twitch allows you to stream at whatever, but it is source, and that severely limits who can watch you.

To get the widest range of people (roughly 75% of viewers on Twitch) it is recommended to stream at 720p @ 30fps until you can get transcoding. Transcoding kicks in for non-affiliates around 70-80 people watching, which is rare because most tend to reach all the affiliate criteria before then and then it is on a first-come-first-serve basis.

2. You don't get transcoding by being a affiliate, you need enough viewers, that is all what matters

See response above and https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/joining-the-affiliate-program?language=en_US

3. Twitch will lower nothing for you because they would need to reencode your stream for that.

You mean... transcode into streaming formats?

This is complete nonsense

Make sure you know what are talking about before you claim them as nonsense before embarrassing yourself. I will pass on to the Twitch video engineer that I was relaying with on Discord how they do not know what they work on and should come here to get info from you instead.


@Lucky Chappy, your last .txt file with all your settings are showing bit rates of 12000, 10000, and 8000 on the different settings

Facebooks own setting pages give the setting of 6000 here: https://www.facebook.com/fbgaminghome/creators/levelup

The other problem you are facing is that even though you are in the levelup program and can stream in 1080 p, know that it does not mean that you can stream it well. The 1080p is only to be used for things with slower content, not actions games like Fortnight like you had on your Twitch channel. Same link as before, just further down.

From the streaming groups I an involved in, Facebooks streaming service has the same issue that Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer have with it is the ability for people to watch the stream that limits viewers most until your channel has enough viewership to qualify it for transcoding options for each service