Question / Help x264 Quality

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Sflofler

New Member
So, I did some tests using x264, and it seems that I can't achieve a good quality. I'm currently running a i9 9900k, I did some stream tests using this config:
Preset: Fast and Medium - 10%-30% cpu usage
Bitrate: 6k and 8k
Keyframes: 2
Profile: High
Tune: None/Film/Animation
x264 parameters: None and bframes=8
Proccess priority: Normal

And notice no difference between those settings, video still pixelates sometimes and this is so annoying, the image dosn't look clean and crisp, It feels like it's impossivel to achieve a single pc stream quality like "Summit1G" and "Smoke". And I feel like NVENC has better quality too.

What should I do? Is there some x264 parametes that I'm missing?

Thanks!
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
Anything above faster increases load significantly for a marginal quality improvement.

The sweet spot(s) for many users is veryfast.

You don't mention your framesize/framerate so it's hard to tell what you should be expecting out of a 6-8k bitrate.
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
Oh sorry, I'm using 1600x900 60fps.

Hmmm, slower is better right? Thats why I did some tests using just Fast and Medium presets, I'm not concerned with that CPU usage. Overall usage when playing games don't go above 55%.
 
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TryHD

Member
twitch doesn't allow enough bitrate for the content you stream at your choosen resolution. You could reduce the resolution even more or change the plattform to something that does allow more bitrate. It is strange that even plattforms like chatturbate allow proper bitrate for the resolutions they offer (20 MBit/s+), even though porn is content that is good compressible while gaming is mostly not.
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
So why is there people streaming with this preset? And I'm talking about Partners and Affiliates. They stream at 900p and 1080p using 6k and 8k bitrate, why am I not allowed or why my quality is not the same?
 
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TryHD

Member
you can go up to 7700 kbit/s on twitch, so around 8k with audio, after that twitch will display: This video is not available. (Error #5000). So that is the max for every channel that don't get instant quality option from twitch. Maybe they offer some special treatment for realy big streamers, but as far as i know they never talked about that in public, streamers and twitch (please correct me here if i missed that).
 
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Sflofler

New Member
Well... I don't know about that special treatment and I don't doubt that this is a thing. But the thing is:
There is people that is affiliate streaming in 6k bitrate with NVENC with a better quality then my x264 6k bitrate stream, I can change it to 8k, I commonly get the Transcode option so people can change it to a lower resolution, but what is annoying is that people use 6k bitrate even in 1080p and it looks awesome and a I can't achieve that, thats why i think i'm missing some settings like x264 parameters or else.

Today I watched a guy streaming with NVENC at 6k bitrate and it was beautiful, no pixelation at all! That makes me mad :/

So, one thing I have noticed too is the "Codecs" section in the Video Stats, I don't know how to achieve the same codec "Smoke" uses, here is a screenshot so you can see it better:

1559766953475.png


His "Codecs" is: "avc1.4D401E,mp4a.40.2" etc... Mine is: "avc1.4D001E,mp4a.40.2" etc..

And I know nothing about it, that's why I'm looking for help/advices.
 
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TryHD

Member
what did he stream? You could turn your grass off and find a way to get proper anti aliasing in escape from tarkow, that you should be able to get a decent looking stream of that game.
And you are right it seems twitch lifted the bitrate limit a little bit, still not enough for good looking 1080p in all situations, but if they continue in 500 kbps steps every month, twitch would be a option again to return to in 13 months for me haha.
oSJhhmZ.png

https://r-1.ch/analyzer/results/test_720.6ff950
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
Smoke mainly streams Escape From Tarkov, but he plays a bunch of games too. Does anti-aliasing help improve stream quality?

In the screenshot you sent the preset is set to Slow, this way would be impossible to play and stream in the sampe computer.

So I did another test using 8K bitrate and my codec changed.

1559770909924.png


The only thing I have changed was the bitrate to 8k.

Maybe changing the CPU Preset would affect it too?
What about process priority?
Do you think that changing from Fast to Faster is a big loss?

Thanks!!
 
T

TryHD

Member
Sflofler said:
Smoke mainly streams Escape From Tarkov, but he plays a bunch of games too. Does anti-aliasing help improve stream quality?
Click to expand...
Yes because the flickering that is caused by the lack of anti-aliasing is very hard to compress, so it eats a lot of bitrate and with that quality of the rest of the image.
Sflofler said:
In the screenshot you sent the preset is set to Slow, this way would be impossible to play and stream in the sampe computer.
Click to expand...
That is possible, but not with a 9900k. You need more cores for that.
Sflofler said:
So I did another test using 8K bitrate and my codec changed.

View attachment 45685

The only thing I have changed was the bitrate to 8k.

Maybe changing the CPU Preset would affect it too?
Click to expand...
I'm not realy sure what it does display there, I guess a string that contains the h264 profile + level. But I'm not sure, maybe somebody else here can answer that, because i don't care at all about twitch. I stream at dlive with a bitrate of 17500 and it looks always perfect no matter what content.
Sflofler said:
What about process priority?
Click to expand...
Changing the process priority will most likely make everything worse, so i wouldn't touch it.
Sflofler said:
Do you think that changing from Fast to Faster is a big loss?
Click to expand...

That are a few % but if you have problems at fast you have to do it to maintain smooth frame times and with that a good viewer experience.
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
Ok, thanks for the help. I guess I will have to run alot of tests until I'm okay with it.

Will wait to see if someone who knows twitch better appears!
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
Sflofler said:
Today I watched a guy streaming with NVENC at 6k bitrate and it was beautiful, no pixelation at all! That makes me mad :/
Click to expand...

The new Nvidia cards deliver quality that is the same or better than Fast using NVENC. (The claim is parity with "medium" but I think that is a bit exaggerated.)

The Turing encoder is in the RTX cards and the 1660Ti.
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
Well, people say that the difference between Fast and Medium is like nothing.
There is people streaming using Faster with a quality better than mine :/

I still think there is something I'm missing.
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
The difference in quality between each step on the ladder is small compared with the increased CPU utilization they require. That's why the recommended setting for most users is veryfast, and why it's usually suggested to use NVENC if you have it, especially at higher bitrates.
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
Hmmm, I see people streaming with 6k bitrate using x264 1080p, Likely presets: Faster, Veryfast.

And it looks amazing. And what about that "Codecs" thing I posted above, do you know something about that?
 
S

Sflofler

New Member
Yeah but this is for youtube, I'm concerned about Twitch.

And what about the W10 Game Mode? I disabled it but following the link in your profile it's recommended that I turn it on.

"As of March 2019, as long as you're running 1809 or higher and have the latest Windows updates installed, it is now recommended to leave Game Mode enabled. "

Mine is 1903.
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
That link is in my signature because a lot of users are still running an old version of Windows, where Game Mode causes bad performance AND cannot be turned off. It's not part of my response to your issue.
 
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