Youtube Live Stream Bitrate Fluctuations

[kryptickrash]

Well, I figured I would post this here as I am running out of ideas of how to solve my problem.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been experiencing an issue where my stream will go through extended periods of massive bitrate fluctuations and dropped frames. This has been an issue that has occured every so often over the past few months, but I can go weeks without any issue, and then once it happens, its makes it impossible to stream (like over the past little while).

I have spoken with other streamers who have been experiencing similar issues, so it is very odd.

When it comes to my ISP and speed tests, everything is healthy. ISP says no issues are present, and whenever I do the speed tests throughout the day, the speeds are where they should be. Even after ending my stream due to the issue, I try and do several speed tests and see no issues at all.

What I find interesting about this is that no matter what I set my bitrate to, the fluctuations will occur, and generally will drop to around 50% regardless of the amount set. For example, if I set it to 40000, it will drop to about 20000. If I set it to 20000, it will drop to 10000...I even went as low as 8000, and it would drop to 4000.

I have tried everything from trying different ingest servers, switching to HLS intead of RTMP, using different encoders, fiddling with OBS setting, trying with a VPN....nothing works.

The one thing that boggles my mind is that some days I can go 12 hours without any issues. Sometimes its a few hours, sometimes its straight from the beginning. But when it starts, it wont stop.

Assuming that it is not my ISP and that they are telling me the truth, and that the speed tests are accurate, I am left to assume that this is an issue on the Youtube side of things, or something going on with OBS that is resulting in a throttled upload/bitrate ONLY when streaming.

Has anyone had similar issues and found a fix? I have tried everything and it is getting discouraging..

Here is a log file for reference...but to be clear, this issue persists whether I have the bitrate all the way up or all the way down...and it just happens at random times. I can sometimes go days or weeks without issue, and then weeks without solution. Very odd. https://obsproject.com/logs/FsbL7tBbxMr2qEIV

 

[qhobbes]

The Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling ("HAGS") feature in Windows is currently known to cause performance and capture issues with OBS, games and overlay tools. It's an experimental feature and we recommend disabling it via these instructions. This may be contributing to your 0.8% rendering lag and encoder overload.

Your log contains streaming sessions with dropped frames. This can only be caused by a failure in your internet connection or your networking hardware. It is not caused by OBS, but OBS can help. With your current CBR streaming setup, the bitrate doesn't fluctuate to match the amount of available upload bandwidth, which does fluctuate. For example, if your bitrate is 35000 Kbps and your upload is speed is 34999 Kbps for a brief moment, then you're going to drop frames (and that's not taking audio bitrate into account).

To fix this, go to Settings, Output and set the Encoder to NVENC H.264. Set Multipass Mode to Single Pass and disable Look-ahead and Psycho Visual Tuning. Those use additional GPU which should help with your 0.8% rendering lag and encoder overload. Set the CBR bitrate to 24000 Kbps. For the time being, do not ignore service bitrate limits. Apply the settings.

Go to Stream, set the service to Custom and the Server to your YouTube rtmp (not RTMPS) server and stream key. Apply the settings.

Go to Advanced, Network, check the box for "Dynamically change bitrate..." and apply the settings.

Having the YUV Color range set to "Full" will cause playback issues in certain browsers and on various video platforms. Shadows, highlights and color will look off. In the Video section of Advanced, change the Color Range back to Limited. Apply the settings and then click OK.

Try streaming now. If still having issues, post a log with 1 streaming session of the issue.

 

[kryptickrash]

The Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling ("HAGS") feature in Windows is currently known to cause performance and capture issues with OBS, games and overlay tools. It's an experimental feature and we recommend disabling it via these instructions. This may be contributing to your 0.8% rendering lag and encoder overload.

Your log contains streaming sessions with dropped frames. This can only be caused by a failure in your internet connection or your networking hardware. It is not caused by OBS, but OBS can help. With your current CBR streaming setup, the bitrate doesn't fluctuate to match the amount of available upload bandwidth, which does fluctuate. For example, if your bitrate is 35000 Kbps and your upload is speed is 34999 Kbps for a brief moment, then you're going to drop frames (and that's not taking audio bitrate into account).

To fix this, go to Settings, Output and set the Encoder to NVENC H.264. Set Multipass Mode to Single Pass and disable Look-ahead and Psycho Visual Tuning. Those use additional GPU which should help with your 0.8% rendering lag and encoder overload. Set the CBR bitrate to 24000 Kbps. For the time being, do not ignore service bitrate limits. Apply the settings.

Go to Stream, set the service to Custom and the Server to your YouTube rtmp (not RTMPS) server and stream key. Apply the settings.

Go to Advanced, Network, check the box for "Dynamically change bitrate..." and apply the settings.

Having the YUV Color range set to "Full" will cause playback issues in certain browsers and on various video platforms. Shadows, highlights and color will look off. In the Video section of Advanced, change the Color Range back to Limited. Apply the settings and then click OK.

Try streaming now. If still having issues, post a log with 1 streaming session of the issue.

Thank you! The RTMP vs RTMPS thing caught my eye. It is the only thing I changed so far and it appears to have solved my issue (so far). I will be leaving my stream on all night to monitor it, but I think you may have identified the culprit. Mind you, the "network" issue is always random and sporadic...so this could just be coincidence. But thank you! Will try the rest if this doesn't solve it.