Tips + Tricks to streaming on Twitch

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534 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1131892 19-Sep-2014 00:50

X split is gay. It's paid software that gets beaten by free software like open broadcaster software, which is much better.

Home ADSL: School:

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#1131893 19-Sep-2014 00:53

dcole13: X split is gay. It's paid software that gets beaten by free software like open broadcaster software, which is much better.

when i first looked at streaming, i perfered xsplit.

since my testing though recently (which was not the case before) OBS blows xsplit out the water.

I need to get the new version of xsplit at some point to head to head test properly

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Flickky

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Ultimate Geek

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#1132008 19-Sep-2014 10:53

hio77:
dcole13: X split is gay. It's paid software that gets beaten by free software like open broadcaster software, which is much better.

when i first looked at streaming, i perfered xsplit.

since my testing though recently (which was not the case before) OBS blows xsplit out the water.

I need to get the new version of xsplit at some point to head to head test properly

I switched over from Xsplit to OBS a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. For most gamers OBS can do everything they need broadcasting software to do, and it's free. I know Xsplit has a free version but a lot of features you need like stream delays were part of the paid version the last time I checked.

From my own experience I've always had a better experience connecting to US West (LA/San Fran) than Singapore. There's an old tool called JTVPing (Justin TV Ping back when JustinTV used to be a thing) that you can use to check your ping and jitter. Great thread that detailed this on Teamliquid here.

Also from what others have been saying in this thread, I know that you can stream on ADSL but it gives a really average experience when watching. Realistically your max bitrate should be 80% of your throughput up to 3000; anything above this is a bit unnecessary. To ensure you have little to no issues, try and follow these.

Recommended bitrate for 1080p: 3000-3500
Recommended bitrate for 720p: 1800-2500
Recommended bitrate for 480p: 900-1200
Recommended bitrate for 360p: 600-800 (if you stream in 360p your stream will look awful)
Recommended bitrate for 240p: Up to 500 (please do not ever use 240p if you want more than 1 viewer)

wasabi2k

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Uber Geek

#1132020 19-Sep-2014 11:06

Flickky:

Recommended bitrate for 1080p: 3000-3500
Recommended bitrate for 720p: 1800-2500
Recommended bitrate for 480p: 900-1200
Recommended bitrate for 360p: 600-800 (if you stream in 360p your stream will look awful)
Recommended bitrate for 240p: Up to 500 (please do not ever use 240p if you want more than 1 viewer)

The above are pretty much exactly what the quality presets on twitch are:

Source
High
Medium
Low
Mobile

Anything below medium is utter garbage. Red Bull sets the standard with their 1080p/60 source streaming, which I struggle to stream on a 30/10 VDSL connection. Maybe when I get fibre.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#1132124 19-Sep-2014 13:37

heres xsplit, with its bandwidth test..

Average data rate during 993 ms: 1598 kbps...
Average data rate during 2000 ms: 1542 kbps...
Average data rate during 2059 ms: 1582 kbps...
Average data rate during 1989 ms: 1595 kbps...
Average data rate during 2014 ms: 1549 kbps...
Average data rate during 2037 ms: 1587 kbps...
Average data rate during 2019 ms: 1552 kbps...
Average data rate during 2032 ms: 1572 kbps...
Average data rate during 1993 ms: 1588 kbps...
Average data rate during 2012 ms: 1564 kbps...
Average data rate during 2039 ms: 1564 kbps...
Average data rate during 2005 ms: 1581 kbps...
Average data rate during 1995 ms: 1566 kbps...
Average data rate during 2005 ms: 1570 kbps...

for whatever reason, it decides to open up a new socket every second, to send data on.. this stops any window scaling at all :/

obs, give it a second or two to spin up and it evens out its window scaling.. it might drop a few frames while it gets up there.

I never used the free version of xsplit, simply an older version of it.

Worth remembering until your partnered, twitch dont transcode your stream, so streaming at 6mbit is probably tooo high - but it looks great dont it ;)

out of the choice of a streamer that sits a 3Mbits, and 3.5~4Mbits, often ill go with the later, as the quality is just that much more better.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

Huskie

143 posts

Master Geek

#1133052 21-Sep-2014 09:20

I stopped doing the VODs thing when they started muting tbh (not sure if it uses more bandwith to keep VODs). Will have to do another stream and post back here if you wanted to check quality - probably Monday since I'm swamped with assignments for the weekend T_T

And yip yip, I'm aware that it's single threaded, but the difference between 30/10 VDSL and 100/50 is pretty major..and to only get a 500kbps boost for streaming from it, is pretty heartbreaking haha.

Taking into account everything though, can't complain since we can at least stream in decent quality :3

On a side note every time I try XSplit (free version), it seems more stable, and I get less pixelations during stream (same settings used in OBS and XSplit). Not sure why that is, but still OBS > Xsplit lol

Huskie

143 posts

Master Geek

#1137802 25-Sep-2014 20:27

Was watching streams last night, and saw an aussie streaming at a 720p - like perfect quality, no drops no nothing. She's apparently stable at 3500kbps, but her upload (through speedtest), is like half of mine (6 vs 12mb) and yet I can't do better than 1500kbps T_T Perhaps it's something in my PC holding me back

Anyways, in case you guys still wanted to see - skip to unmute parts if you wish haha
http://www.twitch.tv/huskadorian/b/571036657

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hio77

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Lizard Networks

#1137842 25-Sep-2014 21:14

Not bad for 1500kbit :)

ill do another run when i play some more compet tonight, but on a 50/10 vdsl connection i can easily do 6Mbit with no loss.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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Huskie

143 posts

Master Geek

#1137859 25-Sep-2014 21:59

dang 6mb...which provider are you with? I didn't realize you could get a 50/10 VDSL.

I'm on 30/10 VDSL, and in the process of moving houses. New house should have 50/20 UFB but not sure how much of a difference it'll make - like I said, I can barely hold a stable 2100kbps on my parents 100/50 UFB...hence I'm beginning to think it's something with my PC lol. Or perhaps the extra distance between north + south island to the twitch servers is making it that tad bit unstable haha. Who knows c:

I'd be keen to take a look at your (test) streams too when you get the chance ^^

hio77

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#1137870 25-Sep-2014 22:19

Huskie: dang 6mb...which provider are you with? I didn't realize you could get a 50/10 VDSL.

I'm on 30/10 VDSL, and in the process of moving houses. New house should have 50/20 UFB but not sure how much of a difference it'll make - like I said, I can barely hold a stable 2100kbps on my parents 100/50 UFB...hence I'm beginning to think it's something with my PC lol. Or perhaps the extra distance between north + south island to the twitch servers is making it that tad bit unstable haha. Who knows c:

I'd be keen to take a look at your (test) streams too when you get the chance ^^

50/10 is about the max an 8b profile will go.

im on 17a with a bad sync, with high crosstalk usally it would be 60+/10.

70/10 is the physical limit on vdsl.

im with Snap, As previously mentioned with xsplit i can hardly do 2mbit, but obs is solid..

Southisland could harm a little if its not scaling up well enough, as there is the extra latency but still...

Although to be fair, if i was to get into streaming, without a partnership (so no transcoding) ild drop down to like 4.5 or so given that most cant seem to handle higher than that very well...

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

Huskie

143 posts

Master Geek

#1137881 25-Sep-2014 22:30

Hmm, I'm also with Snap and use OBS - XSplit UI is just so clunky to me. Have been getting lots of drops on my connection tho (been almost 3 months).Snap monitored our line for 2 days but couldn't find an issue apparently but who knows, that could be the issue to my speed hehe. Guess all I can do is wait to get set up at the new house and see what speeds I get :D

hio77

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#1137887 25-Sep-2014 22:36

Huskie: Hmm, I'm also with Snap and use OBS - XSplit UI is just so clunky to me. Have been getting lots of drops on my connection tho (been almost 3 months).Snap monitored our line for 2 days but couldn't find an issue apparently but who knows, that could be the issue to my speed hehe. Guess all I can do is wait to get set up at the new house and see what speeds I get :D

line dropouts arent great.

i average about 3 month syncs at the moment... as stable as can be!

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hio77

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#1137900 25-Sep-2014 23:01

So, waiting on friends to finish up.

did a little test, DXtory and OBS were fighting with cs for my first core, could probably clean that up pretty easily.

in a just under 4 min test at 30fps, i dropped a whole 303 frames thats about 1 frame ever second averaged.

Real world, i was getting some jitter in the stream, causing it to bounce off its solid 6M that it usually holds. This included one tcp session that was "repaired" causing a drop in the buffer size.

I was streaming without constant frame rate turned on, which could have also contributed to the buffer acting up.

22:46:15: Number of b-frames dropped: 98 (1.4%), Number of p-frames dropped: 205 (3%), Total 303 (4.5%)

a second test, game minimized, same settings furmark - less cpu hit.

2 mins of testing this time... two socket stalls. resulting in exactly 100 dropped frames. first was in ramp up, second was a single burst.

What i conclude with this, aswell as my modem stats lining up to confirm, is the dropped frames are happening whenever my line has bursts of CRC errors - essentially leaving it with a second or two that may go funny due to the connection, but settling down fine.

Given the second test preformed alot more solid ild say more testing needs to be done, but likely im seeing two things.
- Fighting over cpu cores. (for reference i have a 3770K overclocked, not exactly low end...) - Likely if i tuned my configs i could get this down a bit more stable.
- CRC errors causing occasional frame loss.

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dcole13

534 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1144760 1-Oct-2014 12:06

Just for reference, on ADSL 15/1 I can stream at 600Kbps 720p 30fps without dropping any frames while playing FIFA 15, although FIFA has lag spikes at times. It doesn't look TOO bad.

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hio77

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Lizard Networks

#1144919 1-Oct-2014 16:05

dcole13: Just for reference, on ADSL 15/1 I can stream at 600Kbps 720p 30fps without dropping any frames while playing FIFA 15, although FIFA has lag spikes at times. It doesn't look TOO bad.

600kbit? try alot of movement, would look horrid!

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

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