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Best streaming resolution for 750 kbps bit rate?

Forum Index > Tech Support
Post a Reply
moztacular
Profile Joined May 2010
United States105 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-12 20:01:35
February 12 2011 16:34 GMT
#1
Hey guys I've started using xsplit and justin.tv for my streaming and wanted to ask anyone who has a similar upload bitrate (750kbps) what resolution they find to be clearest/best when broadcasting SC2.

I've been messing around with all kinds of different resolutions and haven't really settled on anything yet for my limited upload bit rate, so let me know if you can give me any suggestions! If you also use xsplit, what do you set your "quality" setting to?

Computer specs: CPU is Intel I5 750 2.67GHz, 4GB ram and GTS250 graphics card
My resolution is 1360x768 which is about 16: 9 aspect ratio. My goal is to find as clear a resolution as I can possibly stream with the .75 Mbps bitrate

Thanks for any assistance,
Moz
Check out Hyperion Television and podcast: http://www.youtube.com/user/HyperionTelevision?feature=mhum
wshm
Profile Joined September 2010
32 Posts
February 12 2011 16:53 GMT
#2
I think that quality refers to encoding quality, so it's about your cpu.
With 750kbps i go with something like 960x540
moztacular
Profile Joined May 2010
United States105 Posts
February 12 2011 16:58 GMT
#3
cool thanks I'll give that resolution a try. I'll edit in my pc specs in the OP post as well.
Check out Hyperion Television and podcast: http://www.youtube.com/user/HyperionTelevision?feature=mhum
PET
Profile Joined May 2010
Romania430 Posts
February 12 2011 17:11 GMT
#4
Try to stream at the half of your game resolution.
www.GamerPET.com
Craton
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States17246 Posts
February 12 2011 18:50 GMT
#5
You didn't even tell us what your resolution is, let alone your aspect ratio. How could we tell you what resolution to use?
twitch.tv/cratonz
moztacular
Profile Joined May 2010
United States105 Posts
February 12 2011 20:02 GMT
#6
On February 13 2011 03:50 Craton wrote:
You didn't even tell us what your resolution is, let alone your aspect ratio. How could we tell you what resolution to use?


Ah I was just hoping someone who also has the same bitrate would let me know what some of their resolutions were. But I've also added my resolution to the OP as you suggest.
Check out Hyperion Television and podcast: http://www.youtube.com/user/HyperionTelevision?feature=mhum
Desti
Profile Joined September 2010
Germany138 Posts
February 12 2011 21:28 GMT
#7
680x384 with 420kbit/s video and 64 kbit/s mono or 96kbit/s stereo sound will give you a good quality without causing lag.
HellGreen
Profile Joined September 2010
Denmark1146 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-13 02:13:57
February 12 2011 22:05 GMT
#8
On February 13 2011 01:53 wshm wrote:
I think that quality refers to encoding quality, so it's about your cpu.

Semi-true. Streaming is very CPU-demanding, and if your CPU is inferior to the task you ask of it, you will probably serve a laggy stream to the audience. But quality is also about resolution, just imagine a 300x200 stream (not pretty). It's about balancing resolution, frame rate and compression.

On February 13 2011 02:11 PET wrote:
Try to stream at the half of your game resolution.

This simply does not make sense. If the OPs monitor resolution was 3840x2400 it would not be pretty to watch @750kbit/s.

On February 13 2011 03:50 Craton wrote:
You didn't even tell us what your resolution is, let alone your aspect ratio. How could we tell you what resolution to use?

Sorry, but you are wrong. His monitor resolution doesn't matter, nor does his aspect ratio. He asks a legitimate question: What's the best I can squeeze out on a 750kbit/s upload?

With the upload speed locked down, the stream quality is basically up to the resolution and compression. Since most software will handle the compression automatically, we are left with the resolution. In this situation, due to the mechanics of the three, the higher the resolution is, the worse the picture will get (because the compression will increase in intensity to keep the stream at 750 kbit/s). Of course there is a lower limit on the resolution as well.

To the OP.
I think your question is excellent. To help answer it, I suggest to look at it from the viewers point of view. One thing is what you can deliver, another is what the audience can receive.
- We can probably assume that the average viewer would want to view your stream in full screen (to be able to see details and such). It would be a good idea to stream in a resolution that matches most peoples resolution. While this is impossible to do for all, just keep in mind that streaming larger resolutions than people have is generally a waste of bandwidth (except if you use ie. justin.tv who allows the user to throttle the bandwidth). Unfortunately in your scenario, the lowest common denominator should rule here.
- We know what our upload limit is (750 kbit/s) and this is roughly the same amount of traffic the viewer must download (no problem here, but it may have been if you were uploading say 6 MBit/s)
- Lastly, your desktop resolution can be higher than what you stream out. It's just a matter of letting the software down-size it before it is send out (CPU must be able to cope with this).


With this info you can settle on a resolution. I suggest 1360*768 because you have a rather significant limit on upload and this resolution will cater most people's native resolutions (including netbooks and most notebooks). It is also widescreen (~16 : 9) which fits most peoples equipment.

Note: Most high quality streams are at 2 or 3 MBit/s. So don't expect this to look very crisp and perfect like the pro's.
Free to do whatever I want!
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
February 12 2011 22:32 GMT
#9
1360x768 with a max upload of 750 kbps would look pretty bad. Going with a lower resolution would mean less noticeable blocking and artifacting. I don't have a definitive answer either, but a baseline guess, I'd suggest experimenting with resolutions around the 480p range (or lower) first.
moztacular
Profile Joined May 2010
United States105 Posts
February 13 2011 05:51 GMT
#10
Thanks for all the feedback guys, really appreciate it. I talked with Sheekthief from ragequit earlier today and he helped me mess around with some things.

Some dead space 2 action at 550bit rate quality 10 on xsplit



I ended up setting my bitrate in xsplit to about 500 or 550, and my output resolution to 1280x720. Things look pretty good and here are some videos I did of both SC2 and dead space 2. There is a fair amount of artifacting in the dead space 2 video but I'm still relatively pleased with the video overall. I might try experimenting with some 480p resolutions as myrmidon suggests and see what results i get. Thanks again
Check out Hyperion Television and podcast: http://www.youtube.com/user/HyperionTelevision?feature=mhum
AnAngryDingo
Profile Joined August 2010
United States223 Posts
February 13 2011 07:35 GMT
#11
hey guys, I just had a quick question about streaming and I figured i'd ask ITT instead of making a new one. I'm using livestream procaster, using the settings that moztacular posted above

1280x720, 500 kbps target bitrate.

the stream looks good, the in-game FPS is good, but I'm getting in-game lag. everything is less responsiveness, say I click a zergling to run somewhere, it takes a second before he starts moving. Anyone have any idea what this could be? I'd love to start streaming but I couldn't play well with that second of lag in there.

upload speed issue? (my upload is only around .35 kbps)

gfx card? (ati radeon 5440)

processor (amd phenom quad core 3.0 ghz)


thx for any replies
Buddhist
Profile Joined April 2010
United States658 Posts
February 13 2011 14:11 GMT
#12
As others have suggested, I'd try 1/2 screen resolution.

Important tip: What ever resolution or other settings you use, keep your keyframe interval low. That is, you want more keyframes per minute. Like, I'd use 1 per second at worst.

The reasoning is this: In sc2, you move your screen around very quickly, and if you have keyframes too far apart, you'll get major artifacting (the kind you can see in the GSL stream).
StavrosHL
Profile Joined December 2010
Greece128 Posts
February 13 2011 17:00 GMT
#13
there is no keyframe interval adjustment choice in xplit iirc..
he ll need FMLE for that.
moztacular
Profile Joined May 2010
United States105 Posts
February 13 2011 17:02 GMT
#14
On February 13 2011 16:35 AnAngryDingo wrote:
hey guys, I just had a quick question about streaming and I figured i'd ask ITT instead of making a new one. I'm using livestream procaster, using the settings that moztacular posted above

1280x720, 500 kbps target bitrate.

upload speed issue? (my upload is only around .35 kbps)


thx for any replies



If your actual upload is around 350kbps then you probably shouldnt set your target bitrate above that to 500. Try setting it to 300kbps and see what happens.
Check out Hyperion Television and podcast: http://www.youtube.com/user/HyperionTelevision?feature=mhum
PET
Profile Joined May 2010
Romania430 Posts
February 26 2011 07:24 GMT
#15
On February 13 2011 07:05 HellGreen wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 13 2011 01:53 wshm wrote:
I think that quality refers to encoding quality, so it's about your cpu.

Semi-true. Streaming is very CPU-demanding, and if your CPU is inferior to the task you ask of it, you will probably serve a laggy stream to the audience. But quality is also about resolution, just imagine a 300x200 stream (not pretty). It's about balancing resolution, frame rate and compression.

Show nested quote +
On February 13 2011 02:11 PET wrote:
Try to stream at the half of your game resolution.

This simply does not make sense. If the OPs monitor resolution was 3840x2400 it would not be pretty to watch @750kbit/s.


Who the hell uses that resolution? I mean... would a sane person use that resolution? Right now a normal sc2 monitor is 1920x1080. Stream at half size and you have a pretty ok quality. I personally stream in 720p with 2000kbps. No problems there.

What it mathers is your upload speed.
www.GamerPET.com
wolf_moss
Profile Joined July 2015
1 Post
July 03 2015 13:35 GMT
#16
--- Nuked ---
wyatt_clayton
Profile Joined July 2015
1 Post
July 14 2015 13:24 GMT
#17
--- Nuked ---
jerold_fritzz
Profile Joined September 2015
1 Post
Last Edited: 2015-09-08 13:37:56
September 08 2015 13:37 GMT
#18
Bot edit.

User was banned for this post.
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