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This thread will attempt to explain what factors affect your stream quality and hopefully provide some insight on to what you should be looking at when you configure your stream. I'm not going to advocate any particular way of streaming since there are too many factors to consider, but hopefully this provides some basic information on to what you should be looking at when configuring things. Hopefully this is useful to someone!
Note: This guide is a bit out of date and some things are no longer accurate. For XSplit users, see this post for a quick idea of how settings affect quality.
There are three main factors when streaming:
- Quality
This is how your stream looks to your viewers.
- Bandwidth
Streaming requires a high upload bandwidth for best results.
- CPU Usage
If you're playing SC2 on the same PC as you're streaming on, you have to balance it so neither your stream nor SC2 starts suffering from lack of CPU power.
Quality It's important to note that quality is not directly related to any single factor - eg cranking the resolution to 1080p and claiming that's the best possible quality is simply not true. There are many factors involved with how good your stream will look. Here are some:
- Codec
Most streaming software uses either H264 or VP6. The codec is a piece of software that converts the 50MB+/sec of raw image data into a compressed video format suitable for Internet data rates. H264 / MPEG4 is the more modern codec. However there are many implementations and variations in the way codecs can be programmed, such that some encoding software is better than others despite using the same standard.
Popular software that uses H264 includes Adobe Flash Media Encoder and XSplit. XSplit uses the x264 encoder which is regarded as being the highest quality whereas FMLE uses MainConcept. VP6 is an older codec that is available to users of Adobe Flash Media Encoder. It requires a higher bitrate (more upload) for the same quality, but has some benefits in that it recovers from scene changes faster than FME's H264.
It's also worth mentioning under the Codec section (but really it's a software issue) that XSplit's internal source scaling will always result in a blurrier output than a Adobe FME stream due to a scaling bug in XSplit (Hi SplitMedia please fix this, I've sent in about three bug reports already!). This becomes very noticeable if you have text or other sharp elements on your stream and is one of the main reasons I personally dislike XSplit. UPDATE: This bug no longer exists as long as your output resolution matches your input resolution.
- Frame Rate
The higher the frame rate, the more frames the codec will need to process and the smoother your stream will look. A good frame rate to target is around 25 FPS. Some streamers use 20 FPS and as long as it's a consistent 20 FPS this is fine, however below 20 FPS your stream will become noticeably jerky and unpleasant to watch. Going above 25 FPS does not yield many benefits while taking additional CPU to encode.
The main thing to aim for with the frame rate is consistency. A consistent frame rate is good, a frame rate that jumps up and down is very noticeable and annoying to a viewer. Frame rate correlates pretty directly with the codec - the quickest way to reduce CPU usage if you're having trouble is to reduce the frame rate as a 20% reduction in frame rate results in 20% less work for the codec.
- Resolution
While you may think the higher the resolution, the better the quality will be, this isn't necessarily true. Very few people will have the CPU and Internet bandwidth to support a high quality 1080p (1920x1080) stream at a decent frame rate. It's much better to have a lower resolution stream at a steady and consistent frame rate than to try and push the resolution as high as it goes.
Codecs work on a variable bit-rate and more complex scenes can require more time to encode. While your stream might seem fine at 1080p@30FPS while looking at the SC2 menu, come a big battle and you may find your stream turns into a slideshow as the codec can't keep up with all the data.
Try to pick sizes that are exact 2:1 reductions for best quality, eg if your SC2 is at 1680x1050, try streaming at 840x525. To change the resolution you can either set your SC2 to play in a lower resolution or set your streaming software to resize the input / output. Generally though you will want SC2 to run at your native monitor resolution with either a full size or half size resolution for your stream.
- Bitrate
The bit rate is the approximate amount of kbps that the codec will try to produce. However the H264 format is a variable bit rate format, so even if you specify 2000kbps, if the codec tries to encode something and it happens to come out at 2500kbps for that particular instant, it's going to either use it or drop it. It's important to pick a bit rate that is well below the maximum upload speed of your Internet to account for bursts like this. If you have 2mbps upload and stream at 1900kbps, come a burst of 2500kbps your stream is going to lag or drop frames (both equally bad).
Lagging can become cumulative to the point where if your upstream never manages to recover and "catch up" to the live point in the stream (eg an average of 2.1mbps trying to go out of a 2mbps upstream), your stream will simply not work. Dropped frames are also bad as if a key frame is dropped, it can take 5 - 10 seconds before another key frame is generated, during which time your viewers will have no video.
On the flip side, too low of a bitrate and your stream will look terrible. Codecs can't work magic - it's impossible to turn 1920x1080 @ 25FPS into a decent looking 1mbps stream for example.
The above four factors are the most important things to consider when setting up your stream. Some streamers prefer a higher resolution with a lower frame rate. Others take a more conservative approach and use a low resolution with a high frame rate and bit rate. This is actually very good option to start with since it guarantees no bitrate quality issues and doesn't usually use much CPU.
Bandwidth I've touched on the topic of bandwidth in the quality section, but it deserves its own section for clarity. First of all, streaming is tough on your connection. Any packet loss or jitter can cause your data to arrive late at the streaming provider which will discard it due to the timestamp being late. Worse still, your throughput may be reduced by retransmissions to the point where your stream buffer backs up and no new data ever makes it to your viewers.
When determining your bitrate, a good rule of thumb is to leave about 25% of your upstream unused. If you have a 2mbps upload speed, set your stream bitrate to 1500kbps. This leaves enough room for the occasional burst of data from the codec as well as for background applications such as any VoIP software and of course SC2 itself.
When determining your upstream speed, it's important to perform a realistic test. If you go to www.speedtest.net and pick the closest server to you, you're not going to get a realistic result. For users in the US, I would suggest picking a server on the East or West coast, whichever is furthest from you as a good baseline. If you're still using Windows XP, you will need to apply some registry tweaks to be able to get good performance to sites with higher latency, but that's beyond the scope of this guide.
Depending on your connection type, your upload speed may vary during the day as more users get online. Crowded cable networks and especially using wireless can be a big issue. Run tests at the time you would usually be streaming for accurate results. One final thing to keep in mind is some ISPs offer "boost" technology where for the first X seconds of a transfer, upload/download limits are relaxed slightly to provide for better looking results in speed tests.
For those of you on capped connections with a limited amount of transfer per month, you may want to avoid regular streaming. It can very quickly add up to a lot of bandwidth and may cost you additional fees from your ISP.
Finally, keep in mind that when you set your bitrate to X, your viewers need approximately X + 500kbps for a reliable streaming experience. If you can upload at 10000kbps then that's great, but don't expect many people to be able to watch your stream. (Side note: Justin.TV provides a service to transcode your stream into a lower resolution / bitrate if you are a partnered account. Contact them for details)
Here's some very rough example bitrates you should be looking at for a nice quality stream at 25 FPS (these will vary depending on encoder used and other factors, with XSplit you can get away with a lower bitrate for the same quality for example):
480p (720x480): 750-1000kbps 720p (1280x720): 1500-3000kbps 1080p (1920x1080): 3000-5000kbps+
Most of you will not be playing in a resolution that matches one of these exactly, so you'll likely want to resize your stream down to a matching aspect ratio.
CPU Usage Here comes the fun part. Streaming requires lots of CPU. So does SC2. If you stream at too high a quality, both your stream and your game will start to lag. You need to find a balance between quality and how much the stream impacts your game performance.
First, if you have anything less than a quad core processor, you may as well forget about streaming in any kind of decent quality for now. SC2 itself can easily almost max out a dual core CPU, leaving no room for streaming.
Ideal CPUs: Core i5 2500k / i7 2600k Core i5 / i7 8xx / 9xx Series AMD Phenom X4 / X6
Unfortunately anything less than these including older Core 2 models are showing their age and you won't be able to reach the best results. Streaming and SC2 are extremely CPU dependent, your graphics card has a very minimal impact on things so don't go out and buy an expensive GPU in the hope it will fix things.
The codec you choose (which is influenced by which program you stream with) has a very big impact on CPU. Adobe's Flash Media Encoder has a pretty standard H264 encoder but it uses a lot of CPU. One benefit is that is multi-threaded, meaning it can take full advantage of multiple cores and benefits from i7 CPUs. XSplit on the other hand produces a higher quality output but appears not to benefit from multiple cores very well, so your CPU speed becomes a factor (one reason why the 2500k and 2600k work so well is they can easily hit 4+GHz with overclocking) UPDATE: The latest XSplit versions can now use multiple cores properly. There are other programs such as VLC (very difficult to setup) and Dynno (suffers from macroblock artifacting) but the two main programs most people will be looking at are XSplit and FME.
How you get your SC2 into the streaming program also has a big impact on CPU usage and in-game lag. Most screen capture options such as XSplit's internal capture and VHScrCap use a significant amount of CPU and rely on GDI which causes your game to lag even if your CPU isn't near maximum. The best option by far is to use DXTory which rips the screen directly out of your video card after it has been rendered by intercepting DirectX calls. This has almost zero overhead associated with it, however DXTory is not free - it will set you back around $50 and will not allow you to capture anything other than games. The next best appears to be SCFH, a GDI based screen capture. Even if you use XSplit, you aren't forced to use XSplit's internal capture - you can easily add a camera source of DXTory or SCFH.
Programs such as XSplit offer a virtual set where you can add overlays and other effects. Keep in mind - especially if you use transparency - that the cost of these effects can add up in terms of CPU usage. High-quality resizing is also an expensive operation for CPUs, so for the lowest possible CPU use, try to match your screen size with your stream size (XSplit users can ignore this since XSplit seems to scale everything regardless of it matching the output size).
Some guides recommend setting affinity so your streaming program and SC2 run on separate CPU cores. I don't really recommend this as it just limits performance, if you want to ensure your SC2 doesn't lag at the expense of your stream, simply set SC2.exe to High Priority in task manager.
Another thing if you use Vista / Windows 7 to do is to disable Aero (the fancy translucent desktop effects etc). To do this, right click on the shortcut to your streaming program or SC2 and under Compatibility, tick the "Disable desktop composition" box. This especially helps when using GDI capture methods.
Final Thoughts One reason I like to use Adobe FMLE over XSplit is the status window. XSplit offers you pretty much zero feedback - it doesn't tell you the current FPS, whether there is any local buffering, if there are any input or output dropped frames, etc. It's pretty much just luck - try some settings and see if your stream lags, if you get buffering just restart and hope it's better, etc. FMLE on the other hand offers you very useful statistics - dropped frames, current bitrate (remember it's variable) and more.
Input drops mean your capture source such as DXTory or SCFH isn't providing input fast enough - this can happen in big battles where your SC2 FPS drops below your desired stream FPS. Output drops are the ones to watch for - this means output frames were dropped because they couldn't be encoded in time. Any amount of output drops means your stream will lag and you should re-adjust your settings. If you see publishing buffer or frame drops at non-zero values, this indicates your upload is too slow or the connection to your streaming service is failing.
Remember to test things with a realistic load - simply looking at the SC2 menu is easy for a codec to encode and won't provide accurate feedback. Watch some replays and move the camera around etc (but don't run replays on 2x or higher since that will use more CPU than a realistic game).
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Sticky pls!
(one unified thread on stream help :D)
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Wow, beautiful guide R1CH, thanks for making this. This should be stickied in the tech support section if it isn't already.
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It's more of a technical background reading thing than a support guide, unfortunately it won't really help anyone with the "How do I set up xsplit" or "Can I stream with X" style questions. I just thought it would be nice if there was some explanation of how it all fits together rather than people plugging in settings without really understanding what they do.
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Yeah was about to say its not much of a guide lol.
Really nicely laid out and this should hopefully help people understand what ever the hell they are doing. Thanks :D
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For those unsure of using Flash, be sure to know that flash medio encoder is simply that - an encoder. It takes a source (vhscreencapture or similar like xsplit) and encodes it, usually more efficently.
So if you wish to take a break from Xsplit. Go download VH Screen Capture, and then Flash Media Encoder.
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Thank you, Rich. So much, seriously. It's so annoying constantly having to change the settings. I know you don't like xsplit but it's so simple and this guide makes it even easier. Thanks so much. You deserve alot more credit.
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Very nice guide, hopefully this will help with many questions for ppl using xsplit/fme trust me looking at the same questions over and over BLEH!
R1CH what do you think I should do, I have a 5mbps upload, but when putting stream to 1.2mbps I get constant disconnects, do you think this has somthing to do with my router Upgraded it 5-6 years ago? My modem is able to handle 40 down/ 10 up. You think a new router would fix this problem?
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On May 08 2011 11:37 R1CH wrote: It's more of a technical background reading thing than a support guide, unfortunately it won't really help anyone with the "How do I set up xsplit" or "Can I stream with X" style questions. I just thought it would be nice if there was some explanation of how it all fits together rather than people plugging in settings without really understanding what they do. noticed you don't give suggestions just lay it out as it is, but atleast your expliation should help some people figure out it's not bad not to use h.264 which wasn't designed for streams but still can produce quite a nice stream at a lower bitrate, among other suggestions such as what bitrate is on your stream and how resolution can effect it.
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You seem like a knowledgeable person on this subject. Thank you for making a great guide I will try to read all of it but for now I only skimmed on it. I have one question, though.
Would the i7-2600 be significantly better than the i5-2500k for streaming and gaming only?
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Depending on what program you stream with the i7 will be better. FMLE will make use of the extra threads, however XSplit probably won't. If you ever do any other video editing, most video encoding software can make use of the extra power.
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I wont be wanting to do much video encoding and when I stream I much prefer to use X-split so thats a win for me right there, plus I want to try on save some money thanks for the answer .
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r1ch where has this topic been all my life. Thank you very much sir, plan to start streaming everyday after finals!
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this is exactly what i was looking for
tyty
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Excellent as always, R1CH. Cheers
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I run a very high quality stream on JTV and I have to say that everything that R1CH says here is golden. I'd like to add three things though:
* 1200kbps is probably the max bitrate you want to go without the transcoder on JustinTV without viewers complaining about lag. You'll get a decent 720p stream with h264 (won't be top notch though).
* If you want your stream quality to be very good, I would play at the same resolution you stream at. Thus, if you stream at 720p (recommended; most people can't watch at 1080p anyways if they're on a older computer or laptop, and chances are your computer can't encoder at 1080p fast enough), you'll want to play SC2 at 720p. It will result in better picture quality.
* R1CH said: + Show Spoiler +Most screen capture options such as XSplit's internal capture and VHScrCap use a significant amount of CPU and rely on GDI which causes your game to lag even if your CPU isn't near maximum. If you disable Aero, you'll actually reduce a LOT of overhead. You can get Aero to automatically disable by right clicking on Flash Media Encoder or Xsplit's icon in the start menu, going to properties > compatibility, and check "disable desktop composition".
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great writeup. Would of been helpful when I was buying new components for myself as I would of had to research less but none the less still a great writeup/read.
This may not be the right thread to ask this, so I will spoiler it. Any feedback would be great :>.
+ Show Spoiler +current setup: 8gb ddr3 ram (forgot the speeds but its decent) i7 2600k (not OCd I have a beast heatsink from coolermaster) nvidia gtx480 (not OCd) 60gb ssd + 500 storage
at the moment I stream in 720p nearly the same quality as I play in using xsplit uploading @ 3250 KBPS (i toyed around with it till I figured out this was best). I have roughly 50% memmory usage and 20% cpu usage when streaming [values are from task manager]. However, I have realized even if I'm not lagging on my part after several days of not rebooting my computer, the stream will lag, however I won't and the values from task manager are still the same. Is this normal, if so does that mean I need to reboot before I stream or just reboot every other day? Thanks for any feedback, feel free to private message.
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Thank you so much for this writeup! Even though it's not really a guide, it still answered a lot of questions I had about streaming in general and will greatly influence my decisions on which parts I will buy for my new desktop. Looks like it'll also be a good idea to upgrade my internet plan with Verizon for higher upload speeds. Thank you again! =)
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Very VERY nice guide, as a noob streamer i was looking for something like this, i dont like to just change settings and cross my fingers hoping everything works, im sure this will help me with my stream, although i have a Q6600, ill take it to 3GHz and see if that helps thanks
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Canada1637 Posts
Great post, maybe consider adding something like recommended settings based on different upload rates?
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I should be able to maintain a 1080p stream right?
I have a 5850, 8gb ram, i7 2600k, 1920x1080 monitor, h50 cooling, CM HAF 932 case.
My stream is lagging and ingame is stuttering. Anyone know why?
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Great post, i hope this gets stickyd. Lots of great info here that helped me decide I shouldn't stream.
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I'm sorry but I have to nitpick your points on the bitrate, those numbers are way higher than necessary from what I've tested. I was able to run a 1024x576 resolution stream before I got better internet at just 500 kbps. Also after that I've run a 1280x720 stream at alternating 1000 and 1500 kbps settings with no major quality losses. The main issue is when you're running a stream that is 2500+ bitrate it limits the number of viewers who actually cannot view that stream.
Especially since most people on JTV don't have partner status and this means they cannot scale down the quality on the stream when the bitrate is too high. I"d suggest for the vast majority of streamers to run their bitrate as low as possible so their viewers can actually watch. Most streams that run 3k or higher are just plain unwatchable even on my internet which is stupidly fast.
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I know XSplit still requires the game to be some kind of windowed mode to stream but does FMLE? Or alternatively is there anyway to stream fullscreened?
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On May 09 2011 08:58 iCCup.Raelcun wrote: I'm sorry but I have to nitpick your points on the bitrate, those numbers are way higher than necessary from what I've tested. I was able to run a 1024x576 resolution stream before I got better internet at just 500 kbps. Also after that I've run a 1280x720 stream at alternating 1000 and 1500 kbps settings with no major quality losses. The main issue is when you're running a stream that is 2500+ bitrate it limits the number of viewers who actually cannot view that stream.
Especially since most people on JTV don't have partner status and this means they cannot scale down the quality on the stream when the bitrate is too high. I"d suggest for the vast majority of streamers to run their bitrate as low as possible so their viewers can actually watch. Most streams that run 3k or higher are just plain unwatchable even on my internet which is stupidly fast.
I can second this, I can't watch NASL's absurd 3k bitrate yet i can watch any other stream or video on the internet.
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On May 09 2011 09:08 lynx.oblige wrote: I know XSplit still requires the game to be some kind of windowed mode to stream but does FMLE? Or alternatively is there anyway to stream fullscreened?
I'm not sure about FMLE but with xsplit, just set Starcraft 2 to Windowed (fullscreen) and you are set. It doesn't effect playing on it at all.
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On May 09 2011 09:08 lynx.oblige wrote: I know XSplit still requires the game to be some kind of windowed mode to stream but does FMLE? Or alternatively is there anyway to stream fullscreened?
no it is not required for FMLE but most games do not stream very well in full screen mode so you usually need to use windowed mode anyways.
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Anyone know whether dxtory output should be set to AVI or RawCap if you're outputting to DirectShow for xsplit? Also, if you're outputting 25 fps with xsplit, should dxtory be set to capture 25 fps, or does it matter?
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Well I ask because I still get a blank screen when trying to stream League of Legends using FMLE. Can someone PM me the method of streaming fullscreen? (LoL has issues in windowed mode like not being able to mouse scroll downwards in windowed and others) I wish it had windowed fullscreen like SC2 (fortunately SC2 works great)
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hi, i know this is not on topic but i didnt know where else to post it, how do i switch over to justin.tv ? i'm currently on livestream but i want to switch over for the quality.
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ok nvm, i got a new stream but i need help trying to stream SC2 now it wont show up with my stream
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On May 09 2011 14:37 lynx.oblige wrote: Well I ask because I still get a blank screen when trying to stream League of Legends using FMLE. Can someone PM me the method of streaming fullscreen? (LoL has issues in windowed mode like not being able to mouse scroll downwards in windowed and others) I wish it had windowed fullscreen like SC2 (fortunately SC2 works great)
get a program called shiftwindow it fixes the windowed mode so that it appears like it's fullscreen
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thanks for the last post i think i need to get that program too.
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For some reason, when I try to output in 840x525 (2:1 for my monitor) the broadcast fails and all viewers see is the "please enable virtual camera" message from Xsplit. Any pre-set resolution (i.e. the ones listed under View>Resolutions) works, but when I try to add this 840x525 there are issues. Anyone know about this ?
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Wonderful guide. Played around with settings myself before reading this and it didn't turn out that well, going to play around with it some more. Thanks!
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United States4126 Posts
I've been using VP6 over H264 because it does much better with fast scenes from my testing. Is there a noticeable problem with VP6 that would make people choose H264 over it? I've noticed that the TSL stream uses H264 as well.
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On May 10 2011 09:08 Kinky wrote: I've been using VP6 over H264 because it does much better with fast scenes from my testing. Is there a noticeable problem with VP6 that would make people choose H264 over it? I've noticed that the TSL stream uses H264 as well.
VP6 is an older codec that is available to users of Adobe Flash Media Encoder. It requires a higher bitrate (more upload) for the same quality, but has some benefits in that it recovers from scene changes faster than FME's H264. That is what I would imagine.
Thanks to the guide I'll be boosting my bitrate to 1200 and changing some quality settings. Hopefully now some FPS games will stream better.
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I use VP6 because from testing, it is like 100% better for motion use. Here are my settings:
Screen Resolution: 1920x1080 Stream Resolution: 640x360 Video Bitrate: 300
That's why ^^.
Here is a video of my stream quality: http://www.justin.tv/kolvacs/b/285523078
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On May 09 2011 04:11 Dakk wrote:I should be able to maintain a 1080p stream right? I have a 5850, 8gb ram, i7 2600k, 1920x1080 monitor, h50 cooling, CM HAF 932 case. My stream is lagging and ingame is stuttering. Anyone know why?
You most likely don't have the bitrate/frame rate settings properly set-up.
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On May 09 2011 04:11 Dakk wrote:I should be able to maintain a 1080p stream right? I have a 5850, 8gb ram, i7 2600k, 1920x1080 monitor, h50 cooling, CM HAF 932 case. My stream is lagging and ingame is stuttering. Anyone know why?
try dxtory, look on the support forums here to see what it is.
i had the same prob with you. like many many others here.
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On May 08 2011 11:23 R1CH wrote:
480p (720x480): 750-1000kbps 720p (1280x720): 1500-3000kbps 1080p (1920x1080): 3000-5000kbps+
One thing to consider with these bitrates is that at such high bitrates, the major quality advantage of x264 is not nearly as impressive as it is at low bitrates. A comparison ive used: http://keyj.s2000.ws/?p=356
According to this, xvid, the second highest quality encoder takes far less cpu power while maintaining similar quality, at least at higher bitrates.
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Hey guys do you all have this problem which i am currently having it with xsplit streaming on justin.tv
without xsplit I can play at 200fps on sc2
the problem is when i use xsplit... at 30fps... my sc2 fps drops to 30-60 fps and its really laggy... it seems that xsplit's fps is sync with sc2's fps which sucks big time
I do not know why is this happening... because on my laptop.. 50fps seems smooth to me but i need 150 - 200 fps to be smooth
I tried playing on 60 fps which is pretty smooth in sc2(frames at 80-100) for me but when i use my mouse cursor to change position of the screen it starts getting jerky which really spoils the gaming experience.. any idea how I could solve this problem or should i just take this issue to the xsplit team?
Thanks...
My question is
1) how do i unsync sc2's frame n xsplits frame, because i know procaster for livestream could do such things..
2) Why do i lag when my fps is around 80FPS on my PC
but at 50FPS on my LAPTOP it is smooth.. seems weird no?
thanks guys
sorry if i have been spamming on other threads too but i really want to get this working ...
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I tried to use the resolution 840X525 as suggested as my native res is 1680X1050 but when I broadcast it says that it is streaming but on my justin.tv page nothing is live, if I change the resolution to one of the default resolutions that come with xsplit then stream everything works fine, does anyone have an idea of what is happening?
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wow now i know what i have to get an do for running smoothly a stream, thanks!!!
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Great write up, really nice for someone like me getting into streaming with limited experience. You mention overclocking the Core i5 2500k, would it still be able to stream in okay quality even without overclocking?
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sorry if it was posted but i wasn't sure if it was answered...
my upload was 3.93 Mbps. Is this good enough to stream? If so, what quality? (i think it says 1080, but im not sure if that's what it's referring to). Thanks.
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ok so 720p (1280x720): 1500-3000kbps i have 3up if i go at 2000kbps will it be in HD ?
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Ok so I have a Core2duo 2.6ghz, 3 years old graphics card, 1.5gig ddr3 ram. I have 10m/6m Down/upload. Can someone please recommend some Xsplit settings?
I tested it, and to make it not-lag I had to lower res and frames to 640x480, and 15fps. 3k Bitrate. Which looks pretty awful. Any tips?
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How well do you think 4gb 1333 ram, i5 2500k, 6850 gpu could stream sc2? Download is 20mb (don't think it really matters), upload is ~4Mbps. Will this run it on ultra? High? Medium? thanks.
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On May 26 2011 00:49 wxwx wrote: Ok so I have a Core2duo 2.6ghz, 3 years old graphics card, 1.5gig ddr3 ram. I have 10m/6m Down/upload. Can someone please recommend some Xsplit settings?
I tested it, and to make it not-lag I had to lower res and frames to 640x480, and 15fps. 3k Bitrate. Which looks pretty awful. Any tips?
As far as i understood all the TL guides on streaming, that's about as good as it's going to get. You should lower your bitrate though. I don't see a reason for it to be so high while streaming at 640x480. Should be around 750kbps. Don't know if that actually has an impact on cpu performance. Maybe after that you can increase the fps to 20 which would be desirable.
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How do you record 1680x1050 (or 840x525) when FMLE (VHScrCap) doesn't list that as input (output)? I've been trying everything and it both a) looks like crap and b) lags. Even when I record it to HDD and am not streaming at all. I've followed all guides listed and I just don't get what could be wrong besides the resolution thing.
I'm running an i7 2.6k with W7, 2GB Radeon 6950 and 8GB RAM so I don't think recording should be much of a problem.
Edit: deinstalled the Multicam crap and installed SCFH DSF, this is much better, but the image is quite blurry and I get artifacts when scrolling. I changed my natural resolution to 1600x900 and the SCFH to fullscreen input while setting FME output to 800x450. Result: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15243841 I think this could be better...
I think maybe if I could play SC2 in a window I could adjust the input resolution, but SC2 doesn't let me change my res anymore, I can only choose between fullscreen and windowed fullscreen... any ideas?
Edit2: I can get to windowed mode by manually changing it in the config file. I found out that you can change the 'confine mouse' at options - controls... the weird thing is that, apparently, SC2 doesn't want to start in windowed mode at the resolution I defined in variables.txt so I have to pull the window until it's the size I want it to be. Problem with that is that it messes up the ratio as it's so imprecise.
Final Edit: Alright, seems like justin.tv offers better quality... stream is smooth as silk and quality is neat, lowering my SC2 quality settings from extreme to 'high' helped keep me at 50-60FPS... so I'm good now. Thx for the SCFH suggestion, R1CH!
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For some reason in order to get good SC2 windowed fullscreen FPS, I have to make sure aero compositing stays ON. (win7x64, windowed fullscreen 2560x1600, ati hd 5770, i7 2.9ghz)
Normally I get about 55fps in SC2 windowed fullscreen 2560x1600. If aero compositing is disabled (either by xsplit, or if I do it myself), my SC2 framerate drops to about 12 fps. No idea why this is, but if I just uncheck the box in xsplit trying to turn off aero, my fps stays high.
From casual observation, it seems like Flash Media Encoder + VH Capture caused a slightly lower hit to game performance than xsplit... but I can't say for sure. I also didn't have audio properly setup in FME, and honestly xsplit is so much easier to setup and use that I'll stick with it as long as it's close in performance.
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how big is the difference between a 2500K and 2600K assuming both OC'ed to 4ghz or whatever?
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I've been having an issue with dropped frames, the stream runs pretty smooth but I drop enough frames randomly that it will look jerky at times. I have an i7 and a 25up/25down connection, so my CPU and Bandwith are overkill. Here are my settings
+ Show Spoiler +<device>VHMultiCam</device> <crossbar_input>0</crossbar_input> <frame_rate>30.00</frame_rate> <size> <width>1280</width> <height>720</height> </size> </video> <audio> <device>Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable)</device> <crossbar_input>0</crossbar_input> <sample_rate>22050</sample_rate> <channels>2</channels> <input_volume>75</input_volume> </audio> </capture> <encode> <video> <format>VP6</format> <datarate>2200</datarate> <advanced> <keyframe_frequency>10 seconds</keyframe_frequency> <quality>Good Quality - Good Framerate</quality> <noise_reduction>None</noise_reduction> <datarate_window>Medium</datarate_window> <cpu_usage>Dedicated</cpu_usage> </advanced> </video> <audio> <format>Mp3</format> <datarate>80</datarate>
I play the game at 1680x1050, i downscale it to 720p in VHMulticam and FME.
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On June 18 2011 15:34 lqd wrote: how big is the difference between a 2500K and 2600K assuming both OC'ed to 4ghz or whatever? hyper threading. 2600k has it the 2500k does not, in games wouldn't matter for the most part, in encoding applications that can run more then 2-4 threads you'll see a difference. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833-16.html but it really depends on the software can't guarantee that would you better performance without a proper benchmark running sc2 along with various encoding software as you can see from the link above not all are created equal. The 2600k is bound to do better but by how much ionno.
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is 80 dropped frames after 6 minutes normal? I have a 25up/25down connection and an i7 processor with the settings I wrote in my post above. I can't seem to find a setting to tweak to reduce the ammount of dropped frames, but I also don't know what is normal.
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No it's not supposed to be this bad. You can change the audio quality.
Tools - Settings - Channel - (Edit) your Channel At the bottom you'll see "audio encoding".
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awesome post, thanks alot. this should become a sticky post btw.
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Wow great post. Thanks for the info.
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I don't know if this is the best place to ask, but I want to start streaming and have no idea which website to do it through. There are so many!
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@Karliath, choose whichever feels better, most people lately recommend Justin.tv though.
Thanks a lot for this info post! I've trying to reset my stream to something more fluid, helps to have some precise explanations!
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planning on getting : core i5-2500k 16gig ram ddr (possibly) maybe 8gig if deal ends vid card is gtx 470
Can i stream at ultra settings 1920x1200?
Also if my provider gives me a max bandwith of 120 gig/month will i go over alot??
I think its only for downloading stuff but idk
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I have a question actually.
With my quad core Intel Q8400 (2.66 ghz). Could I do a good quality stream with this quadcore with 5 mb upload? I imagine I can't do 1080 P but could I do 720P?
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On July 08 2011 15:38 blade55555 wrote: I have a question actually.
With my quad core Intel Q8400 (2.66 ghz). Could I do a good quality stream with this quadcore with 5 mb upload? I imagine I can't do 1080 P but could I do 720P?
You will be able to stream 360-480p you won't get anything higher.
On July 08 2011 13:21 Snake.69 wrote:planning on getting : core i5-2500k 16gig ram ddr (possibly) maybe 8gig if deal ends vid card is gtx 470 Can i stream at ultra settings 1920x1200? Also if my provider gives me a max bandwith of 20 gig/month will i go over alot?? I think its only for downloading stuff but idk
You will be able to stream ultra settings/ if you want to stream 1080p + which is gonna be like 2.5-5mb/s for a super clear and super good quality. You will go over your 20gb cap fairly quick.
since your upload isnt all that great you should probably set it to around 1.2mb/s but the quality will be meh if your gonna stream 1080p+.
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It appear i was wrong, my max bandwith is actually 122gig in/out. Monthly.
Assuming i dont download movies or anything, but stream in 1920x1200 at ultra settings a few hours a day, would i go over it or be good?\
But either way, with a max 2.1 mb/s upload, what kinda stream can i get??
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regardless of computer build quality, can someone tell me the maximum settings you can stream with a 1.5mb upload speed connection?
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Guide says Xsplit will not benefit very well from multi core cpu ... So whats the optimal affinity for program according u have a Quad Core or 6 Core Cpu?
2 Cores to Xsplit and 2 cores to SC2.exe? 1 Core to Xsplit and rest to game? or what combination?
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On July 20 2011 17:25 MacroZerg wrote: Guide says Xsplit will not benefit very well from multi core cpu ... So whats the optimal affinity for program according u have a Quad Core or 6 Core Cpu?
2 Cores to Xsplit and 2 cores to SC2.exe? 1 Core to Xsplit and rest to game? or what combination?
xsplit now utilizes multiple cores.
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I know this sounds ridiculous but I have 0.37 up and I've been streaming at 360p, Quality 6 and bitrate 300kbps. It's definitely watchable, if you wanna see how the quality is you can ask me for a link, but I want to see if I can somehow make it even more optimized (there is noticeable delay on SC2 when moving units, like .5 - 1.5 seconds, but only sometimes) so I wanted to ask some questions.
How much bandwidth does streaming at this quality use up? Does streaming audio at a higher quality (bitrate 40000 instead of bitrate 16000) increase my delay? Would installing a Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 Gaming Network Card help at all in terms of making the stream better? Does running Skype/Grooveshark in the background while streaming slow my internet?
I know I should just upgrade my internet but I am off to college soon and my parents don't want to upgrade.
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amazing guide, keep up the good work.
Also a nice addition would be to include some freeware that allows you to use mic and strero mix input at the same time.
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So one of my friends said that a decent HD is important for streaming because it partially saved files to your HD while displaying them to the web, which if slow can lead to low fps and stuttering -- is this true?
R1CH mentions CPU and network speed as main factors for good and smooth streaming, what about the graphic card, how much workload does the GPU eliviate for streaming?
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I'm using dxtory and it's working great other than the fact I can't seem to get any sound recorded when streaming atall :S any ideas?
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Is 4 GB RAM too low for a 720p stream? I'm trying to figure out what's causing my stream to freeze up and lag. I have everything else up to par I think(2.5 mb upload, quadcore phenom 2.5 GHz cpu, good graphics card) and this seems like the only thing that would explain the lag.
If I try and run anything outside of SC2/Xsplit it gets even worse and my computer (not just the stream) start to freeze up every few seconds.
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i think ram is the last you need to worry for a laggy stream. if your computer freeze up with Xsplit closed then search for another source of problem. Do a defrag/scan disk and clean some with Malware Antivirus and some Registry Cleaner program... Might fix Also update gpu/lan etc drivers and do a bios update to motherboard if possible also
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On August 30 2011 23:05 Senx wrote: So one of my friends said that a decent HD is important for streaming because it partially saved files to your HD while displaying them to the web, which if slow can lead to low fps and stuttering -- is this true?
This is total BS.
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hey R1CH what would u do for settingg with this pc and Internet?
PC: I7 920 3,2 Ghz 4Gig Ram GtX 295 1,7 Gig
thx
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I have a i5 2500k Radeon HD 5770 and 8gib ram, 20/5 connection and i cannot stream in 1280 x 720 withe verything on low in SC2 using Xsplit, my framerate in SC2 drops to like 30 in non fights. Shouldnt i be able to stream in this quality? Have a bitrate of 2000 and a buffer thingy for 2000. My native res is 1680 x 1050
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On October 01 2011 00:27 unkkz wrote: I have a i5 2500k Radeon HD 5770 and 8gib ram, 20/5 connection and i cannot stream in 1280 x 720 withe verything on low in SC2 using Xsplit, my framerate in SC2 drops to like 30 in non fights. Shouldnt i be able to stream in this quality? Have a bitrate of 2000 and a buffer thingy for 2000. My native res is 1680 x 1050
You should be able to. - What's your FPS and "Quality" in Xsplit? (Suggest trying 25 and 8) - try 1152 x 720 to match your 16:10 aspect ratio. 1280x720 is 16 : 9 and it might take extra resources to resize.
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On October 01 2011 00:51 Wabbit wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2011 00:27 unkkz wrote: I have a i5 2500k Radeon HD 5770 and 8gib ram, 20/5 connection and i cannot stream in 1280 x 720 withe verything on low in SC2 using Xsplit, my framerate in SC2 drops to like 30 in non fights. Shouldnt i be able to stream in this quality? Have a bitrate of 2000 and a buffer thingy for 2000. My native res is 1680 x 1050 You should be able to. - What's your FPS and "Quality" in Xsplit? (Suggest trying 25 and 8) - try 1152 x 720 to match your 16:10 aspect ratio. 1280x720 is 16 : 9 and it might take extra resources to resize.
Funny thing, i had the JustinTV stream open in the background, and when i turned that off my framerate skyrocketed, so for some reason having it on in the background completely murdered my FPS. The resolution match is good though will give that a go for better performance thx!
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I'm glad I found this thread. I've been wondering why my FPS is always so shitty when I stream with whatever program I use. And it's because I'm on a dual core T_T
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United Kingdom20157 Posts
On October 01 2011 11:29 unkkz wrote:Show nested quote +On October 01 2011 00:51 Wabbit wrote:On October 01 2011 00:27 unkkz wrote: I have a i5 2500k Radeon HD 5770 and 8gib ram, 20/5 connection and i cannot stream in 1280 x 720 withe verything on low in SC2 using Xsplit, my framerate in SC2 drops to like 30 in non fights. Shouldnt i be able to stream in this quality? Have a bitrate of 2000 and a buffer thingy for 2000. My native res is 1680 x 1050 You should be able to. - What's your FPS and "Quality" in Xsplit? (Suggest trying 25 and 8) - try 1152 x 720 to match your 16:10 aspect ratio. 1280x720 is 16 : 9 and it might take extra resources to resize. Funny thing, i had the JustinTV stream open in the background, and when i turned that off my framerate skyrocketed, so for some reason having it on in the background completely murdered my FPS. The resolution match is good though will give that a go for better performance thx!
I read something on here earlier about radeon cards underclocking themselves while flash player was running or something a massive amount, and being stuck with it, only solution to just not run flash and a game at the same time
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thanks for this.
posted this just a few seconds ago and got my answers through finding this thread.
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So i just started streaming tonight, after getting a new computer, new internet and a new modem to support the higher speeds. After messing with the Xsplit setting for a few hours i finally just played some games and then rewatched the video after i was done. Its not too bad, but when a battle happens it gets pretty laggy, im not really sure how to see the FPS with Xsplit or i would post that here.
There is no ingame lag, or lag on my end, only on the streaming end it seems.
My specs are: AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0ghz(i guess there are two processors?) in device manager it shows i have 2. 4 gb of DDR3 ATI Radeon HD 5700 i have 100/5 internet speed, but im going through a router so speed test only shows like 35/5 which i think should be fine.
This computer was given to me from my brother who moved away, so im not really familiar with it, first time i even used windows 7 tbh. I figured the processor is what would have been causing me so much problem, because it was only a dual core, but if there are 2 of them then it should be fine right? I have no idea how to see what cores are being used/maxed and what not.
Because the lag is only on the streaming side, maybe it is just the settings i have in Xsplit? The settings i have are: Preset: Faster Quality: 9 Bitrate/Buffer: 3000 Resolution 1280x720 (16) hdtv
Im very new at streaming, any help would be greatly appreciated, ive read a lot of things that could be the issue, im just not sure which is my issue, hopefully someone will have a good idea. twitch.tv/ellcrizzle is my stream, i think i left an hour video of me playing right before i got off. It doesnt look terrible, just laggy at intense moments. Thanks again :DD
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On December 19 2011 17:45 Ellcrys wrote:So i just started streaming tonight, after getting a new computer, new internet and a new modem to support the higher speeds. After messing with the Xsplit setting for a few hours i finally just played some games and then rewatched the video after i was done. Its not too bad, but when a battle happens it gets pretty laggy, im not really sure how to see the FPS with Xsplit or i would post that here. There is no ingame lag, or lag on my end, only on the streaming end it seems. My specs are: AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0ghz(i guess there are two processors?) in device manager it shows i have 2. 4 gb of DDR3 ATI Radeon HD 5700 i have 100/5 internet speed, but im going through a router so speed test only shows like 35/5 which i think should be fine. This computer was given to me from my brother who moved away, so im not really familiar with it, first time i even used windows 7 tbh. I figured the processor is what would have been causing me so much problem, because it was only a dual core, but if there are 2 of them then it should be fine right? I have no idea how to see what cores are being used/maxed and what not. Because the lag is only on the streaming side, maybe it is just the settings i have in Xsplit? The settings i have are: Preset: Faster Quality: 9 Bitrate/Buffer: 3000 Resolution 1280x720 (16 ) hdtv Im very new at streaming, any help would be greatly appreciated, ive read a lot of things that could be the issue, im just not sure which is my issue, hopefully someone will have a good idea. twitch.tv/ellcrizzle is my stream, i think i left an hour video of me playing right before i got off. It doesnt look terrible, just laggy at intense moments. Thanks again :DD lower your bitrate to about 2.3k kbps and you will be fine.
EDIT: actually, if its lagging in battles, thats because of your cpu. Try getting at least a quad core athlon or do like me and get a cheap Phenom II x3. I have excellent quality on my stream and I dont even have a quad core.
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Ok thank you aero. I will give that a shot. and like I said, the lag only happens in battles yet only on the streaming end. I never feel any lag.
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On December 20 2011 00:51 Ellcrys wrote:Ok thank you aero. I will give that a shot. and like I said, the lag only happens in battles yet only on the streaming end. I never feel any lag.
Stream lag can occur in big battles if your throughput isn't good enough. You need to monitor your CPU using Task Manager and you need to use the bandwidth test in channel settings. This will be able to tell where the lag stems from.
I do agree with AeroEffect that you should lower your bitrate to 2300-2500 kbps. Also set 'Preset' back to default until you figure out the above results. 'Faster' does not mean things go faster - on the contrary it's harder for the CPU
Also, check my signature for a thread containing a lot more help on XSplit.
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Ok thanks HellGreen, when i have my bitrate and buffer set to 3000 and run the bandwith test it always hits between 2700-3100. When running a replay it seems my cpu% in task manager will bump up to 68+% with Xsplit taking like 40+% of it. Anyways, i will try moving my bitrate and preset and see if that helps, if not then i will go buy a better processor :D They're really not that expensive for a decent quad core.
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On December 20 2011 01:56 Ellcrys wrote: Ok thanks HellGreen, when i have my bitrate and buffer set to 3000 and run the bandwith test it always hits between 2700-3100. When running a replay it seems my cpu% in task manager will bump up to 68+% with Xsplit taking like 40+% of it. Anyways, i will try moving my bitrate and preset and see if that helps, if not then i will go buy a better processor :D They're really not that expensive for a decent quad core.
Take note that the bandwidth test is not a 'how-fast-can-I-go-test' - it will test the speed you set and tell you if that speed is obtainable.
If you get occasional dips into the 2700s kbps when trying for 3000 kbps, you get lag. Since 720p runs perfect on ~2400 kbps (actually it will use from <1000 to ~2500) there's little or no gain in having it at 3000 kbps on a 30 fps stream
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Got a question, just started streaming tonite, and whenever i get into an game, and the loading screen comes up, the screen flickers black to white, and i have to alt-tab and then the screen comes back.
Im using Xsplit, with the most basic of settings. Thanks :D
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thank you so much! excellent guide. cleared up so many questions for me!! :D
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any advice for me to try and get a little bit more out of my stream.
My computer is good, i5 2500k 3.3, 8gig ram, geforce gtx570 and my internet is like 5meg download with about 1meg upload
this is my stream with the best settings i been able to do for streaming. http://www.twitch.tv/leetpad/b/303172084
my problem is when i move around i get that brickly effect and i dunno how to fix it, i guess i cant untill i get faster upload but i just wanted to know if thats the case or something wrong with my settings.
My res is set to 1280x720 fps 25 because i found lowering it didnt help, my quality is set to 10, again lowing it didnt help and my VBV is set to 600, i upded it to as much as 900 in different tests and it still has not fixed my issue
. I have spent alot of time trying different settings etc and i still cant seem to get rid of the brick effect, its fine on local recording so that makes me think i cant fix it unless i get faster upload on my internet.
Views? thanks PAD
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I've tried streaming, but I notice a significant drop in FPS and I get some stuttering when attempting to stream.
My specs: AMD Phenom X4 965 @3.2Ghz (Quad Core) Radeon HD5830 3.25Gb DDR2 Ram (Im on a 32-Bit system) 20Mb Down / 5 Mb up
Xsplit Settings are: Preset: Xsplit Default Quality: 5 Bitrate/ Buffer: 1350 Audio: 22.05Khz 16 bit stereo @ 48000Bitrate Resolution: 960x600 Framerate: 20
Basically I want to be able to stream at the best possible quality with my game being 100% smooth and have no impact on my performance. I've tried playing around with settings for a while now, but I just cannot get it to be the way I want, so can anyone give me any pointers?
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On December 22 2011 07:49 ~Maverick~ wrote: I've tried streaming, but I notice a significant drop in FPS and I get some stuttering when attempting to stream.
My specs: AMD Phenom X4 965 @3.2Ghz (Quad Core) Radeon HD5830 3.25Gb DDR2 Ram (Im on a 32-Bit system) 20Mb Down / 5 Mb up
Xsplit Settings are: Preset: Xsplit Default Quality: 5 Bitrate/ Buffer: 1350 Audio: 22.05Khz 16 bit stereo @ 48000Bitrate Resolution: 960x600 Framerate: 20
Basically I want to be able to stream at the best possible quality with my game being 100% smooth and have no impact on my performance. I've tried playing around with settings for a while now, but I just cannot get it to be the way I want, so can anyone give me any pointers? You won't be able to stream without any performance impact on the game. The only way to do this is with the 2 computer method using capture cards/audio splitters. Put all the CPU heavy aspects of sc2 to off, turn your graphics to low/med. Whats your native resolution? are you streaming windowed mode or windowed fullscreen? Lets say If your playing on a 1920*1080 resolution your computer is having to compress that whole thing to a 960*600 thats a lot of strain by itself. If I can say the resolution your streaming in is 16:10 whats the aspect ratio of your monitor? this could potentially be more things your computer has to do. Try these things and come back.
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On December 22 2011 09:02 Boblhead wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2011 07:49 ~Maverick~ wrote: I've tried streaming, but I notice a significant drop in FPS and I get some stuttering when attempting to stream.
My specs: AMD Phenom X4 965 @3.2Ghz (Quad Core) Radeon HD5830 3.25Gb DDR2 Ram (Im on a 32-Bit system) 20Mb Down / 5 Mb up
Xsplit Settings are: Preset: Xsplit Default Quality: 5 Bitrate/ Buffer: 1350 Audio: 22.05Khz 16 bit stereo @ 48000Bitrate Resolution: 960x600 Framerate: 20
Basically I want to be able to stream at the best possible quality with my game being 100% smooth and have no impact on my performance. I've tried playing around with settings for a while now, but I just cannot get it to be the way I want, so can anyone give me any pointers? You won't be able to stream without any performance impact on the game. The only way to do this is with the 2 computer method using capture cards/audio splitters. Put all the CPU heavy aspects of sc2 to off, turn your graphics to low/med. Whats your native resolution? are you streaming windowed mode or windowed fullscreen? Lets say If your playing on a 1920*1080 resolution your computer is having to compress that whole thing to a 960*600 thats a lot of strain by itself. If I can say the resolution your streaming in is 16:10 whats the aspect ratio of your monitor? this could potentially be more things your computer has to do. Try these things and come back.
I do understand that I won't be able to have no performance impact at all, but I would like to make it as smooth as possible. My native resolution is 1680x1050, which is a 16:10 aspect ratio. My game is in Windowed (Fullscreen) mode, and on all lowest settings.
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On December 22 2011 09:31 ~Maverick~ wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2011 09:02 Boblhead wrote:On December 22 2011 07:49 ~Maverick~ wrote: I've tried streaming, but I notice a significant drop in FPS and I get some stuttering when attempting to stream.
My specs: AMD Phenom X4 965 @3.2Ghz (Quad Core) Radeon HD5830 3.25Gb DDR2 Ram (Im on a 32-Bit system) 20Mb Down / 5 Mb up
Xsplit Settings are: Preset: Xsplit Default Quality: 5 Bitrate/ Buffer: 1350 Audio: 22.05Khz 16 bit stereo @ 48000Bitrate Resolution: 960x600 Framerate: 20
Basically I want to be able to stream at the best possible quality with my game being 100% smooth and have no impact on my performance. I've tried playing around with settings for a while now, but I just cannot get it to be the way I want, so can anyone give me any pointers? You won't be able to stream without any performance impact on the game. The only way to do this is with the 2 computer method using capture cards/audio splitters. Put all the CPU heavy aspects of sc2 to off, turn your graphics to low/med. Whats your native resolution? are you streaming windowed mode or windowed fullscreen? Lets say If your playing on a 1920*1080 resolution your computer is having to compress that whole thing to a 960*600 thats a lot of strain by itself. If I can say the resolution your streaming in is 16:10 whats the aspect ratio of your monitor? this could potentially be more things your computer has to do. Try these things and come back. I do understand that I won't be able to have no performance impact at all, but I would like to make it as smooth as possible. My native resolution is 1680x1050, which is a 16:10 aspect ratio. My game is in Windowed (Fullscreen) mode, and on all lowest settings. There are several things you can try. one of them is setting the affinity to sc2 to use 2 cores, and xsplit to use two cores. Both benefit from more than 1 core. Another thing you can try is There are several presets that may cater better for your computer. The lowest 5 presets should give better performance. Try these 2 things to see if you notice better performance while playing.
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On December 22 2011 10:05 Boblhead wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2011 09:31 ~Maverick~ wrote:On December 22 2011 09:02 Boblhead wrote:On December 22 2011 07:49 ~Maverick~ wrote: I've tried streaming, but I notice a significant drop in FPS and I get some stuttering when attempting to stream.
My specs: AMD Phenom X4 965 @3.2Ghz (Quad Core) Radeon HD5830 3.25Gb DDR2 Ram (Im on a 32-Bit system) 20Mb Down / 5 Mb up
Xsplit Settings are: Preset: Xsplit Default Quality: 5 Bitrate/ Buffer: 1350 Audio: 22.05Khz 16 bit stereo @ 48000Bitrate Resolution: 960x600 Framerate: 20
Basically I want to be able to stream at the best possible quality with my game being 100% smooth and have no impact on my performance. I've tried playing around with settings for a while now, but I just cannot get it to be the way I want, so can anyone give me any pointers? You won't be able to stream without any performance impact on the game. The only way to do this is with the 2 computer method using capture cards/audio splitters. Put all the CPU heavy aspects of sc2 to off, turn your graphics to low/med. Whats your native resolution? are you streaming windowed mode or windowed fullscreen? Lets say If your playing on a 1920*1080 resolution your computer is having to compress that whole thing to a 960*600 thats a lot of strain by itself. If I can say the resolution your streaming in is 16:10 whats the aspect ratio of your monitor? this could potentially be more things your computer has to do. Try these things and come back. I do understand that I won't be able to have no performance impact at all, but I would like to make it as smooth as possible. My native resolution is 1680x1050, which is a 16:10 aspect ratio. My game is in Windowed (Fullscreen) mode, and on all lowest settings. There are several things you can try. one of them is setting the affinity to sc2 to use 2 cores, and xsplit to use two cores. Both benefit from more than 1 core. Another thing you can try is There are several presets that may cater better for your computer. The lowest 5 presets should give better performance. Try these 2 things to see if you notice better performance while playing.
With the affinity change I think its good enough that I can deal with it. However, I'm still surprised that my machine is performing so poorly, I would think that I could get more out of it, oh well.
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United Kingdom20157 Posts
Sorry if this has been posted before but id like to add something:
Some guides recommend setting affinity so your streaming program and SC2 run on separate CPU cores. I don't really recommend this as it just limits performance, if you want to ensure your SC2 doesn't lag at the expense of your stream, simply set SC2.exe to High Priority in task manager.
Running with affinity set will get you VERY consistent results, and allow you to optimise advanced settings more, whereas running without it but with sc2 on high will change the amount of processing power that xsplit has access to, even if it potentially frees up more room for encoding, you wont have access to that all of the time, so it is worthless for heavily optimised settings that would try to use it frequently and fail, dropping frames.
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considering investing in dxtory it seems sweet but i dont think my system should need it?
2500k @ 4.4ghz 8gb ram 5.5mb upload to local servers on speedtest, 3.8mb cross country (seattle to florida lol) sli'd 560 448cores
looking to stream 30fps full 1080p
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Great read, well done R1CH
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I cannot recommend Dxtory enough.
I have a new machine I built in September. Specs are:
i5 2500k OCd to 4ghz 8gb GSkill Ram GTX 570 SSD HD etc etc Fast machine. 30/30mb internet connection
I could not get ANY satisfaction with xsplit or FME even on the lowest settings my computer would chug a shitty 360p video and drop input frames out the yin yang.
I bought dxtory and instantly I can push out 720p video at 1200kbps (very low) and its flawless.
Buy that software!
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My brother is trying to stream games with his 10/1 connection. It's kinda low because of upload bandwith, but what I've read and I also had low bandwith and still got MUCH better quality than he does.
Hardware: GTX 570, 8gb ddr3, i7 2600k
http://i43.tinypic.com/2ntz786.jpg In the picture the player is moving and everything is very pixelated and this is the biggest issue.
He's trying to stream with XSplit and Dxtory.
What can we do to get better quality? Upgrading bandwith is not option at the moment. So if there are any suggestions or need more pictures from his xplit settings I'll bring them tomorrow in the thread.
Thank you! : )
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On February 02 2012 06:19 PeZuY wrote:My brother is trying to stream games with his 10/1 connection. It's kinda low because of upload bandwith, but what I've read and I also had low bandwith and still got MUCH better quality than he does. Hardware: GTX 570, 8gb ddr3, i7 2600k http://i43.tinypic.com/2ntz786.jpg In the picture the player is moving and everything is very pixelated and this is the biggest issue. He's trying to stream with XSplit and Dxtory. What can we do to get better quality? Upgrading bandwith is not option at the moment. So if there are any suggestions or need more pictures from his xplit settings I'll bring them tomorrow in the thread. Thank you! : ) dxtory
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On February 03 2012 15:20 SpyNinja wrote:Show nested quote +On February 02 2012 06:19 PeZuY wrote:My brother is trying to stream games with his 10/1 connection. It's kinda low because of upload bandwith, but what I've read and I also had low bandwith and still got MUCH better quality than he does. Hardware: GTX 570, 8gb ddr3, i7 2600k http://i43.tinypic.com/2ntz786.jpg In the picture the player is moving and everything is very pixelated and this is the biggest issue. He's trying to stream with XSplit and Dxtory. What can we do to get better quality? Upgrading bandwith is not option at the moment. So if there are any suggestions or need more pictures from his xplit settings I'll bring them tomorrow in the thread. Thank you! : ) dxtory
he just needs to have a lower broadcast resolution, the scaling is killing him along with the low upload... His PC doesnt need dxtory seeing as he only complaining about the stream quality. Not Lag at all.
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I spent some time today testing various xsplit settings in order to get a better idea of what affects stream quality the most. Here's a brief summary of what I found:
- "Quality" basically doesn't matter. The difference between Q10 and Q0 is very hard to detect.
- Bitrate is super important. The higher you can get your bitrate, the better your stream will look. Obviously don't go too high to the point where you are saturating your upstream and lagging everything or causing your viewers to not be able to watch.
- Preset is also important to tune quality, but it comes at great CPU expense. The difference between XSplit Default and medium was 30% to 85% CPU usage (720p30, 2500k, no game), however the quality did perceptively improve at no cost in bandwidth. I wouldn't recommend changing this if you are playing and streaming from the same PC though as your game CPU usage could vary while you play and cause 100% CPU usage which is never good.
- Increasing FPS doesn't necessarily increase bandwidth required. Because the differences between frames become smaller, they can be encoded more efficiently. If you have an awesome PC but a bad Internet connection, you can use this to make your stream have higher perceptible quality by increasing your frame rate to say 50fps with very little image quality loss. During my testing with SC2 at 1280x720 1500kbps, 60fps resulted in total CPU use of 60-70%, 30fps resulted in 45-60%. Decreasing FPS further (eg 20 fps or below) does not seem to improve stream quality, but does help to reduce CPU use.
- The XSplit bandwidth tester is worthless to test your settings with, the only thing it does is test your bandwidth. This is quite deceiving as it uses the current scene as a test, but ignores your quality and preset settings. Don't rely on the bandwidth tester for accurate results in terms of quality and CPU usage.
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hey TL! Ive been streaming fine for the past few months but ever since i got a new monitor i get about sub 30 fps while playing a game. im pretty sure my machine can hande it though:
8GB DDR3 RAM Diamond 6770 AMD Phenom II X4 965
and with this internet
before i was running at 1680x1050 now im 1920x1080 but that shouldnt change much right? thats the only thing i could think thats causing so much lag
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Is i7-2670QM qualify for a ideal cpu? I read some thread regarding the speed of this CPU where it is too low to stream. I mean it is laptop, and I would love to know if this could be good for streaming.
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On April 09 2012 03:39 Messi wrote: Is i7-2670QM qualify for a ideal cpu? I read some thread regarding the speed of this CPU where it is too low to stream. I mean it is laptop, and I would love to know if this could be good for streaming.
I use a i7-2670QM for broadcasting.
Here's a sample of what I've broadcasted.
Settings: FMLE Dxtory 1280x720 @ 30fps, average bitrate @ 2500~3000kbps
Livestreamed Recording
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Hey guys, been trying to stream at 1080p, but my frame rate seems low any and all help/advice would be appreciated. Specs are as follows: Core i7 2600k @4.2GHz 12 GB DDR3-1600 Ram GTX 670 2GB
Internet is Xfinity by Comcast:
Here is a sample of my 1080p stream with a "poor" frame rate: http://www.twitch.tv/tbomega/b/318354600
When I stream in 720p the frame rate is fine.
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@Tbomega:
I do not have any streaming experience, but I am starting to learn as much as I can because I am planning on doing so in the not too distant future. However, I found the answer to your question in the OP made by R1CH.
On May 08 2011 11:23 R1CH wrote:
Here's some very rough example bitrates you should be looking at for a nice quality stream at 25 FPS (these will vary depending on encoder used and other factors, with XSplit you can get away with a lower bitrate for the same quality for example):
480p (720x480): 750-1000kbps 720p (1280x720): 1500-3000kbps 1080p (1920x1080): 3000-5000kbps+
Most of you will not be playing in a resolution that matches one of these exactly, so you'll likely want to resize your stream down to a matching aspect ratio.
The poor frame rate is probably due to the limited bandwidth.
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I just remembered that Speedtest.net doesn't work well on Comcast cable internet, due to something called "PowerBoost" that boost the speed of the download/upload for the first few megabytes. My actual Down/Up speeds are 16mbit/2mbit, so I guess that does put me under the "3000-5000" required for a 1080p stream. Bummer. I don't know if anyone else here is streaming Diablo 3 now, but I can't seem to figure out what is up with it. I can't get vsync to work correctly while streaming it, or get a solid frame rate. Anyone else having issues with Diablo 3?
EDIT: I just recently upgraded to Comcast from AT&T DSL
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What quality stream would I be able to reach using this computer with an upload around 1.25-1.40?
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On May 30 2012 15:13 KiteS wrote:What quality stream would I be able to reach using this computer with an upload around 1.25-1.40? you would really be limited by the bandwidth. You would have to run roughly 900kbps which would be kinda crappy in resolutions streamed above 1280*720
a 480p stream would probably be the best thing since your bandwidth isn't all that great. But the processor itself should be able to push 720p no problem.
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Do you guys think its possible to stream my game ( at low quality like 480p ) With 4.20 Mb/s and 0,8 Upload!
And with that cumputer : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale Socket 775 LGA (@45 nm) 3000 Mhz ( L1I: 2 x 32 Ko, L1D: 2 x 32 Ko, L2: 6144 Ko ) DDR2 Kingston 9905315-019.A02LF 512 Mo PC2-6400 (400 Mhz) nVidia Corporation:G92 [GeForce 9800 GT]
I know its really bad but i just wonder if its possible because im trying with only xsplit and screen capture but right now im lagging in macro game! so i cant really stream my ladder and real game! :/
I might upgrade my internet for 15/10 so thats would help! but still :/ and i might have a laptop so i was wondering if its possible to play on cumputer but stream on my laptop? well thanks for all those information!
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Can anyone help me out with my stream?
i think it's fine on the viewers end but i feel the lag which is the worst.
i got an i52500k 8 gb ddr3 ram Radeon HD 6770 1GB
i like to play the game on specific setttings. everything on low except a few cpu heavy things on medium changes the graphics a bit and its just what i like personally.
keep in mind that im in newyork. these tests are just as far possible in west and east coast like the op guide explained to do.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2039458572.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/2039460320.png
ive been going by the bandwidth tester on xsplit but i see you say it means nothing. it was failing around 900 kbps, some times it varies, one day it wasnt even getting 400 kbps. what should i set the bitrate to? and what resolution do you think is okay for me to stream? ive been using 720p. i have a 1920x1080 reso monitor.
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I have been trying to stream xbox 360 to my computer which is an AMD Phenom II X4 840T 12gig 1333mghz ram IceQ x turbo 2gddr5 vid card, aver media capture card averC127, my upload speed is 4.5 mpbs on speedtest.net using an HDMI 1.4a splitter with all 1.4a cables. So I have a fairly good setup and I'm trying to stream to twitch.tv/grapplerandrew. I have been able to do FMLE at 1920X1080 at 30 fps as input streamed at 30fps 856X480 1500kbits video up, 224kbits audio up with absolutely no frame drops. But as soon as I try the same setting on my xbox trying to stream 1080 it just goes green image even when I set it to 2.5kbits video and 224 audio and drops frames like crazy. I tried making my xbox 720p input instead and put that and 1500kbits video, 192 kbits audio and then making my stream 720p it would always stream at 60fps and wouldn't let me change the stream to 30 so it would always drop frames no matter what kbit's setting I put it at. I've also tried to do a 1920X1080 in with 1024X576 as the stream same settings as 480p otherwise and it was slightly better but dropped too many frames. Please for the love of god I just want to stream 720p xbox to twitch. Fight Night Champion is terrible at 480 barely watchable no matter what the variable bit rate is set at :<. Should i switch to paying for xsplit or maybe this dxtory or something?
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On July 07 2012 13:34 Grapplerandrew wrote: I have been trying to stream xbox 360 to my computer which is an AMD Phenom II X4 840T 12gig 1333mghz ram IceQ x turbo 2gddr5 vid card, aver media capture card averC127, my upload speed is 4.5 mpbs on speedtest.net using an HDMI 1.4a splitter with all 1.4a cables. So I have a fairly good setup and I'm trying to stream to twitch.tv/grapplerandrew. I have been able to do FMLE at 1920X1080 at 30 fps as input streamed at 30fps 856X480 1500kbits video up, 224kbits audio up with absolutely no frame drops. But as soon as I try the same setting on my xbox trying to stream 1080 it just goes green image even when I set it to 2.5kbits video and 224 audio and drops frames like crazy. I tried making my xbox 720p input instead and put that and 1500kbits video, 192 kbits audio and then making my stream 720p it would always stream at 60fps and wouldn't let me change the stream to 30 so it would always drop frames no matter what kbit's setting I put it at. I've also tried to do a 1920X1080 in with 1024X576 as the stream same settings as 480p otherwise and it was slightly better but dropped too many frames. Please for the love of god I just want to stream 720p xbox to twitch. Fight Night Champion is terrible at 480 barely watchable no matter what the variable bit rate is set at :<. Should i switch to paying for xsplit or maybe this dxtory or something?
Your CPU is the limiting factor in your quest to stream 720p. If your motherboard is am3 and supports am3+ socket the best and cheapest way to be able to stream higher quality would be to upgrade to a 8120. Its far cheaper to just upgrade your CPU rather than getting a intel cpu/mobo which would output better quality @ higher resolutions. But for streaming xbox @ 720p the 8120 is more than enough.
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On July 07 2012 17:19 Boblhead wrote:Show nested quote +On July 07 2012 13:34 Grapplerandrew wrote: I have been trying to stream xbox 360 to my computer which is an AMD Phenom II X4 840T 12gig 1333mghz ram IceQ x turbo 2gddr5 vid card, aver media capture card averC127, my upload speed is 4.5 mpbs on speedtest.net using an HDMI 1.4a splitter with all 1.4a cables. So I have a fairly good setup and I'm trying to stream to twitch.tv/grapplerandrew. I have been able to do FMLE at 1920X1080 at 30 fps as input streamed at 30fps 856X480 1500kbits video up, 224kbits audio up with absolutely no frame drops. But as soon as I try the same setting on my xbox trying to stream 1080 it just goes green image even when I set it to 2.5kbits video and 224 audio and drops frames like crazy. I tried making my xbox 720p input instead and put that and 1500kbits video, 192 kbits audio and then making my stream 720p it would always stream at 60fps and wouldn't let me change the stream to 30 so it would always drop frames no matter what kbit's setting I put it at. I've also tried to do a 1920X1080 in with 1024X576 as the stream same settings as 480p otherwise and it was slightly better but dropped too many frames. Please for the love of god I just want to stream 720p xbox to twitch. Fight Night Champion is terrible at 480 barely watchable no matter what the variable bit rate is set at :<. Should i switch to paying for xsplit or maybe this dxtory or something? Your CPU is the limiting factor in your quest to stream 720p. If your motherboard is am3 and supports am3+ socket the best and cheapest way to be able to stream higher quality would be to upgrade to a 8120. Its far cheaper to just upgrade your CPU rather than getting a intel cpu/mobo which would output better quality @ higher resolutions. But for streaming xbox @ 720p the 8120 is more than enough.
I am able to export hours of 1080P 30FPS 40mbps through use of aver media center. Are you really telling me I can't stream crappy 720p stream in FMLE or Xsplit or dxtory without dropping frames at any framerate or variable bit rate? If I have to just keep at 480p I will be sad face panda bear. How do I know if mine support's AM3+ socket? How much is the thing you speak of this 8120?
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is a Intel Core 2 Q9300 Quad Core @ 2.50Ghz
and
good enough?
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I just recently started streaming and i used the xspllit tutorial on their youtube page and i havnt had and problem with lag and it runs pretty good but it doesnt look very clear, i have been running it in 720p. Was hoping you could suggest some better settings i figure maybe i messed up or perhaps im able to run better quality. here are my specs
Cpu- i7 2700 Motherboard- Gigabyte ga 268xp ud4 atx HDD- 2TB Western digital SSD- Samsung 830 256gb Ram- 16g DDR3 PSU- 750w Liquid Cooling- Corsair H100 GPU- Geforce GTX 670
Download speed is 41.30 mbps, upload speed is 2.78 ping is 20ms
Thank you very much for the help !!
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On January 27 2013 15:21 Kelsifer wrote: I just recently started streaming and i used the xspllit tutorial on their youtube page and i havnt had and problem with lag and it runs pretty good but it doesnt look very clear, i have been running it in 720p. Was hoping you could suggest some better settings i figure maybe i messed up or perhaps im able to run better quality. here are my specs
Cpu- i7 2700 Motherboard- Gigabyte ga 268xp ud4 atx HDD- 2TB Western digital SSD- Samsung 830 256gb Ram- 16g DDR3 PSU- 750w Liquid Cooling- Corsair H100 GPU- Geforce GTX 670
Download speed is 41.30 mbps, upload speed is 2.78 ping is 20ms
Thank you very much for the help !!
That rig has CPU & GPU to be able to play SC2 without having the stream disturb the game very much .
Your quality will be limited by your upload speed. Set the bitrate in Xsplit to about 80% of your measured upload speed, which means setting it 2200 Kbps.
I'm not sure what you're using to capture the game (Dxtory vs XSplit's built-in game capture vs Screen Region), but you could experiment with other capture options. Make sure the output resolution of the capture matches the stage resolution.
You could also try changing the preset from veryfast to faster (2700 at factory speed is right at the edge of being able to do faster preset), but if you notice slow gameplay or dropped frames put it back at veryfast immediately.
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i just recently started streaming, tried xsplit but could not manage anything close to decent audio with it so i switched to fmle and using virtual audio capture grabber i got decent audio, and vhscrcap for video.
my screen resolution is 1600x900 which apparently isnt supported by fmle, so what tutorials said to do was crop 1920x1080, but when i try that it crops my actual screen, but for some reason when i leave screen capture region at 1920x1080 it shows my screen normally without black bars. anytime i use a different upload resolution, FMLE will instantly crash, so ive been uploading at 1920x1080 which seems retarded uploading at a higher resolution than my screen displays in the first place...but its the only way i can figure to keep fmle from crashing.
next, i have have an issue where any time i open a program, FMLE will crash. I read that FMLE will crash if bitrate is too high compared to your upload rate, causing processor overload, so i put autoadjust on to drop frames if this should happen. however, i have never dropped a frame, even with this on, and crashes still occur when i open other programs. It seems if i have sc2/LoL/firefox or whatever programs open that i plan to use, it wont crash, but as soon as i open something, crash. This isn't 100%, but probably 75% of the time if i open a program it crashes. Also processor never reaches over 40-50%.
another issue is occasionally i will start FMLE (whether using GUI or command prompt interface) and my stream will not start. however, after stopping, the video will be there, and i can watch it, but the stream is not live while recording to be viewed.
3.6 ghz i7-3820 (overclocked to 4.2 ghz) corsair h80 liquid cooling 16 gb ram nvidia geforce gtx 570
upload speed: 20+mbps bit rate:4000kbps output size: 1920x1080 frame rate: 25 Format: H.264, main, 4.0 auto adjust: drop frames
EDIT: i tried the OBS streaming software, took less than 10 minutes to download and setup, and works better, is less processor intensive, streams higher quality @ lower bitrate, supports 1600x900, and as far as i can tell doesnt crash.
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would i be able to stream at all?
-AMD Athlon II x2 260 (3.2GHz) -4GB RAM ddr3 -upload speed: 3.7mb/s
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Great post rich - I realise its old, but appreciation is given none the less! I shall put this info to use in the near future :D thanks again!
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k I feel like an idiot, I'm streaing using OBS and twitch is the site, but I literally cant figure out where I even set stream resolution quality. I came across it a couple days ago and it to 720p but I dont remember where, and I want to turn it down a bit.
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Settings > Video > Resolution Downscale
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Thanks.
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Alright so I've been trying to stream for over a week and cant seem to get a constant fame rate or its just choppy/laggy game play, when i stream to twitch using Xsplit. If anyone could help me understand whats going on and how i could fix this problem that would be amazing! (just trying to stream consul games)
my specs are; cpu/apu;A10-7890K - 4.3GHz, 4MB Cache
motherboard; A88X-PRO
gpu;MSI R7 250/AMD radeon R7 250..... 2GB DDR3, PCI-E 3.0
ram;8
capture card; elgato HD60S
My most resent Speedtest; ping10, download speed 96.65Mbps, upload speed 23.98Mbps
Please help ASAP.
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United Kingdom20157 Posts
You might be trying to stream too high resolution+FPS for the CPU
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On June 03 2016 17:44 MoonCatcherENT wrote: Alright so I've been trying to stream for over a week and cant seem to get a constant fame rate or its just choppy/laggy game play, when i stream to twitch using Xsplit. If anyone could help me understand whats going on and how i could fix this problem that would be amazing! (just trying to stream consul games)
my specs are; cpu/apu;A10-7890K - 4.3GHz, 4MB Cache
motherboard; A88X-PRO
gpu;MSI R7 250/AMD radeon R7 250..... 2GB DDR3, PCI-E 3.0
ram;8
capture card; elgato HD60S
My most resent Speedtest; ping10, download speed 96.65Mbps, upload speed 23.98Mbps
Please help ASAP.
can my PC even stream??? I'm looking to stream at 720p an 30fps.
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United Kingdom20157 Posts
Yes. Make sure that x264 is set to veryfast preset, you're using other appropriate stream settings and try 540p30 then work up
you should also set OBS to save the files offline as well as streaming so that you can examine those files. Twitch playback (via flash player) is a common cause of playback issues when the stream and encoder is otherwise fine.
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On June 04 2016 03:27 MoonCatcherENT wrote:Show nested quote +On June 03 2016 17:44 MoonCatcherENT wrote: Alright so I've been trying to stream for over a week and cant seem to get a constant fame rate or its just choppy/laggy game play, when i stream to twitch using Xsplit. If anyone could help me understand whats going on and how i could fix this problem that would be amazing! (just trying to stream consul games)
my specs are; cpu/apu;A10-7890K - 4.3GHz, 4MB Cache
motherboard; A88X-PRO
gpu;MSI R7 250/AMD radeon R7 250..... 2GB DDR3, PCI-E 3.0
ram;8
capture card; elgato HD60S
My most resent Speedtest; ping10, download speed 96.65Mbps, upload speed 23.98Mbps
Please help ASAP. can my PC even stream??? I'm looking to stream at 720p an 30fps.
is anyone willing to help?
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Hello,
I would like to know if I can stream. These are my performances or whatever...
Internet: Download: 4.32 Mbps Upload: 0,48 Mbps
Processor: Intel Core i3-4160, 3,60 GHz RAM: 4 GB
Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce GT730, approx. total memory: 2965 MB
Current Display Mode: 1366x768
Thank you in advance!!
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