[SOLVED] Mobile game live streamer, suspect router problem need help.

[DeeteeCG]

Hi guys, recently i just started mobile games live stream over facebook.

How i did live stream was using this software called "apowermirror" to mirror my phone screen to my computer. then use OBS capture it and live stream to facebook.

My problem is inside my phone the game play is 100% smoooth. no lag, no delay no nothing. just smooth.
BUT... my stream is choppy and laggy. like there are drop frames time to time and sometimes the audio tend to desynchronised.

During live streaming, stream indicator in facebook & OBS shows pretty healthy. (fps, audio, bitrate all seems normal)
After i examine a little, i notice that the choppy and laggy problem happens even without me live streaming (tho it may slightly less severe than during streaming).
Apparently it is choppy & laggy during the mirroring stage.

I tried a few different others mirroring software. by far i think apowermirror has done a better job compare to others.

Which... leads me to suspect my router is the root of the problem.

I did some research about it and in all honesty, it seems very hard for me to find such specific problem.
and im not a pro in network & computer stuff, so there are so many things i don't understand and i hope to get some answers here.


Below are my specs:

• Tp-link Archer C1200 (default router by my service provider)
• Iphone 7 plus
• Windows 10
• PC spec: Ryzen 2700, 32GB ram, gtx 1060 3GB
• apowermirror (mirroring software)
• OBS (broadcasting software)

As far as my understanding, internet speed is different from wifi speed. (please correct me if im wrong)
But I really fail to find a way to test wifi speed.
So I did some ping test as per below

Below is my house layout, where i sit during the ping test.
A & B is where i sit during the ping test. M is where the modem located. pink color are the walls. the rest are my furniture.

So my questions:
1- is the problem really indeed router problem? (I'm suspecting router but i'm not confident enough to say it is, coz my game play is really smooth. zero lag or delay & no drop frame)

2- If it is, any router that be recommended? I need to sit at spot A to play as my computer and stuff is there. If any obstacle between me and router would be minor distance, wall, desk, & monitor. Hopefully can meet my budget around 100USD. preferably below that.

3- If it is not router problem, what can it be? any mobile live streamer or any network guru here can shade me some lights?



I did some google and found a lot router recommended for game streamer.
But im not sure if they are right for me as i would assume most recommendation are meant for streamer directly from their computer.
I can't be sure those recommendation helps in my specific problem in mirroring phone screen to computer.



Elgato is way too expensive for me...

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

Not quite sure what you're saying.
Are you saying that when you watch back your stream on FB, the stream is choppy and laggy, but everything from your phone, to the mirror app on the PC and OBS are smooth?

 

[DeeteeCG]

Not quite sure what you're saying.
Are you saying that when you watch back your stream on FB, the stream is choppy and laggy, but everything from your phone, to the mirror app on the PC and OBS are smooth?

Sorry if my words are confusing...

When i mirrored my phone to my computer, the mirrored screen on my computer shows choppy and lagging. sometimes audio desynchronised.
But inside my phone, the game play still remain perfectly fine and smooth. (the game requires internet to play, MOBA game)

Due to this I highly suspecting router problem, but i can't be sure myself since the game needs internet and it is smooth inside the phone while mirroring.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

As long as you are connected to 5GHz WiFi you should be fine as long as you aren't cranking your mirror app quality settings to insane levels.

Set the mirror app to 1080p and adjust the bitrate/quality until it smooths out.
Your PC should be connected via Ethernet, and if it's not, you should be on 5GHz with it as well to try and minimize any stutters.

And yes, internet speed is the speed at which data can move in volume across the world to you and back again and pertains to your connection to the outside world provided to you by your ISP.

When it comes to data speeds and latency over your home network between devices on your router, that is determined by your devices capabilities, the connection type to the central hub that all your devices connect to (i.e. the router and WiFi vs Ethernet) and the hub itself and how well it handles things. (depending on the case, software on devices can also play a role)

 

[bill001g]

Wifi should be your last choice when you want quality and performance. You want as much as you possibly can connected via ethernet cables. What you are doing is almost a worst case option for wifi.

Wifi unlike any other media retransmits data when errors are detected. The takes time and causes small delays. Both online gaming and live video stream/mirror would much prefer that damaged data just be dropped. They are extremely depenent on data being delivered at consistent rates. Pretty much any other application can use buffers to hide the retransmission delays to some extent but you can't do that when you are dealing with real time data where adding a 1second buffer would cause issues.

Most wifi issues are caused by interference. It can be your own devices that attempt to transmit at the same time because wifi is half duplex. You might be able to solve that by putting some of them on 2.4g and others on 5g. The much more common cause of interference is signals from your neighbors wifi which you can do nothing about.

Then again this mirror and capture software tends to have many issues on its own so it may not even be a wifi issues. Another good reason to test on ethernet if there is any possibility.

 

[DeeteeCG]

As long as you are connected to 5GHz WiFi you should be fine as long as you aren't cranking your mirror app quality settings to insane levels.

Set the mirror app to 1080p and adjust the bitrate/quality until it smooths out.
Your PC should be connected via Ethernet, and if it's not, you should be on 5GHz with it as well to try and minimize any stutters.

And yes, internet speed is the speed at which data can move in volume across the world to you and back again and pertains to your connection to the outside world provided to you by your ISP.

When it comes to data speeds and latency over your home network between devices on your router, that is determined by your devices capabilities, the connection type to the central hub that all your devices connect to (i.e. the router and WiFi vs Ethernet) and the hub itself and how well it handles things. (depending on the case, software on devices can also play a role)

Yep, i am on 5GHz wifi.
and my mirroring app quality is not that high. i only mirror 1080x720p.
Tried both "D3DX" and "OPENGL" render mode, does not improves.

Yes, my pc is connected via ethernet. I think the choppy and lagging part is during mirroring.
Base on streaming data, there is no drop frame, bit rate is consistent at value i set.

If i understand your last paragraph correctly, i guess is very likely the router and wifi capability is the problem for my case?

Wifi should be your last choice when you want quality and performance. You want as much as you possibly can connected via ethernet cables. What you are doing is almost a worst case option for wifi.

Wifi unlike any other media retransmits data when errors are detected. The takes time and causes small delays. Both online gaming and live video stream/mirror would much prefer that damaged data just be dropped. They are extremely depenent on data being delivered at consistent rates. Pretty much any other application can use buffers to hide the retransmission delays to some extent but you can't do that when you are dealing with real time data where adding a 1second buffer would cause issues.

Most wifi issues are caused by interference. It can be your own devices that attempt to transmit at the same time because wifi is half duplex. You might be able to solve that by putting some of them on 2.4g and others on 5g. The much more common cause of interference is signals from your neighbors wifi which you can do nothing about.

Then again this mirror and capture software tends to have many issues on its own so it may not even be a wifi issues. Another good reason to test on ethernet if there is any possibility.

My desktop is using ethernet.
As far as i tried to examine, i kinda conclude that the choppy and lag happens during iphone mirrored to my desktop.
I think using wifi is kinda common way to mirror phone screen to computer right?
My household doesn't have much device connect to my router/wifi. only me and my wife phone on 5G, the rest on 2.4G.

Hmm... yea, that's kinda makes me headache, i cant really 100% identified myself whether or not is the router problem.

 

[bill001g]

Not sure what "better" router you think there is. The wifi communication will negotiate the best connection based on the feature of the router and your end devices. Your iphone only has 2 antenna so it can not do better than 2x2 mimo anyway. The router you currently have is 2x2 mimo. So both device will use either 300 on 2.4g or 867 on 5g.

A different router even if it supports more will just drop back to these speeds anyway.

The distance the signal goes is based on transmit power and that is regulated by the government. Almost all routers put out very close to the maximum legal transmit power. I don't know about your phone but most phones but out less than the legal power mostly to try to save on battery. So if it is some kind of coverage issue it will be the phone not the router that likely is the cause.

Maybe 802.11ax so called wifi6 might work better but your would have to have to replace your phone with a model that supports it. It is suppose to work better to share bandwidth and it also uses more bandwidth so it should be faster. This is very hard to say not a lot of people have moved to this technology yet so you do not know what the common person gets.