[SOLVED] streaming issues.. is it my internet?

[Kvnnon]

I made a previous post about my upload speed being very slow. However I was monitoring task manager and while streaming with a 6000kbps it was uploading the same amount. But my stream quality is terrible; incredibly blurry and grainy and I have no idea why. I've watched a ton of videos regarding correct obs settings and it's all correct. I can't understand what the issue is. Is it possible that the ethernet port somehow caps my upload speed? (it is 20mbps). For example, it has the potential of uploading 20mbps but the port or cable caps it at lower than that?

 

[bill001g]

What does speedtest say your upload speed it. Speedtest is a much better measure of network performance because it is only transferring data it is not doing all the added functions of encoding video.

You could also try one of the free cloud storage sites. You are limited on how much you can store for free but you really only want to see how the transfer number to these sites compare to speedtest.

If you just want to test your machine and equipment inside your house you can use a old tool called iperf to test between machines. It would show if you have a cable or maybe a driver problem. Most people get 900+mbps between machines in their house.

 

[Kvnnon]

What does speedtest say your upload speed it. Speedtest is a much better measure of network performance because it is only transferring data it is not doing all the added functions of encoding video.

You could also try one of the free cloud storage sites. You are limited on how much you can store for free but you really only want to see how the transfer number to these sites compare to speedtest.

If you just want to test your machine and equipment inside your house you can use a old tool called iperf to test between machines. It would show if you have a cable or maybe a driver problem. Most people get 900+mbps between machines in their house.

speedtest.net confirmed my upload speed to be 20 mbps. Am I right in saying that when I stream the network part in task manager should only say I'm uploading 6000kbps because there's no need to be uploading 20mbps with a 6mbps stream. Also, would you mind elaborating on what you mean by the storage sites? What exactly am I limited in storing for free?

 

[gggplaya]

Are you using NVENC/Shadowplay or AMD VCE to stream? Onboard encoding ASIC's built into GPU's use a technique called MACROBLOCKING, which is how they operate so efficiently. They take a frame and separate it into a grid of blocks, then look at a frame from before and after. It determines which blocks have changed and only render the new blocks, but transpose the unchanged blocks over to the new rendered frame. That's why GPU encoding looks blocky at lower bitrates. Macroblocking needs at least double the bitrate to look equivalent to CPU encoding.

This is why big streamers use a separate computer for streaming. They use CPU encoding to make the cleanest possible stream. With today's processors, an 8 or 12 core processor may be enough to play the game and CPU encode a stream depending on the game load of the CPU. A CPU encoded stream at 6mbps should look clean and not blocky/blurry.

 

[Kvnnon]

Are you using NVENC/Shadowplay or AMD VCE to stream? Onboard encoding ASIC's built into GPU's use a technique called MACROBLOCKING, which is how they operate so efficiently. They take a frame and separate it into a grid of blocks, then look at a frame from before and after. It determines which blocks have changed and only render the new blocks, but transpose the unchanged blocks over to the new rendered frame. That's why GPU encoding looks blocky at lower bitrates. Macroblocking needs at least double the bitrate to look equivalent to CPU encoding.

This is why big streamers use a separate computer for streaming. They use CPU encoding to make the cleanest possible stream. With today's processors, an 8 or 12 core processor may be enough to play the game and CPU encode a stream depending on the game load of the CPU. A CPU encoded stream at 6mbps should look clean and not blocky/blurry.

I use obs to stream, encoding with NVENC. The quality looks similar when encoding with x264. I have a Ryzen 5 3600 and a GTX 1070ti and stream at 6000mbps. Surely this is enough to produce a stream that's not extremely blurry. I see people stream the same games from a single pc withy the same specs and it looks incredibly clear, even though they're streaming at the same or lower resolutions. Am I doing something wrong? Is it my internet?

 

[gggplaya]

You might want to try encoding 720p at the same bitrate to see if it's cleaner. Also try 30fps instead of 60fps, again with the same bitrate you'll get a cleaner image with half the frames.

You have a Pascal video card. The RTX 2000 series turing cards made large improvements NVENC encoding quality. X264 is still better, but not by much. Pascal was hot garbage and very blocky, which is what you have. I had a Maxwell card and the NVENC quality was aweful using shadowplay. Pascal was not supposed to be much better than Maxwell.

If you want to try x264 cpu encoding, do a game that uses less cores, like 2 cores and set your OBS to encode x264 medium. Then compare that to NVENC, you'll see the difference. Definitely a cleaner output.

 

[Kvnnon]

You might want to try encoding 720p at the same bitrate to see if it's cleaner. Also try 30fps instead of 60fps, again with the same bitrate you'll get a cleaner image with half the frames.

You have a Pascal video card. The RTX 2000 series turing cards made large improvements NVENC encoding quality. X264 is still better, but not by much. Pascal was hot garbage and very blocky, which is what you have. I had a Maxwell card and the NVENC quality was aweful using shadowplay. Pascal was not supposed to be much better than Maxwell.

If you want to try x264 cpu encoding, do a game that uses less cores, like 2 cores and set your OBS to encode x264 medium. Then compare that to NVENC, you'll see the difference. Definitely a cleaner output.

I tried x264 on a game using less cores. I have to say I didn't really see a noticeable increase in quality. I'm stumped lol. Maybe I'll have to invest in a 2000 series card sometime seeing as they're that much better.