What hardware governs my livestreaming quality?

I assume the processor is the main component for streaming decent quality PC games to own3d.tv, but what else factors in?


Also, is this good enough internet for streaming?





Even though my up/down is quite high, the streaming bitrate shows as anywhere between 600-900. I have limited it to 1000, should it be jumping around and in-between so much? Is that he sign of bad quality internet or modem/router?


What kinda requirements are we looking at for a great quality 1280x720 and 1920x1080 stream?

Will available processing power govern bitrate available?

You should be able to do HD streaming with that internet connection and your CPU.

I'd say performance mostly depends on the app used to do the streaming, as how its capturing and encoding the stream is the largest deciding factor.

With 8Mbps up, I would give a more generous upload rate for streaming and see if that improves your quality.

I has to be the SW the site uses for processing the stream. I have less than half your UP speed and I can do HD streaming on Livestream without any problems.

I agree, but keep in mind our livestreams aren't running on the same PC thats doing the streaming either... If he's streaming his gaming, then the video feed isn't coming from a 2nd PC and a webcam. Game utilization could be interfering if it requires a lot of processor or if the streaming app is misconfigured.

I.M.O.G. said:

I agree, but keep in mind our livestreams aren't running on the same PC thats doing the streaming either... If he's streaming his gaming, then the video feed isn't coming from a 2nd PC and a webcam. Game utilization could be interfering if it requires a lot of processor or if the streaming app is misconfigured.

Click to expand...

Doh!

Serves me right for not paying full attention while I read.

Have you tried or thought about Xfire?

First of all let me say thanks for all of the replies, not many people are willing to talk about this. Even after having their streams set up I they aren't really sure what settings effect what hardware, or are so frustrated by that point they never want to discuss it again.


I use xsplit broadcaster (http://www.xsplit.com/), the only other way I know of streaming is with Adobe FME, and it's about 100x more complicated, however.. when setup correctly can be ran from from the DOS window via a batch file. No other software can retain the level of quality I am trying to achieve with my stream.

I ran a Metro 2033 stream last night at 1280x720 with all the graphics settings maxed, DX11 tessellation etc. Eventually my little Phenom II hit the heat threshold and restarted.. but let's keep in my I have it unlocked to 4 cores at 3.7 Ghz. It took about 2 hours to finally crash, and my overall fps was a little lower than I wanted.

After streaming for a little while last night, I came to the conclusion that bitrate fluctuates when needed. It seemed like most of the cut-scenes were around 200-300 kbps, while the game consumed 900 almost constantly.

I'll post up some screenshots of my settings when I get home today, but what I am wondering is. Is it possible for my screen and game resolution to be set to 1920x1080 while broadcasting is at 1280x720? I am quite sure it is, but there is alot of configuring going on with xsplit.

Is streaming games at 1920x1080 a common practice? When I get my bulldozer at the end of the week would that be possible to do with my internet connection? Also, what FPS should I expect to stream at (setting the FPS to capture through xsplit)?

Thanks again


EDIT: These are my current Xsplit settings:

What exactly does buffer size do?
What kind of bitrate should I allow my stream to have? I may have pandora going or ventrilo open while gaming.




Phenom II 555be @ 4cores 3.7Ghz (FX-8150 soon)
16GB GSkill sniper
1gb Radeon 6950
SSD & 1tb 7200

turbohans said:

Have you tried or thought about Xfire?

Click to expand...

Nah, I have never seen an xfire stream I was satisfied with unfortunately.

What are the bitrate options? I would target 2 to 3 Mbps for the bitrate.

You should be able to set the broadcast resolution differently than your display resolution, however there is a possibility there could be a transcoding challenge there. What I mean is, if you stream at the same resolution you game at, it may be a more direct streaming process - if you stream at a different resolution than you game at, the app may be transcoding on the fly to downmix/upmix the resolution as you configured.

As it sounds like you are running into processor utilization issues, you may want to try gaming at the same resolution you stream at and see how that works - that may mean reducing your game resolution for testing purposes. It will give you some insight into the limitations of your particular situation, giving us something to compare other configuration settings against, and may help us decide which settings could work better.

I would start by manually setting resolution - I have no idea what the default mixer resolution is, so that is hard for us to make any inferences from.

Sorry I don't have more direct advice, isn't anything I have done before - but I think we can figure it out.

My default mixer resolution is 1280x720, while my desktop is sitting at 1920x1080. I was streaming the game windowed. Most of the time my CPUs were at 70% usage, but 90% wasn't uncommon either. Bitrate options, there were tons more. The recommended settings were actually 1200, so I know I can go atleast to that. 2Mbps eh? I'll give it a go

The bit about different resolutions ruining stream utility is a fantastic point. However, I think I will hold off on streaming any more until I have a BD. I don't want to ruin my 555 before I have chance to flash the mobo BIOS for the 8150.

Thanks again

Just a quick note here, you will not kill your chip by using it. Feel free to test until your get BD.

Thanks! Maybe I will give the stream a go at 1920x1080 tonight if my mobo swap goes off without a hitch.

Ugh I am very sad to say I can't stream games at 1280x720 at a decent fps with this processor.

When does the bulldozer arrive? Would be nice if that solves the streaming issue.

The BD has been here for a while now, I get between 15-25 FPS in Metro 2033 windowed mode running all medium graphics and DX9 @ 1280x720

Occasionally it will jump up to 30-45 but I honestly don't know what is going wrong.. computer swamps @ 100% usage.

I work for an ISP (not yours) and I'll probly be able to help. Your jitter looks high as does your ping. What speed tier does your ISP have you on? I don't know the specifics of DOCSIS I'm more familiar with DSL but it almost looks like you have a fair amount of error correction present.

If you're wireless what router? I know of several linksys that have overheating related issues; especially the E3000 and 610N; if not you might want to investigate some kind of signal interference coming from your coax connection and isolate it down to just the jack and your modem and try running it again.


Here's mine for comparison keep in mind I'm wireless at 50% signal strength:






EDIT:
Want to make a note about this; It's been awhile since I tested my speeds and I saw the results on my Motorla SB6120 and had an oh **** moment of "my **** is jacked up too". Went to reboot the modem and couldn't get it to sync back up.

So I finally decided to take some of my own advice. If there's one thing Ive learned its that prival label equipment ISP wise is generally far better than store bought brands; especially motorola; they suck already gone through 3. Thought their cable modems were better then the smokorolas my employer uses; guess not.

So I sit now on my Arris modem I got from a Comcast depot; by all accounts from what they described to me this is the end all be all modem similar to the westell modems that I love working with.
So I'd say replace your equipment with something like I did or have them send somone out. Also on new equipment these are my results now (note we have the 22mb plan):





EDIT #2: Look at how much lower my ping times are compared to yours... remember I'm wireless at 50% signal