- When it comes to reviewing Twitch streamers,
no matter if they are brand new to streaming
or if they've been at it for a while
and maybe have managed to hit Affiliate
or even Partner level,
there are two major technical mistakes
that I see people making.
Either their stream actually,
for the viewer that is watching,
has some sort of technical issue
like buffering or an inconsistent video frame rate
or maybe dropped frames or something like that,
or they just haven't spent the time
properly optimizing their settings.
They might have a decent-looking stream,
but have they really spent the time analyzing
and configuring to squeeze the absolute best quality
out of their connection to Twitch?
In this video, we're gonna be looking
at four different tools,
ranging from the super basic
all the way up to the more advanced tools
that are gonna help you properly analyze
and optimize your Twitch stream,
and as a bonus, we'll also be looking at a tool
that you can use to analyze other people's streams
if you want to know exactly
what their broadcast settings are, too,
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(screen whooshes) Right, so the first
and most basic tools are the OBS or Steamlabs OBS
Auto Configuration Wizards.
These are just short tests
that are built directly into the streaming software
designed to help you get things like your bitrate,
your resolution, your frame rate,
and your server choice correct.
In the OBS wizard,
there are some questions that you need to answer
about how you intend to use the software.
Are you gonna be using it primarily for streaming
or for recording,
what your base resolution or canvas resolution is,
and what your preferences are for FPS,
if you prefer a 60 FPS stream at the cost of resolution
or if you prefer a higher resolution at the cost of FPS.
There's also some options about
what service you're gonna be streaming to,
obviously Twitch,
and if you want to use hardware encoding
as well as running a bandwidth test.
I'd recommend enabling all three of those,
and then, when the test has finished running,
it will show you a screen
with all the different settings it will apply
if you choose to.
If you are using Streamlabs OBS, it's a much simpler test.
It doesn't ask you any questions,
but it actually, really annoyingly,
also doesn't show you what settings it has adjusted
when the test is complete.
So it's a bit annoying
'cause you then have to jump into your settings
to actually look at your bitrate,
your frame rate, your resolution, things like that
to see actually what settings Streamlabs OBS applied.
The advantages of both of these tests
are that they are quick,
and they're built into software that you're already using,
but obviously, the disadvantages are
that the connection test doesn't really run for long enough
to properly analyze your internet for instabilities,
and the test also doesn't simulate you actually running
and playing a game on your computer,
so it doesn't stress your CPU or your GPU
in quite the same way.
The second tool that we're gonna be using
is called Twitch Test.
It's an application developed by a guy called R1CH.
I've been recommending this application
since I started this YouTube channel
way back when I first started creating some OBS tutorials
because it's a super lightweight Windows program
that allows you to perform some bandwidth tests
to each of the Twitch ingest servers,
so the actual servers that you're gonna be streaming to
all around the world.
So you can pick an ingest server
that has sufficient bandwidth for your connection,
a low round trip time, and a high quality rating,
which will help ensure that you achieve
the best results when streaming.
The reason that this is useful
is because it's not always true
that the server that is geographically closest
to where you live is the best.
Usually, that is the case,
but it's well worth running a test
to make sure that you're getting a high quality connection
and choosing an ingest server that will be best for you.
To actually run the test,
all you need to do is download the application.
I'll include a link the description down below
so you can download it yourself,
and then, just paste in your stream key
from your Twitch dashboard,
change the TCP Window Size just to Automatic,
which is what OBS uses,
and then, select the region of the world that you live in
and set the Test Duration to whatever you want.
Obviously, a longer test will provide
a better representation of your internet stability,
but it will take longer
'cause it's gonna run that duration
for each of the servers in that region.
Then all you have to do is click Start.
Twitch Test will then simulate streams
to all of the ingest servers
that Twitch has available in that selected region
and then display the results after each test has completed.
I hope it goes without saying that, for all of these tests,
for all of these different tools that we're using,
you should obviously be avoiding
using any internet-heavy applications when they're running
because they are gonna skew your results.
A lot of these applications
are testing your internet connection,
so avoid using anything like Steam
or, you know, torrenting
or even streaming things on YouTube.
When all the tests are finished,
you should be looking for the server
with the highest bandwidth available
while still maintaining a quality result above 80.
If two servers are tied,
then choose the one with the higher quality,
and if the quality is tied,
then choose the one with the lower round trip time.
Now the purpose of this tool
isn't just to choose which ingest server
you should be streaming to.
It's also to change and actually set your bitrate
inside of OBS or Streamlabs OBS.
So for bitrate, I'd recommend that you
set this to 80% of your bandwidth figure here
while still not exceeding Twitch's soft cap
of 6,000 kilobits per second,
and bear in mind that just because you can stream
at 6,000 kilobits per second
and you have the internet capable of it,
doesn't mean that you should.
If you aren't Partnered or one of the bigger Affiliates,
Twitch is very unlikely to transcode your stream
into various different quality options.
So you know that when you watch some big streamers,
you see down in the bottom corner
that you can change it from 1080p to 720p,
480p, just depending on your connection,
and if you're watching from mobile,
it'll do this all automatically.
You won't get those options
if you're not a Partnered streamer
or an Affiliate that has a higher number of viewers,
so just 'cause you can stream at 6,000 kilobits per second,
doesn't mean that you should
because if you don't have these options,
it will mean that your viewers
also have to have internet capable
of downloading 6,000 kilobits per second,
and a lot of people are watching on mobiles now
and probably won't have that kind of connection,
so the stream can appear stuttery and buffery for them,
even if your upload in your stream is actually doing fine.
So with that being said,
if you are a smaller streamer
without those transcode options,
I'd recommend you set your bitrate to 80% of your bandwidth
with a maximum of 3,500 kilobits per second.
If you're Partnered on Twitch,
then I would recommend using 80% of your bandwidth
with a maximum of 6,000 kilobits per second.
Tool number three that we're gonna be using
is quite a bit more advanced,
and it's called Twitch Inspector.
It's actually been built by Twitch itself,
and the Inspector analyzes and assists you
in troubleshooting your internet connection
or encoder-related issues whilst broadcasting to Twitch.
Basically, it allows you run a test stream to Twitch servers
without actually going live to your audience
and then provides real-time analysis
of your bitrate and your frame rate and things like that.
You can then use this graph data
along with their Help articles,
which allows you to find the cause
of your problems in your stream,
including low internet bandwidth,
excessive high bitrate,
and, you know, the classic encoding hardware problems.
The great thing about this test
and the Twitch Inspector in general
is that it's actually an exact simulation of your stream.
You know, you can play the game, you run OBS,
and you're using all of your actual stream settings
to really test your PC and your connection
exactly as you would
if you were streaming out to your audience.
To run a test, all you need to do
is simply log in with your Twitch account
and authorize its access,
and then, click to run a stream test
which will give you a little popup with a bit of text
that you need to append to the end
of your stream key in OBS or Streamlabs OBS.
This little bit of text just prevents you
from actually going live to your audience
and tells Twitch that instead,
you're running a test stream for the purposes
of analyzing problems.
Copy this text and paste it in after your stream key
in OBS or Streamlabs OBS,
and then, click to start your stream.
You'll need to wait 10 to 20 seconds
for Twitch Inspector to actually recognize your new stream,
but the page will automatically refresh,
and you should be able to click through
to this larger graph and analysis of your stream.
If possible, I'd recommend streaming for at least 15 minutes
just to see exactly how stable things are
and, you know, give it a chance to detect
any kind of problems.
If you do have a problem,
the Inspector should recognize them,
and then, the Help articles there will offer solutions
for exactly what you need to change
based on your results.
Most likely, the things that you'll need to do
are lower your bitrate, your resolution, or your frame rate,
or some combination of the three
to prevent either your internet or your encoder
from causing issues.
Remember that a 1080p, 60 FPS stream
might be what you want to send out to the world,
but that is not easy to achieve by any means,
and in many cases, actually, a 720p stream at 60 FPS
or a 720p stream at 30 FPS may be the best you can get
with your current setup and connection.
It's worth remembering that a 1080 stream,
the resolution actually requires over double
the number of pixels that a 720p resolution stream requires,
so a much higher bitrate is required
for a 1080p stream to actually look good.
The final tool that we're gonna be looking at
not only helps us analyze our own streams
but also anyone else who is livestreaming to Twitch.
This one has also been developed by R1CH,
and it's called Twitch Analyzer.
This one is super simple to use.
Simply head to the link
that I've included in the description
and type in the name of any streamer
that is currently live on Twitch.
Now this could be yourself.
It could be a friend,
or it could even be one of the bigger streamers
that you're interested in seeing
exactly what bitrates and frame rates and things like that
that they are streaming at.
The tool then takes a 10-second sample of the stream
and analyzes that video data
for things like resolution, frame rate, bitrate,
if you're dropping frames, what your keyframes are set to,
and things like that,
and it does a great job
actually recognizing issues from this data
and offering solutions on then how you can fix them.
I've got to be honest.
I'm always using this tool when I'm reviewing streamers
from the Gaming Careers Patreon to offer feedback
and just get a much better understanding
of the actual technical side
of what they're pushing to Twitch.
One word of warning for this tool, though,
is just remember that
copying somebody else's stream settings
most likely is not going to work for you.
Just because you see somebody's stream
streaming the same game as you
and you really like their settings,
doesn't mean that it's gonna work for you
'cause you're using a different computer,
you're located in a different part of the world,
you're streaming to a different server,
and you have a different internet connection.
You need to really be applying your own settings
to your stream.
It's just useful to be able to see
what other people are being able to do.
So using a combination of these four tools,
hopefully, you can now properly analyze,
fix any issues with your stream,
and really make sure that you're getting the best
of your connection to Twitch.
If you have any more stream-related questions,
I would highly recommend joining the Gaming Careers Discord
if you haven't already.
We have nearly 5,000 members in there now,
people helping each other out
with all things streaming-related,
so again, I'll put a link in the description
if you want to join the Discord community,
and if haven't yet subscribed
to the Gaming Careers YouTube channel,
obviously, I'd recommend doing that also
and hitting that notification bell
so that you don't miss an upload,
and massive thanks as always to the Gaming Careers patrons.
These people let me run this channel full-time
and keep creating this kind of content for you guys.
Hopefully, you found this video helpful.
You can check out some of my other videos here on this page,
and subscribers, I'll see you in the next video.
Peace!