We talked about setting bitrates and coming up with viable bitrate options for slower
upload speeds in previous videos.
But what if you know you have a capable internet connection, but you’re still having trouble
streaming with OBS Studio?
Dropping frames, red connection status, and so on?
Let’s look at some options.
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I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and more fun, and welcome back to my OBS Studio
tutorial course.
I have many, many more videos on the software in the playlist linked in the description.
Check that before asking questions, and check the introduction video to learn how this course
works, if you get confused.
First and foremost, please do realize that literally everyone’s setup is different.
Your internet provider, internet connection, router and other networking hardware, computer,
software running on your computer, version of Windows, expectations, patience, other
devices on your network - every tiniest detail of your setup will be different from everyone
else’s.
Because of this, I likely will not have a single, specified and directed answer that
will fix your problems - but rather I aim to simply aid you along your way of troubleshooting
what problems you might have.
And remember, OBS does have a dedicated forum you can use to submit logs and specs and try
to get a solution to your problems, too.
As will all complicated streaming setups, patience is very important.
Also I wanted to point out the new connection status indicator.
This came out in update 18 to the software and brought back a feature that had died with
OBS Classic until March-ish 2017.
At the bottom where it shows your current framerate in OBS Studio, it now shows a color
indicator for network stability.
Green means “no congestion,” everything is good.
Yellow indicates “increasing congestion” - it’s having more trouble pushing the full
bitrate through consistently.
Red means it’s dropping frames due to network issues.
Tip Number 1 - plug in an ethernet cable.
No, really.
Wireless networking has come a long way in terms of raw, deliverable speeds, but it’s
still crap for high-level work.
It can increase your ping and is very prone to interference, signal degradation, and packet
loss.
Use your attics, basements, walls, something and get a wired network going to your streaming
setup if you’re getting serious about streaming.
Plus, when trying to narrow down troubleshooting, virtually no one will help you if you say
you’re on wireless and haven’t re-created it on a wired connection yet.
Just a factor of life, haha.
Tip Number 2 - An obvious one, but one everyone skips, myself included.
And then you feel bad about it.
Turn off unnecessary services and programs.
If you’re not running a Steam game, a BattleNet game, an Origin, UPlay, or whatever service
platform game - don’t run the clients!
Auto-updating for games or the app itself can kick in at any time and ruin your network
performance.
Similarly, close out of just about EVERYTHING else.
Skype constantly loads ads and uses network traffic.
Cloud sync apps are always pinging and syncing data.
Bittorrent and Usenet clients are active.
Overbearing firewalls and network monitors can cause your performance to degrade, too.
If this is too difficult to pull off every time you want to stream, consider making a
new user profile on your computer just for streaming.
Only install exactly what you need for streaming, and don’t ever use it other than when streaming.
Tweak it to prevent extraneous processes from starting up at sign in, keep it clean and
easy to use.
Tip Number 3 - Check your streaming servers.
Make sure you’re not set to stream to a Twitch or YouTube, or whatever service, across
the world.
The closer you can get to your exact location, the better.
The auto-configuration tool we covered in episode 120 has a built-in tool to ping servers
for your streaming service and choose the right one for you.
Try that, too.
Tip Number 4 - Use OBS’s new network tools.
In “Settings” - “Advanced,” OBS Studio has new networking options available at the
bottom.
If you have multiple networking devices connected to your PC - for example a wireless card and
wired ethernet jack - you can use the “Bind to IP” drop-down to force OBS to only use
one device, preferably your ethernet connection, and prevent it from accidentally routing through
wireless or something.
This is also useful if you run separate internet connections entirely for streaming and other
network usage.
You can try checking the box next to “Enable new networking code” to see if it plays
better with the stream servers.
This code is supposed to help stream more efficiently, though not much is given about
it.
If you do check that box, you also have the option to check the box next to “Low latency
mode” - which will stream in a more ping-friendly way to keep ping down.
This will, however, use more system resources - but might be the fix you need.
You also have controls for auto-reconnect settings here, as well.
Tip Number 5 - Lastly, if you’re consistently having issues streaming and your bit rates
are well within your available bandwidth, check with your ISP.
Give them a call and work with them to stress test your modem, router, and networking hardware
to see if you’re having any signal loss, packet loss, or other connection issues that
might be directly associated with them.
While this was more of a problem in older dial-up and DSL networks, this can still very
much be the source of many steamers’ headaches.
Again, have some patience and work through each step carefully - and with multiple trials.
You’ll get it worked out.
Sometimes it just takes time.
Hopefully these tips have helped you along your way!
Have you had any oddball network fixes?
Leave them in the comments below!
I hope this episode of my OBS Studio tutorial course has been helpful for you.
If it was, drop-kick that like button and subscribe for awesome tech videos.
If you like game streaming, come follow me on Twitch and drop a message in chat.
Until next time, I’m EposVox, Happy Streaming!
Thanks for watching this episode of my OBS Studio tutorial course.
More videos like this and a full master class are linked in the playlist in the video description.
Click to learn more.
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