Cinematic / High Fidelity Streams - How do they do it?

[couple962]

Hi everyone!

I apologize in advance for the basic question and I promise I'm coming to you as a last resort. I've scoured the Internet, forums, ChatGPT, and other people's streams to seek answers, but I can't figure this out for the life of me.

I have a Nikon Z6 iii camera connected via an Elgato Cam Link 4k capture card running OBS, 45mbps upload speed, proper lighting, and a RTX 3080 video card. I have cranked the quality/fidelity as high as allowed by Chaturbate in OBS & camera, but I can't figure out for the life of me why my stream is so pixelated compared to the preview that I see in OBS. My CB account was recently bumped up to 1080p, but when comparing my stream to other established streamers, it is a night and day difference. Like not even in the same ballpark despite having a modern and well-reviewed full-frame mirrorless camera and 16mm f/1.8 lens. It looks like a pixelated and inexpensive webcam when I go live.

Granted, I'm a newish account (but we do get 500-700 viewers each time we stream), so I was wondering if there are restrictions set in place for new accounts to limit their quality until they prove themselves/earn enough tokens/views and then get "upgraded". I'm totally onboard with that because it makes financial sense from CB's position, and am just curious if that's what is happening in my situation. It would help me sleep at night because I can't tell you how many hours I've poured into trying to improve the quality of my stream. If it turns out it's due to us being new, that would be a major relief that it's out of our hands for the time being.

If that's not the case, then what in the world are they doing that I'm not?

Happy to share my OBS and camera settings if that helps, but I've literally tried tweaking practically everything with no success.

Thank you SOOOO much!

 

[cbhours]

Happy to share my OBS and camera settings if that helps, but I've literally tried tweaking practically everything with no success.

Thank you SOOOO much!

Yes please provide all the details and a screenshot of the OBS preview vs what you see on CB so we can see this pixelation difference. For OBS we want the following settings sections:

Output, video, and we also want the properties section of your source so under sources your elgato cam link.

 

[couple962]

Yes please provide all the details and a screenshot of the OBS preview vs what you see on CB so we can see this pixelation difference. For OBS we want the following settings sections:

Output, video, and we also want the properties section of your source so under sources your elgato cam link.

Thank you SO much for your willingness to help!

Just as a heads up, the screenshots are with an AMD RX 6800 GPU to see if that would solve the issues, but unfortunately I've ran into the same result. I apologize if I'm not allowed to post face pictures, I'll take these down promptly if needed. I feel like they best represent the quality degradation that I'm experiencing. If allowed, I'm also happy to post screenshots (safe for work ones) of streamers' quality that I'm looking to achieve.

I have 1000mbps download / 40-45mbps upload, plugged directly into the router. Tried both Nvidia and AMD GPU's and I have a i5-12600K CPU with 16gb of memory running Windows 10.

OBS Preview:



CB Preview:



Output:



Video



Cam Link Properties:



Network Performance:





Thank you!!!

 

[CallMeMaria]

I am sure I read somewhere that cb allows more fps / 4k streaming only for accounts with higher following? maybe @Vixxen81 can confirm?

 

[Vixxen81]

I am sure I read somewhere that cb allows more fps / 4k streaming only for accounts with higher following? maybe @Vixxen81 can confirm?

Thanks for the tag in, 4K is only available to accounts with 100K+ followers. Everything else should be wide open.

On topic, but not directed at Maria, 4k streaming on CB is rather pointless. Most viewers aren't on 4K devices (on their phones or old laptops) and the room will appear glitchy or won't load at all for viewers. Max fps on 4k is 30.

The other info I have is only relevant to Logi cameras so that's where I step back.

 

[couple962]

Thank you SO much for the insight @CallMeMaria and @Vixxen81 - I didn't know about the 100k follower milestone to unlock 4k. That makes a lot of sense considering the bandwidth costs for CB. In case it's any help to you two or @cbhours I've also tried setting my camera/OBS to stream in 1080p 60fps (CB unlocked this for me 1-2 weeks ago since I was initially capped at 720p), but no luck in achieving better fidelity. I'm stumped!

 

[cbhours]

Look at your base resolution, raise it to match the output and bitrate to 12000 - 20000 kbps leaning more towards the 12k

 

[KingMarti]

Personally I would just switch you base resolution and output resolution to 1080p. From what I understood you dont meet the requirements for 4k, unless you meant that you just hit the requirements for 4k and not 1080p (which I didnt know there was requirements for tbh) but as Vixxen said there is a very small amount of people that are using a 4k device to access cb, most will be using their phone, or at best a 1440p monitor, last time I checked the most popular monitors being sold was still 1080p that was about a year ago but I honestly wouldnt expect that it would have changed much, so I would still just broadcast at 1080p.

 

[couple962]

Look at your base resolution, raise it to match the output and bitrate to 12000 - 20000 kbps leaning more towards the 12k

Thank you for the quick response @cbhours and @KingMarti ! Unfortunately 1440p is the highest my monitor allows for. I'll try lowering the base & output resolution to 1080p and lower the bitrate to 12k-15k and report back. Thank you!

 

[couple962]

Unfortunately no luck with the 1080p and lowered bitrate, still a moshpit of pixels. It didn't get worse though.

The original CB screenshot is with my camera set to 4k (I then tried setting OBS to both 4k and downsampling to 1080p 60fps). Quality stayed the same. I also tried setting my camera to 1080p and setting OBS to stream in 1080p 60fps but the quality got worse believe it or not.

 

[cbhours]

Personally I would just switch you base resolution and output resolution to 1080p. From what I understood you dont meet the requirements for 4k, unless you meant that you just hit the requirements for 4k and not 1080p (which I didnt know there was requirements for tbh) but as Vixxen said there is a very small amount of people that are using a 4k device to access cb, most will be using their phone, or at best a 1440p monitor, last time I checked the most popular monitors being sold was still 1080p that was about a year ago but I honestly wouldnt expect that it would have changed much, so I would still just broadcast at 1080p.

His camera can do 60fps at 1080p right? If I was watching a couple show I'd prefer 1080p 60fps over 4k 30fps.

 

[KingMarti]

His camera can do 60fps at 1080p right? If I was watching a couple show I'd prefer 1080p 60fps over 4k 30fps.

I'm not sure, probably, most cameras that do 4k 30 can do 1080p 60.

 

[couple962]

His camera can do 60fps at 1080p right? If I was watching a couple show I'd prefer 1080p 60fps over 4k 30fps.

Yeah, it can do 1080p 60fps. I too think it looks better. Love the smoothness it provides.

 

[cbhours]

Ok for 1080p 60fps it's 8k bitrate minimum, need to set the 2 resolutions and 60fps in video settings and then in the cam link 4k source properties

 

[Squinkle]

From what I see, your tech may be the issue here. You are trying to stream in 4k/60fps using a processor with 10 cores, and an insufficient GPU. Your hardware can't hit those marks. An AMD RX 6800 can run games in 4k/60fps, but it doesn't have the power to transmit a broadcast with those same settings. However, it can easily run an HD 1080p stream with 30 fps.

It may be time to upgrade your hardware, or switch to a lower resolution. Besides that, Windows will stop providing security/feature updates for Windows 10 operating systems come October '25. Many systems don't meet the requirements to upgrade to Windows 11. Does yours? If not, you might want to consider a new PC.

For now, set the base resolution and fps to the same value under your cameras setting, base resolution setting, and scaled resolution. Start with 1080p and 30 fps (bitrate 10k) and see how that looks.

 

[KingMarti]

From what I see, your tech may be the issue here. You are trying to stream in 4k/60fps using a processor with 10 cores, and an insufficient GPU. Your hardware can't hit those marks. An AMD RX 6800 can run games in 4k/60fps, but it doesn't have the power to transmit a broadcast with those same settings. However, it can easily run an HD 1080p stream with 30 fps.

It may be time to upgrade your hardware, or switch to a lower resolution. Besides that, Windows will stop providing security/feature updates for Windows 10 operating systems come October '25. Many systems don't meet the requirements to upgrade to Windows 11. Does yours? If not, you might want to consider a new PC.

For now, set the base resolution and fps to the same value under your cameras setting, base resolution setting, and scaled resolution. Start with 1080p and 30 fps (bitrate 10k) and see how that looks.

There is absolutely no need for him to upgrade his system. It is more than capable of streaming at 4k. And it is fine for windows 11. The issue with the image is that his base resolution was lower than his output resolution meaning that obs was down scaling the cam input from 4k to 2k to match the base resolution and then up scaling back to 4k for the broadcast. Also a bitrate of 10k is too high for a 1080p 30 stream, cb will give errors about it being too high, the correct bitrate for 1080p 30fps is between 5000-8000, 10k - 16k is the bitrate you would need for 1080@60 or 4k 30.

Op if you need to check bitrates here is the cb setup page that has all the info on setting up your stream.

https://support.chaturbate.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037971952-How-do-I-set-up-OBS

 

[Squinkle]

There is absolutely no need for him to upgrade his system. It is more than capable of streaming at 4k. And it is fine for windows 11. The issue with the image is that his base resolution was lower than his output resolution meaning that obs was down scaling the cam input from 4k to 2k to match the base resolution and then up scaling back to 4k for the broadcast. Also a bitrate of 10k is too high for a 1080p 30 stream, cb will give errors about it being too high, the correct bitrate for 1080p 30fps is between 5000-8000, 10k - 16k is the bitrate you would need for 1080@60 or 4k 30.

Op if you need to check bitrates here is the cb setup page that has all the info on setting up your stream.

https://support.chaturbate.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037971952-How-do-I-set-up-OBS

So with the settings you recommended, isn't he still having problems? Unless I misunderstood something, it's still pixelated.

OP try my suggestion anyway.

 

[KingMarti]

So with the settings you recommended, isn't he still having problems? Unless I misunderstood something, it's still pixelated.

OP try my suggestion anyway.

Your sugsstions will cause an error. The settings are wrong.

Op hasnt come back to say if it solved the issue, but looking at his settings and the issue, that is the issue, but the issue that he has is that the video feed is being downscaled and then the downscaled image is being upscaled, that is why it is pixelated.

 

[Squinkle]

Your sugsstions will cause an error. The settings are wrong.

Op hasnt come back to say if it solved the issue, but looking at his settings and the issue, that is the issue, but the issue that he has is that the video feed is being downscaled and then the downscaled image is being upscaled, that is why it is pixelated.

Yes, which I also recommended matching all 3 to the same setting, but a lower FPS than you recommended because I do not believe his system can handle 60 fps.

If my suggestion causes errors (which is highly unlikely as I run these settings on my own three simultaneous streams without issues) it still is no worse a suggestion than anything that's been mentioned here, as all suggestions haven't fixed the issue so far.

OP, I still recommend trying my suggested settings. No harm in trying.

I won't argue my suggestion any further to other posters.

 

[KingMarti]

Yes, which I also recommended matching all 3 to the same setting, but a lower FPS than you recommended because I do not believe his system can handle 60 fps.]

it can, without issue. The bitrate you said to set is what will cause the stream to error. The correct bitrates are in chaturbates docs.

If my suggestion causes errors (which is highly unlikely as I run these settings on my own stream without issues) it still is no worse a suggestion than anything that's been mentioned here, as all suggestions haven't fixed the issue so far.

Op hasnt posted an update, so I dont know why you are saying the issue hasnt been fixed, Also the issue he is having is 100% due to upscaling from 2k to 4k, it's doubling the size of each pixel that is why the image looks pixelated, that is the issue that op was having. if it was a bit rate or an encoding issue the stream would lag and glitch out. Pixelation is a resolution issue.

 

[cbhours]

wait i missed the ops other post some how, you set all 3 resolutions to 1080p and it still looks bad? his obs stats indicate that he is having no performance issues.

edit: you checked your stream on another device? i remember a long tme ago i saw a situation where someone saw slightly different video on their computer vs the obs preview window but that was years ago and i cant remember what the culprit was but it was just on their own machine.

 

[KingMarti]

wait i missed the ops other post some how, you set all 3 resolutions to 1080p and it still looks bad? his obs stats indicate that he is having no performance issues.

edit: you checked your stream on another device? i remember a long tme ago i saw a situation where someone saw slightly different video on their computer vs the obs preview window but that was years ago and i cant remember what the culprit was but it was just on their own machine.

Also completely missed that post. It's defiantly a resolution issue, not a performance issue, otherwise the cam would be lagging out and the bit rate would crash.

@couple962 can you take a screenshot with your updated settings.

 

[couple962]

Hi everyone,

I genuinely appreciate everyone's help! We streamed last night with a little better success (I joined our stream on a laptop to watch), but it appears something is still missing. I took your advice and set everything to 1080p / 60fps and lowered the bitrate from 28,000 to 12,000-16,000 (I kept playing around with it). I think the smoothness from going from 30fps to 60fps made improvements, but for whatever reason the CB stream is about 60-70% quality of the OBS preview.

I checked the network data after our 2 hour stream and there weren't any dropped frames due to network/rendering/encoding lag (fortunately!)

I had to give my Nvidia RTX 3080 back to my friend, but I have an old Nvidia GTX 1080 that I could pop in to replace the AMD RX 6800 if you think the Nvidia encoder is better despite being a much older and slower card.

Here are the latest settings:

Thank you SOOO much to everyone!!

 

[cbhours]

i actually dont have very much experience with the amd encoder, you could try the software encoder and see if that looks better i dont know anything about how well the amd encoder works. Are you testing using recordings or the live broadcast?

 

[KingMarti]

Hi everyone,

I genuinely appreciate everyone's help! We streamed last night with a little better success (I joined our stream on a laptop to watch), but it appears something is still missing. I took your advice and set everything to 1080p / 60fps and lowered the bitrate from 28,000 to 12,000-16,000 (I kept playing around with it). I think the smoothness from going from 30fps to 60fps made improvements, but for whatever reason the CB stream is about 60-70% quality of the OBS preview.

I checked the network data after our 2 hour stream and there weren't any dropped frames due to network/rendering/encoding lag (fortunately!)

I had to give my Nvidia RTX 3080 back to my friend, but I have an old Nvidia GTX 1080 that I could pop in to replace the AMD RX 6800 if you think the Nvidia encoder is better despite being a much older and slower card.

Here are the latest settings:

Thank you SOOO much to everyone!!

View attachment 103382

View attachment 103383

View attachment 103384
View attachment 103385

the AMD card should be better than a 1080, the 1080 doesn't support nvenc encoding as far as I know it's too old from what I remember.

it could be Chaturbate crushing the bitrate of the stream when viewers see it to save on bandwidth costs. of you have another site you are setup to cam on I would try it there to see if you get the same issue.

the other thing it could be is the video format you are using. I'm not familiar with nv12 so not sure how that might effect the quality. Changing the video format would be the next thing I would proberly try


ETA:

theres an obs thread with recommended settings for the camlink, i think its the original but it might help troubleshoot the issue:

Cam Link optimized settings for OBS Studio

Recommended settings (With 1080p60 input) Resolution: 1920x1080 FPS: 59.94 Format: YUY2 When using Cam Link to capture video as well as audio, there may be no audio captured. To fix this, there are two methods: Capture HDMI audio from Cam Link...

obsproject.com

The recommend video format they have is YUY2 which has a bigger color space than nv12, so it could be thats the issue if its not the upscaling.