Troubleshooting Streaming Issues

Live Streaming is a bandwidth-intensive operation and a few problems can arise. Most of them relate to one of two issues:

  1. Not enough network bandwidth to stream in the desired quality
  2. Not enough CPU power to stream in the desired quality

If you are experiencing problems with your stream, including choppy/intermittent video or the stream buffering/stopping/starting, we recommend the following steps:

  1. First, go to www.speedtest.net and check your download and upload speed. The upload speed is particularly important. Anything under 5 Mbps is probably going to be difficult to stream with.
  2. Next, go to your Live Streaming software and check your upload bit rate. If you are using OBS, this is under Settings > Output > Bitrate. Note that the OBS bitrate is expressed in Kbps, while the speedtest bitrate is in Mbps, so just divide the OBS bitrate by 1000. In other words, if your OBS bitrate is set to 1000 Kbps, you are broadcasting at 1 Mbps. Compare your upload speed from the speedtest check to your OBS bitrate. If your bitrate is close to or greater than your upload speed, you are going to have trouble broadcasting. The output bitrate will change a bit, spiking up and going below the desired setting, so you want to have plenty of headroom in order to be able to get your stream out.
  3. Usually 1000 Kbps (1 Mbps) is a good setting to use for streaming. It is small enough that your upstream can probably handle it, and high enough quality that it will usually still look good. If you go much higher than 2500 Kbps (2.5 Mbps) for your bitrate, your users may begin to have trouble downloading (viewing) the stream consistently due to their own bandwidth limitations.
  4. If you are using a wireless connection to stream, try running a cable to your streaming computer if at all possible. All wireless connections are less reliable.
  5. If all of these things fail to produce a consistent result, consider the processing power of your computer and possibly try a different computer to see if it helps with the broadcast.