Brand new streamer! Streaming help needed

Ambidextrous · 25 Feb 2021 at 16:36

Hey guys,

I've bought my streaming camera, my capture card (I'm going to stream ps4 games to Twitch using Streamlabs OBS)

I'm just now realising that my computer (laptop) may not be powerful enough. It's a Lenovo ideapad 320s - 8gb ram, integrated video card.

I've played with the bitrate / resolution settings on streamlabs, but basically whenever I stream to Twitch, it lags badly (as in, the stream does, not the capturing or display on streamlabs)

Is this purely down to CPU power / integrated video? Any other suggestions I need to try before buying a new PC to stream with?

Also, I just need something to stream one game at a time with. Is it worth buying a dedicated tower / PC in order to do so? And if so, have you any suggestions?

Farex · 25 Feb 2021 at 16:43

Techically you dont need a capture card to stream - are you using that to record as well / at the same time as streaming?

Here is a page with pretty much all of the info you will need to get a PC to stream with:

https://www.logicalincrements.com/articles/streaming

Ambidextrous · 25 Feb 2021 at 16:53

Broadcasting gameplay directly to Twitch from PS4 doesn't allow for a webcam overlay and you're only able to save clips on the PS4 for a maximum of 60 minutes, it also complicates importing the video to PC for video editing purposes and uploading to YouTube

dan958 · 25 Feb 2021 at 17:29

Are you dropping frames via OBS, or is your net just not good enough for the bitrate you are trying to stream as?

You can always downscale to 720p 30fps, and see if that makes a difference.

What bitrate are you using?

Ambidextrous · 25 Feb 2021 at 17:31

I have a 300mb line which usually averages around a 250dl and 50ul and is really consistent, I did drop down to 720p / 30fps and it helped the stream considerably, but it still lags.

I tried 12000 bitrate, dropped down to 2000 and again, 2000 helps a lot, but is far from perfect?

Ambidextrous · 25 Feb 2021 at 18:37

Here's my internet speeds:

10 ping ms
252 mb download
53 mb upload

Here are my OBS settings (lowered drastically, in order to improve stream lag)

Video bitrate 1750 (reduced from 12000)
Encoder Software (x264)
CPU Usage Preset veryfast

My laptop:

Lenovo ideapad320s
Windows 10
8gb RAM
Core i5 8th Gen
Integrated Video Card

My current set up is this:

PS4 + Gaming Monitor - both connected to Elgato HD60s capture card.
Capture card connected to Laptop via USB.
Logitech C922 connected to Laptop via USB.

Am I going to need to buy a more powerful machine to run a simple PS4 > Streamlabs OBS > Twitch stream with good quality / no lag?

PS. Tried inserting images, didn't work, can't delete the tags.

Please help!

Thanks,
Dex

StarShock · 3 Mar 2021 at 08:51

Hello, can't just insert images, they need to be hosted somewhere, many people use https://imgur.com/

My guess is between the 8gb of ram and the i5 your laptop may be struggling a little. Try changing the preset to superfast, and upping then bitrate to about 3000. Should reduce CPU load without too much loss of quality. Failing that you could try using the quicksync encoding instead of x264, which would leverage the integrated GPU, its not as good visually, but much lighter on resources.