Thread: upload speed and bitrate required for 720p pc streaming?

Hey.

I'm gonna upgrade my internet to something that has better upload speed, and currently only one i can find to my house without getting optical fiber costing 2k is 24 download 3 upload (max speeds ofcourse -.-). So, if i plan on playing lets say, TF2 on pc, 1280x720 resolution with scrcap with same resolution 30 fps, and hopefully without downsizing it, how much bitrate would i need for it, and if streaming at that bitrate, would ping and gameplay be smooth still? If not smooth enough, how much would i need to downsize the size to get bitrate lower to get better ping? Of course im talking about if i am actually getting the 3 mbps uploadspeed, but knowing local internet providers... not.

Hopefully somebody will answer

It really depends on your hardware as much as your internet. If your hardware can't handle the encoding it will drop frames. A 3mbps upload speed is just fine for casting. You will most likely end up using only 700-2000 kbps anyway.

Anyways, it also depends on the codec you will be using. VP6 has a lot of room for you to mess around in terms of bitrate speeds. It is mainly because the codec excels in fast motion casts. I honestly would recommend you absolutely stick with VP6 if you plan to do a 720p cast. h.264, however, is just fine if your CPU can't handle VP6. You will need a much higher bitrate for this compared to VP6 though (to avoid the pixelation during fast motion).

So the summary is...
VP6 = Bitrate can vary pretty highly, depending your preference. Much more recommended for high resolution casts. Excels in high frame transition casting. More CPU-intensive.
h.264 = Bitrate needs to be pretty high to make a 720p cast look good. Does not excel in high frame transition casting. Less CPU-intensive.

Well this would help. FLASH CALCULATOR this has helped me with my shitty internet. my cast is better then before i would have to say. But when i go online with my 360 it lags and i lag but when i cast anything with out internet so like a show or anything on my PC its fine. The kbps from that site i didn't use i used 650 for my own video but the ratios/grid helped me. You want to choose a ratio thats "best". Swift also cast at 950 so for 720 just make it like 1500.

I know Multiboxing has 3 cast his best is at 5000 kbps second is 3000 i think and low is something idk. But i think its sometimes up to the caster and them testing. But keep in mind u want to have your output resolution HIGH. If u need help when your ready just send me a PM and i'll help.

Thanks for good replies guys.

I totally forgot about which encoding to choose, VP6 or H.264. Now i'm feeling VP6 is the way to go, but i guess i will have to see that when i'll get my new internet, with a test of some racing game.

That flash calculator looks like a really useful tool, i will have to play around with it when i'll get my internet. For now i just wanted to know that the 3 mbps upload is sufficient enough for good high quality cast.

I'll post here my feelings when i get it.

I think if your cap is 3 mbps up, then you should not go over 2, streaming tends to have spikes in bandwidth output and you dont wanna drop frames. 2000 seems fair, its not going to be crystal clear but it will be clean. Good luck!

Originally Posted by x4ryuusei

It really depends on your hardware as much as your internet. If your hardware can't handle the encoding it will drop frames. A 3mbps upload speed is just fine for casting. You will most likely end up using only 700-2000 kbps anyway.

Anyways, it also depends on the codec you will be using. VP6 has a lot of room for you to mess around in terms of bitrate speeds. It is mainly because the codec excels in fast motion casts. I honestly would recommend you absolutely stick with VP6 if you plan to do a 720p cast. h.264, however, is just fine if your CPU can't handle VP6. You will need a much higher bitrate for this compared to VP6 though (to avoid the pixelation during fast motion).

So the summary is...
VP6 = Bitrate can vary pretty highly, depending your preference. Much more recommended for high resolution casts. Excels in high frame transition casting. More CPU-intensive.
h.264 = Bitrate needs to be pretty high to make a 720p cast look good. Does not excel in high frame transition casting. Less CPU-intensive.

I think you got your codecs mixed up, it should be the other way around, H.264 is much more CPU intensive than VP6. H.264 looks much better than VP6 on lower birates, VP6 needs a really high bitrate to look good and not a garbled mess when there's any sort of motion.

Today i got mail from the internet provider that they have gotten my order. Now its 2-3 weeks max (they have some subcontractors on both their side and my current providers side working in my town, so it takes really long for them to get the job done).

About the question, is 1500-2000 with VP6 enough for clear picture, and ping low enough for multiplayer gaming?

medium quality 720p requires at least 2000+kbps of bandwidth, and thats medium motion. the video box is 640x360 and you want your viewers to talk in the chat, so isn't casting above 640x360 actually counter productive?

You got a point there. What is the best way to resize the resolution? If i select 1280x720 in vhscrcap and then resize with vhscrcap itself, or resize it when it goes to FME?

use fme to resize it, fme already has the process the video, just make sure you choose a game window size thats a match to fme input resolutions,

Originally Posted by Vixtro

I think you got your codecs mixed up, it should be the other way around, H.264 is much more CPU intensive than VP6. H.264 looks much better than VP6 on lower birates, VP6 needs a really high bitrate to look good and not a garbled mess when there's any sort of motion.

I'm certain that VP6 excels in high frame transition casting. Read about it quite a bit in a few guides such as Multiboxing's. I've seen a lot of instances where I recommend a codec switch from h.264 (depending on the person's bitrate/hardware) and it looks superior afterwards (in terms of motion). h.264 running at a low bitrate for a high res cast will produce terrible results in comparison to VP6.

About the CPU usage, you may be right because I am mainly referring to how FMLE 3.0 handles it. Threading for VP6 is terrible at the time, (unless you run 2.5) and it absolutely will drop more frames than h.264 depending on your hardware.

Originally Posted by x4ryuusei

About the CPU usage, you may be right because I am mainly referring to how FMLE 3.0 handles it. Threading for VP6 is terrible at the time, (unless you run 2.5) and it absolutely will drop more frames than h.264 depending on your hardware.

VP6 doesn't support multi-core processing in FME 2.5. FMLE 3.1 has the multi-threaded variety of VP6.

the frame drop is dependent on what your quality settings are and your datarate window, a smaller window will use less bandwidth but have more drops over all, though i had a cast with like 15k dropped frames after a couple of hours because i had it set to tiny, and no one in my chat said anything about it and when i asked how was the quality they all said it was nice, maybe even nicer then h/264, but i have since switched to small datarate window and i barely get dropped frames