Stream Quality

[R.A.T. Army *MST3K*]

I had a viewer come into my stream today and ask why I was broadcasting at 1080p and 3000kbit/s. I said that's what I've always done.

He told me that 1080p stream requires 8.5 Mb upload speed, 8500kbit/s. And that I should just do 720p and do either 3000kbit/s or 3500kbit/s. Is any of that true? I stream a lot and have never had anyone tell me that before. I also don't understand a ton about how stream quality truly functions.

I'd like my stream to look the best it can, but is setting it to 1080p a waste of time? Can it make it look worse as it struggles to shove that kind of quality through an insufficiant kbit/s? I've got pretty good internet, I thought I could handle 1080p, but can Steam?

As of right now I've been broadcasting in 1080p 3000-3500kbit/s and have the encoding set to best performance.

[Genesis]

That viewer didn't know what he was talking about. It'd make sense if you were streaming in 1080p60, but you're not.

Keep in mind that some people can't handle 1080p so the best option to satisfy those with low-end computers is to stick to 720p. Performance encoding will make your stream a bit pixelated but will use less CPU while quality encoding will make the image crystal clear as long as you've set a sufficient bitrate (2000-2500kbits for 720p, 3000-3500kbits for 1080p). Also, it's better if your stream resolution is equal or bigger than your in-game resolution otherwise the downscaling will make text blurry.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2853702

[R.A.T. Army *MST3K*]

Hey thanks for the info, really helpful stuff here. I've been considering for a while knocking my stream down to 720p and 3000 kilobytes a second just to attract more users to the stream, and my corresponding steam group.