How to set up OBS for Wavezoo: Quality Guide

OBS Studio or Open Broadcaster Software is a video recording program that allows you to make tutorials, record your PC screen, make webinars, but most important, allows you go live stream on several platforms such as Youtube, Twitch…, and Wavezoo.

How to setup OBS for Wavezoo

As a general suggestion we suggest using a LAN cable connection instead of a WiFi, but in case you cannot do differently, please disconnect any device from the WiFi during the streaming to not overload the Internet network.

Now, first things first. Open OBS. You can do this in two ways:

How to get general stats and important data while streaming

OBS has a few ways to indicate if you are having a problems with streaming like droping frames, or showing important data like CPU usage. This is important to enable the stats and keep them visible (you will see later why).

To get Stats:

1. Go to View > Docks > Stats.
2. Now, double click on the bar as shown by the double circle (5) and move it onto the panels side:

This way you will get general meaning of stats and important data:

It is also important to maintain CPU under 60% and maintain the dropped-missed-skipped frames at the lowest possible.

How to setup Output settings in OBS

Choosing the best encoder configuration is important in order to stream with the best possible quality:

1. Go to Settings (1) in the main interface.
2. In the Output Menu (2), select Advanced (3).

Depending on your computer hardware, you may want to enable hardware encoding. Enabling hardware encoding will reduce CPU usage, but may result in slightly lower visual fidelity.

Choose Encoder

Each online video platforms come with different encoder setting requirements. This is because each platform uses different technology to bring streams to life.

If you do not have hardware that supports hardware transcoding, or you want higher visual fidelity, choose the x264 option.

Under the same Output menu, you will see Encoder. Depending of your hardware there will be different options:

For Intel PC with Nvidia Video Card:

1. NVIDIA NVENC H. 264 (new) – Best made for Nvidia RTX cards.
2. NVIDIA NVENC H. 264 – Good usable with Nvidia Cards.
3. QuickSync H. 264 – Medium uses i3/4/5 Intel CPU graphic.
4. x264 – Basic uses CPU.

For AMD Cards and Apple:

• H264/AVC Encoder (AMD Advanced Media Framework) – similar to NVENC.
• Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder  – similar to QuickSync.
• Apple VT H264 Software Encoder  – similar to x264 but has some incompatibility sometime.
• Encoder H.264 AVerMedia (c985) – similar to NVENC requires an external hardware but has some incompatibility with OBS.

Now you will be wondering how to choose the right one for you. Each encoder has different settings:

For NVIDIA NVENC (Preset)

The general rule here is more quality = less performance, so be careful if the video is starting to lose frames. If so, reduce the quality.

For QuickSync (Target Usage)

These are shortcuts set on top:

• Balanced = medium.
• Quality = veryslow
• Speed = veryfast.

Here the concept of speed is the same of performances of the NVENC so more speed less quality and vice versa. If you want to reduce the lag set Latency to ultra-low and a Rate Control to LA_CBR. Keep in mind that the GPU will work more.

For X.264 (CPU Usage Preset)

The concept here is that faster =  more performances = less quality. Keep an eye on CPU% usage.

For H264/AVC Encoder (Quality Preset)

Has 3 quite clear selections:

• Quality
• Balanced
• Speed

Apple VT (Sw and Hw)

Has no special setting dedicated to it.

Choose wisely depending on the CPU Stats, if you lose frames on CPU section it means that your CPU/GPU needs to breathe and so you should reduce the quality/improve the speed.

If the network loses frames your computer is producing more data than your Internet connection can support, so you should reduce the bitrate or the quality to permit a smoother video.

In nearly every case should be ok a Profile high, in worst cases you can still act on this and reducing it in case of slow hardware.

Bitrate and Rate Control

For BitRate we suggest using 5000Kbps, but if you start to overload the cpu or to lose frames, you can lower it, 2000 Kbps will be enough. The following table gives you a rough guide to the bitrate you can use.

	Video Bitrate	Audio Bitrate	Resolution
1080P	6,000Kbps	128Kbps	1920×1080
720P	3,000Kbps	128Kbps	1280×720
480P	1,000Kbps	128Kbps	854×480
360P	600Kbps	96Kbps	640×360
240P	300Kbps	96Kbps	426×240

Another settings:

• Rescale Output should be disabled.
• Rate Control Method: CBR.

For X264 users, we suggest to leave Tune to (None) but if your CPU is still overloaded you can set it to zerolatency:

If your connection is very slow or unstable you can try the following setting, but keep in mind that it will increase the lag between you and the party host:

How to setup Video settings in OBS

To have less workload on your PC keep in mind that you should have the same settings in Video section: the same resolution on Base and Output but if there is a glitch, reduce this resolution on both sides.

As FPS we suggest something between 24 (speed) and 30 (quality), depending on your hardware.

If you have a good PC and a bad Internet connection, you can think about rescaling to a lower resolution than the Base to reduce the band usage.

How to setup Audio settings in OBS

The Audio setting is simple. Here it is the suggested settings for Audio:

1. Go to Settings in the main interface.
2. Select Audio.
3. In General:
   1. Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz.
   2. Channels: Stereo.

Depending on the selected track, we suggest setting an Audio Bitrate between 128 and the maximum, this to increase the audio quality (if there is a band problem it should be reduced).

The bits will increase the usage of your network so always be monitoring the network behaviour in the Stats panel and you can modify it if there in an issue.

How to setup the Webcam in OBS

If you have a very good webcam, but your PC or your network cannot support it, a solution could be going to webcam properties:

1. Add Video Capture Device (1). Create New > Select Webcam.
2. We suggest setting Resolution/FPS Type to Custom and:
   1. Set the Resolution equal to the Base Resolution in Video properties as shown in the video settings
   2. Set the FPS to the most similar setting.
3. Press Ok.

¿Are you ready to start the party?