streamers attention question
streamers attention question
Hello
I recently got my new monitor, an ultra-wide 25-inch screen with 1440p resolution. I have a 1080ti processor and a Ryzen 3600. I have a few questions for streamers who might be able to provide detailed advice.
1) I tested streaming two games. The first was Path of Exile in 21:9 aspect ratio, using a 6k bit rate at 893p. It ran for about two hours without issues—quality was good, sharp enough, no noticeable lag (though I saw one drop briefly, possibly due to map loading). Then I tried streaming AC Oddessey. I adjusted settings from medium to very fast presets, using NVMe cards with bit rates from 6k down to 4k. Even at lower resolutions, the game became choppy, laggy, and pixelated, while my own performance remained smooth. I’m wondering what settings would work best for streaming between 1440p and 893p. I know my current rig isn’t powerful enough for 264 or 1440p, but I’d like to achieve at least a decent 893p ultra-wide stream.
2) Can you stream in ultra-wide format on YouTube? It worked perfectly on Twitch, but on YouTube it just displayed black bars around the image.
Assassins Creed Odyssey is an extremely demanding CPU game. You should restrict your in-game frame rate to ensure sufficient system resources for streaming.
It's okay if it's not constantly running, but I'm curious about the overall settings for streaming on a wide screen.
It's usually preferable to adjust sizes using whole numbers... for instance, resize by 2 or 3.
Also, contemporary video encoders perform optimally when the dimensions are multiples of 8 or 16; internally they adjust these values to 8 or 16, so you rarely notice the black or green lines during decoding as they're removed.
If you capture at 2560x1440, apply a bilinear or bicubic resize to 1280x720.
For 3440x1440, use a resize to 1720x720 and either stream accordingly, set your output resolution to 1920x720, or center content within the viewing area using black bars on the sides. Alternatively, use the 1920x-720=200px guideline for webcams, announcements, etc. The 80px at the bottom can serve as space for announcements, tickers, text, or links.
Resizing by half is more efficient in terms of CPU usage than using irregular ratios, and it reduces rounding inaccuracies. With half-resizing, the process averages colors over two pixels—while other methods may require larger steps (3 pixels or 2.5 pixels) to achieve similar results. This leads to approximation errors frame-to-frame, causing the codec to waste more bits and degrade image quality.
Don't aim for ultra-high resolutions; most viewers tolerate reasonable sizes like 720p. Many streamers broadcast at 960x540 or 900p without issue. Particularly with lower bitrates (4–6mbps), smaller resolutions maintain better quality than larger, blocky ones.
Also, most viewers watch streams in browsers with scrolling chat and other elements, often using 1080p displays. Your video is typically resized to under 1600px wide, which suits this setup.
If you have a 3440x1440 resolution, another option is to set a custom resolution in your video card settings (e.g., 3072x1440). The monitor will display it with subtle black bars on the sides.
This lets you resize by whole numbers like 3, achieving 1024x480—ideal for low bitrates (2–3mbps) and compatible with most platforms.
Alternatively, consider these adjustments:
- Resize to 1280x600 if you go up to 2.4
- Resize to 1536x720 if you go down to 2
- Resize to 1920x900 (pad to multiple of 8) or 904px for compatibility
- Resize to 2048x960 (but stick below 1920 for broader support)
These ratios avoid decimals and minimize rounding issues. Some games might not accept unusual aspect ratios like 2.133, but they usually adapt the resolution anyway.
Thanks, will give it a try. I think I used 1720x720 and then I'll stick to round numbers if you say it's better. Also, I don't want any black bars affecting the ultra-wide screen experience I really enjoy. With my gigabit connection (around 900 download and 800-900 upload), I can handle higher bitrates, though I'm not sure if my PC will cope. I just don't understand why someone with 1080p and 8700k streaming on a GPU (NVMe) uses 12k bitrate works so well—even with 100mb internet, 6k barely works for me.