Viewers complain about buffering or stuttering video

When you stream live, as a rule, some viewers will have problems. It may be due to many things, but the most common reasons if it works well for most are:

Streaming quality

If you stream with higher quality, more people are affected by problems. Lowering bitrate is a safe way to minimize problems even for those with weak connections. Learn more about live streaming settings here.

3G/4G Connection

Viewers who are mobile connected are more likely to have problems than those with fixed ones. Even if you have a good connection, the performance varies over time with the number of users on the same cell and what they do. If you are moving in a car or train, you jump between cells and get a completely different performance for each jump. The only thing you can do is lower the stream’s quality so that more people can handle it.

WiFi connection

Today, most almost take Wi-Fi as a guarantee that you would have a good connection. In fact, many Wi-Fi networks are unreliable and quite bad. Besides, they vary with the other users’ load, so it is far from a predicable. If possible, you should always use a cable!

Encoder connection

The same thing mentioned about mobile and Wi-Fi connections above applies, of course, also to the encoding side – it is important to make sure that you have an extremely reliable and strong enough connection where you stream from. Expect to have at least 10 Mbps available to stream at 3 Mbps to have appropriate marginals.

Encoder performance

The right settings for the right hardware. Something that pops up relatively often is interference due to overloading the hardware. Encoding video is heavy, and it’s pretty easy to overload your hardware. Examples of this are OBS Studio – poor quality, stuttering, freezing