Quality Explained

General information that you want to know and understand going into IRL Streaming

Introduction:

Going in, there are several factors you need to know about stream quality, which all work together for or against the quality of your stream.

• Platform

• Bitrate

• Resolution

• Framerate

• Overheating Devices

Platform Limitations:

Believe it or not, the platform/website you choose to stream on does affect your stream quality. Virtually all sites set maximums on resolution and bitrate. Ever notice that nobody is streaming in 4k on Twitch or Kick? That is because they have set maximum resolutions and bitrates which prevent streamers from doing so as a way to control costs. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the limitations of the platform you are using. This typically is found by searching something like "kick.com bitrate" or "twitch.tv bitrate" on Google. You want to stream as close to that as possible, without going over, but also at a realistic bitrate for your connection.

Bitrate:

Bitrate, or the rate at which you are uploading data, is the most important thing to know and understand with IRL streaming. If you have poor bitrate settings, your stream will pixelate, your stream will stutter, 'F' (freezing), and be considered unwatchable - even if it is the best content in the world - and you will lose viewers.

Luckily, with apps like IRL Pro and Prism Live Studio, you have the option of streaming with Adaptive Bitrate, which dynamically raises and lowers your active bitrate based on the current connection while you are streaming.

So in settings, you want to select the highest bitrate that the platform supports, and enable adaptive bitrate. If you're seeing consistently that you're set to 6000 bitrate for example, but you're usually actually at 4000 bitrate for example, it is a good idea to lower your target bitrate to what your device supports most of the time, though this is not required if adaptive bitrate is enabled.

Note: Platform restrictions can be somewhat bypassed with a streaming server. For example, I typically stream on Kick.com, where the bitrate recommendation is 6000. My streaming server always streams at 1080p60 6000 bitrate. However on my phone, I'm actually streaming 1080p60 ~10000 bitrate, which is what my server has incoming, and then scales down the bitrate, which ultimately looks a little better than if the device stream was 6000. If you have a streaming server, you want to be in the highest resolution with the highest bitrate possible going into the server.

Resolution:

Your resolution should always be in line with your bitrate. 720p video will generally look better than 1080p video with the same bitrate because it has fewer pixels to render. If your device, connection, and platform support it, obviously 1080p video will look better than 720p video, but learn what to expect with trial and error.

In a more extreme situation where bitrate is highly limited, like 200-600, you could even lower the bitrate down to 360p even, because a working stream is better than a non-working stream. This is something I have personally done in situations with major crowds or in extremely isolated areas with extremely poor connection.

Further, a trick that IRL streamers do, including myself, is streaming in faux 1080p60. This is accomplished by always streaming in 1080p60 from a streaming server, and then dynamically changing the actual device resolution and bitrate to what is actually supported on the ground. If I lower my device to 720p or even 360p, that goes to the server, is stretched/upscaled, and then appears on the platform as a 1080p60 video.

Framerate:

Everyone wants to stream at 60 FPS, even though it is not entirely necessary. You have to remember, at 60 FPS, you are literally doubling the amount of frames from 30 FPS, which means double the pixels, double the data, double the bitrate, etc. If you can support it, do it, but if you're seeing issues with bitrate, you have to decide your preferences. For example, would you prefer 1080p 30 FPS or 720p 60 FPS?

Some apps even support Adaptive Framerate on top of Adaptive Bitrate, where you can set it to do 60 FPS when possible, but lower it as low as 15 FPS if the bitrate is going down too much.

If your device is overheating, this also can directly affect the framerate. This was a notorious issue with the Samsung Galaxy S21 line of devices.

Overheating Devices:

In some situations you may have noticed or may notice your framerate dropping significantly, becoming choppy, but not the typical bitrate version with buffering. This is typically because the device is too hot and is limiting the framerate outside of your control. Typically there isn't much you can do about this, other than to cool the phone down. I strongly recommend a phone cooler mount from Recommended Accessories as the best way to deal with these issues.

There are two Android device settings that can help with this as well, though they have a minimal impact.

• Ram Plus - Disable this in settings to prevent the phone from creating and using virtual ram.

• Limit Background Processes - Google and enable Developer Options, go to the Developer Options menu, find the entry for Background Processes, and set it to a maximum of 4 Background Processes. This will limit what can run on the phone at one time.

The Bottom Line:

The real bottom line is this, quality does directly impact your viewership and the experience your viewers have. Nobody is going to stick around if the stream is laggy, choppy, and unwatchable. That's just the reality of the situation.

However, quality does not automatically mean you will get more viewers. You can be in 8k, but if the stream is boring, has no interaction, has no content, people still aren't going to watch it. You can be in 480p, but if the stream is solid, not laggy or choppy, and is actually entertaining, viewers will be interested in what is happening even if it isn't high quality. You would just have a higher potential to get more viewership with better quality in that situation.