Dropped frames
If your broadcasting software is telling you that you’re dropping frames it’s either due to your broadcasting hardware + software not being able to render frames fast enough, your network connection does not support streaming at your chosen bitrate, or your Owncast server is unable to ingest the frames fast enough.
In general some dropped frames are perfectly acceptable and expected. However a continuous drop of frames consistently while you stream means something needs to be optimized either on your local broadcasting computer’s hardware, software, network, or on the Owncast side.
Some of this information is adapted from the OBS Dropped Frames Guide so you will likely find that complete document helpful as well.
Check your Owncast server hardware utilization
Visit the hardware usage page in the admin to see how your server’s resources are performing.
If your CPU is maxed out on your Owncast server viewers will see buffering, as the server can no longer keep up. If this is what you’re experiencing the first step is to resolve excessive hardware utilization.
Check your broadcasting software
Make sure your broadcasting computer is broadcasting live video reliably. If your own computer or network connection is having a hard time getting video to the internet then viewers will be stuck in a buffering state. Reduce the bitrate, resolution and/or framerate in your broadcasting software on broadcasting device if needed.
Take note of any dropped frames and investigate what’s causing those drops. Is it your local CPU or GPU? Is it your local network? Or is it the Owncast server dropping them due to hardware usage?
If, for example, your GPU on your broadcasting computer is maxed out then it can’t keep up rendering frames. If you’re using OBS, one way to determine this is look at the “Stats” in the application and see if you’re experiencing any “Rendering Lag”.
Try lowering your bitrate and/or framerate
The next thing to do is lower the bitrate and/or framereate on your broadcasting software until the dropped frames stop. Network conditions aren’t always the same from day to day, and what worked yesterday isn’t guaranteed to work today. Sometimes there’s just not much else you can do except lower bitrate to compensate for the poor connection at the given time.
The fewer frames of video that needs to be processed result in less hardware resources that will be used to process them. You can reduce both the framerate of what you send to Owncast and the framerate sent out to the viewers.
Drawback: Reducing the framerate may visibly decrease the quality of your stream for some content.
Read more about video encoding and quality.
Drawback: Reducing your video quality may visibly decrease the quality of of your stream for some content.
Don’t stream over a wireless connection
In many cases, wireless connections can cause issues because of their unstable nature. Streaming really requires a stable connection. Often wireless connections are fine, but if you have problems it’s a very good change to make.
Speed Testing
Speed tests are a very rough estimate - they mean very little with regards to streaming. Just because a speed test says you have 5Mb/s upload doesn’t mean you can upload to anything at a stable 5Mb/s. That’s just not how the internet works unfortunately. You’re never guaranteed to be able to maintain a stable connection to a server if the server or routing points to the server are unstable. Your “stable” bitrate is more likely about 70-75% of your “estimated” speed test upload (and that’s only if you’re not being throttled). If anything, a speed test will tell you the theoretical maximum speed that you could stream at under perfectly ideal conditions, but conditions are never perfect.