Troubleshooting livestreaming

There are many potential issues with livestreaming and below you find a list of common problems and solutions. Please also refer to our recommended livestream settings for optimal quality.

If you experience livestreaming issues and using our livestreaming service you can get error codes displayed in our platform. These codes are described on livestreaming errors with potential solution for each issue.

Non-smooth movements - low frames per second

Problem: picture is not smooth when there are fast movements
Cause: low framerate (30fps or lower)
Solution: We recommend to use a framerate of 50-60 frames per second for high speed sports content. For news related content with less sudden movements a framerate of 30 frames per second can be enough. Only proper testing can help you find the right frame rate.

Freezing picture - error in your encoder

Problem: image is constantly freezing and very jerky
Cause: problem with your encoder/hardware
Solution: Try to restart the encoder as a first step and see if the output signal from your encoder improves in quality. If there is still a problem, try a different encoder or adjust the settings to a lower resultion (if you are streaming 1080 resolution try 720 instead, etc) to fix this issue.

Frequent black-outs - wrong keyframe interval

Problem: frequent blackouts where the livestream stop playing
Cause: incorrect keyframe interval
Solution: Adjust to a 2 second keyframe interval. For content with 60 frames per second this means one keyframe every 120 frames and for content with 30 frames per second means one keyframe every 60 frames.

Jumping picture - interlaced content

Problem: Objects are "jumping" forward
Cause: input signal is interlaced
Solution: Switch to progressive. Interlaced video is being use on the traditional broadcast TVs but is not suitable for delivering video on the internet. We do not support interlaced video and you can see more on our recommended settings. When you have interlaced content moving objects will "jump" forward. Examples of interlaced formats include NTSC and all formats specifying 1080i60. The i stands for interlaced and instead you should use a 1080p30 format which stands for progressive and is the correct setting for delivering video on the internet.

Losing the stream - poor bandwidth

Problem: your input bitrate to Flowplayer is lower than your target bitrate
Cause: poor quality of connection
Solution: Switch to a lower target bitrate / resolution. It is common for wireless connections to vary in quality depending on the usage. For example a stadium where there are a lot of people can experience problems and degradations in the wireless capacity if many people use their cell phones. The same goes for WLAN connections. Please always check Speedtest to validate that your connected is 3x the required bandwidth.