Stream has Dropped Frames or Jitters

Introduction

There are three main culprits for dropped frames or jitters in a live stream. The most common is internet connection issues. High CPU usage can also cause problems with a live stream. Additionally, in rare cases schools have encountered a bug in Wirecast where the template gets corrupted and causes dropped frames and jitters.

Internet Issues

To check and see if the internet connection is the culprit visit striv.speedtestcustom.net and ensure the upload speed is above 3 Mbps. More detail on this in our article dedicated to internet speed.

High CPU Usage

We recommend CPU usage remain below 80% for most of the stream, short spikes of CPU usage over 80% are normal. If CPU usage is consistently over 80% for minutes at a time your stream can suffer because of it. To reduce the CPU usage see our article dedicated to reducing high CPU usage.

Wirecast Error

The error that causes dropped frames and jitters is very rare and usually occurs after upgrading from Wirecast 7 or older to Wirecast 9 or newer. Unfortunately the only available solution is to completely rebuild the Wirecast template. To do this quickly see our article dedicated to quickly rebuilding a Wirecast template.