Bitrate is one of the most important settings in OBS and determines the quality viewers experience. Here's how to set it correctly and how it relates to StreamTranslate's caption system.
Try StreamTranslate FreeBitrate in live streaming refers to the amount of data your stream sends per second, measured in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps). Higher bitrate means more data is used to encode each second of video, which translates to higher visual quality — sharper images, smoother motion, fewer compression artifacts. Lower bitrate compresses video more aggressively, which can cause blocky artifacts, smearing in fast-moving scenes, and generally degraded image quality.
Both video and audio have separate bitrate settings. Video bitrate is the dominant factor in stream quality, typically ranging from 2,500 kbps for 720p30 streams to 8,000 kbps for 1080p60 quality content. Audio bitrate is typically 128-320 kbps using AAC encoding — a small fraction of the total stream bandwidth but important for sound quality.
Platform bitrate limits are a practical constraint. Twitch caps standard streamers at 6,000 kbps and allows Partners up to 8,000 kbps. YouTube Live accepts up to 51 Mbps for very high quality streaming. Your internet upload speed is the ultimate ceiling — if you have 10 Mbps upload, you can't sustain a 12,000 kbps stream. A rule of thumb is to use no more than 70-80% of your upload speed for streaming to leave headroom for other network activity.
An important technical detail for StreamTranslate users: stream bitrate does not directly affect caption quality. StreamTranslate captures your microphone audio directly via the OBS browser source's Web Audio API access — it captures the raw audio signal from your microphone input before encoding, not from the compressed audio in your RTMP stream.
This is actually a significant advantage. Even if you're streaming at a low audio bitrate (say, 96 kbps AAC) for bandwidth reasons, StreamTranslate is still receiving your uncompressed microphone audio for transcription. Deepgram Nova-2 ASR processes this high-quality source audio, resulting in better caption accuracy than if it were transcribing compressed stream audio.
What does affect caption quality is your microphone quality and setup — the physical audio source before any encoding. A good microphone with proper gain staging, noise suppression enabled in OBS, and clean audio source will produce better caption accuracy than a built-in laptop microphone with background noise, regardless of stream bitrate settings.
1080p60: 6,000 kbps on Twitch. 720p60: 4,500 kbps. Audio: 128-320 kbps AAC. Check your specific platform's documentation for exact recommendations.
StreamTranslate captures raw microphone audio before encoding, so your stream bitrate has no impact on caption accuracy. Microphone quality matters more.
Keep your total stream bitrate at 70-80% of your upload speed to maintain stable streaming without packet drops that cause buffering for viewers.
Bitrate is the amount of data transmitted per second, measured in kbps or Mbps. Higher bitrate means better video and audio quality in your stream.
For 1080p60 on Twitch, use 6,000 kbps. For 720p60, 4,500 kbps is sufficient. Always check your specific platform's recommended bitrate settings.
No. StreamTranslate captures raw microphone audio before encoding, so stream bitrate doesn't affect caption accuracy. Your microphone quality matters more.
Audio bitrate for streaming is typically 128-320 kbps using AAC. For speech and caption accuracy, 128 kbps AAC is fully sufficient.
No. StreamTranslate captures audio directly from your microphone via the OBS browser source, not from the encoded stream. Low stream bitrate doesn't affect caption generation.