Why Is My Stream Blurry? (The BPP Explained)
You have a 1080p webcam, a powerful PC, and fast internet. Yet, when you move in-game, your stream turns into a blocky, pixelated mess. Why? The answer is Bits Per Pixel (BPP).
What is Bits Per Pixel?
Think of bitrate like paint. You have a bucket of paint (bitrate) to cover a wall (resolution). If you have a huge wall (4K) but only a small cup of paint (low bitrate), the coat will be thin and patchy. That "patchiness" is the pixelation you see on stream.
The Quality Checker above uses the "Golden Formula" of streaming:
BPP = Bitrate / (Width × Height × FPS)
How to Fix Blurry Streams
- Increase Bitrate: This adds more "paint" to the bucket. If you stream at 6000 Kbps, try getting closer to the platform max.
- Lower Resolution: This makes the wall smaller. 720p looks sharper than 1080p if you don't have enough bitrate to support 1080p.
- Lower FPS: Streaming at 30fps instead of 60fps doubles the data available for each frame!
The Twitch Limitation
Twitch caps non-partners around 6000 Kbps. At 1080p 60fps, this results in a BPP of 0.048, which is considered "Low Quality" for fast-paced games like Apex Legends or Call of Duty. This is why many top streamers choose 936p (1664x936) resolution—it hits the sweet spot of high quality within the 6000 Kbps limit.
Ideal BPP Values
- 0.10: Excellent Quality (Indistinguishable from source).
- 0.07: Good Quality (Standard for most streams).
- 0.05: Acceptable for chatting, poor for racing/FPS.
- Below 0.04: Noticeably pixelated and blocky.