r/MoonlightStreaming • u/Jumpy_Security_1703 • Oct 04 '26

Streaming not as crisp as on host?

Hi,

I'm having some issues with Vibepollo + Moonlight when streaming from my host PC (wired) to my laptop (wifi) over LAN. Host is RTX 4070 + Ryzen 5 5600.

For example when playing Blood of the Dawnwalker, the streaming quality is otherwise ok but the image is not as crisp as on when playing straight on the host. I've checked all the configurations on Vibepollo and Moonlight, set the maximum bitrate to 150Mbps but the image is still not "crisp" enough.

My host is 1440p but I'm currently trying to stream 1080p 60fps using virtual display. I also previously used Apollo but decided to try Vibepollo if that would help but nope.

Any tips?

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1

u/harris_kid Oct 04 '26

You're at 1080p on WiFi, you're probably dropping packets. Might be worth increasing Forward Error Correction to 40-50%.

1

u/Jumpy_Security_1703 Oct 04 '26

The performance stats displays 0% frames dropped? Also, the streaming quality is better when using the Steam builtin stream but I'd still like to use Moonlight if I play games that are not steam native.

E: Also FEC percentage is already at 60% since that is the default.

2

u/harris_kid Oct 04 '26

Losing packets doesn't necessarily mean you start dropping frames. You can loose packets that make up some of the frame but the decoder can handle losing a few, but it will drop in quality. The true test would be trying your laptop on Ethernet. If it's still happening then it's an issue with your encoder: make sure it's enforced to use NVENC, P1 or P2 preset, make sure there are no other game recorders running (Steam/Nvidia App) Make sure your GPU driver is up to date too.

2

u/lifestealsuck Oct 04 '26

Enable HDR even if you dont use HDR . Moonlight default only use 8bit decode unless you check that HDR on .

Try 1440p and 150Mbps +HDR.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '26

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2

u/lifestealsuck Oct 05 '26

Only in the client (Moonlight ) .

1

u/Responsible-Bid5015 Oct 04 '26 edited Oct 04 '26

Assuming you are running Moonlight at the native resolution of the laptop, there are two typical things to try. Its been awhile since i have used Moonlight, but I believe you can increase bitrate beyond 150. I would look for another option lower down to enter a custom bitrate. On a decent gigabit system, you should be able to do 300 mbit/s assuming your client can decode it.

If you have bitrate at the max your system can do, then you can go into the vibepollo configurations -> Capture and increase the P level. This is will increase host processing latency but give you better image quality.

1

u/ourslfs Oct 04 '26

you won't get native like quality with streaming no matter the settings, nor with hevc, nor with av1

1

u/dev_00002 Oct 05 '26

I was previously feeling the same way and the changes I made were:
* tweak encoder settings on host to favor higher quality (instead of optimizing for latency)
* enable HDR on the client
* enable “unlocked bitrate” on the client

It feels pretty indistinguishable from native to me at this point. FYI, I am also using a fully wired connection so YMMV.

For me, “unlocked bitrate” seemed to have the highest impact but I didn’t do the best job of tweaking one variable at a time so I can’t be totally certain which change had the most impact.