Nowadays people rely on communicating via discord as the platform offers various features starting from video calls to screen sharing. Joining different servers and talking to a lot of people at the same time attracts the users to download the discord app.
As the platform is entirely server-based, selecting a distant server can cause the shared screen to get pixelated. Fulfilling the minimum requirements and ensuring a strong internet connection can resolve this issue.
Why does the Shared Screen on Discord get pixelated?
Discord is a server-based communication platform. If a person doesn’t select the closest server to his location then there will be delays and stutters in video chat, voice calls, and screen sharing.
Picking the farthest server will contribute to the shared screen being pixelated. Most of the time bad internet connection, high ping with the server, and incompatible hardware are the main reasons why the shared screen gets pixelated.
Discord also limits users to 720p 30 fps screen sharing if the user does not have “nitro” which is their premium service. All of these contribute to the shared screen getting pixelated.
How do you fix this pixelated screen problem?
The pixelated screen problem is mostly a user-side issue. The problem can be fixed by the user with the help of some tweaks.
1. First, the user will need to check if the user meets the minimum requirement to stream at the desired resolution. If the minimum requirement doesn’t match then it can be a reason for the shared screen being pixelated.
2. If the hardware meets the minimum requirements then the user will need to check his or her internet connection and see if the internet at least has 20 megabits of raw download and upload speed.
3. If the user’s device meets the 2nd criteria then he or she must go to discord settings and go to the voice & video tab and disable hardware acceleration.
4. Then the user should also check if he or she has a good ping with the voice channel or not. The ping can be seen by keeping the mouse cursor at the server region name. The user needs to make sure he has ping below 100ms to get a good video quality without any stutters.
If all of the steps above are done correctly then the pixelated problem should be fixed.
Why is discord pixelated during screen share?
As discord is a server-based communication/social media platform, most of the time voice calls, video calls, and screen shared-related problems are due to the user having a bad connection or incompatible hardware.
The server region also heavily contributes to the pixelated screen share issue. When a user connects to a discord server then the server shows information called ping. On the internet when we visit a site or use an app we connect to a server and send some packets.
These packets take time to reach the server and then the server sends information in packets to our device through the internet. So, the ping describes the time for the packets to reach the servers and then come back to us.
If the server the user connects to has a high ping then there will be stuttering and delays. Also, there will be packet loss which also contributes to the pixelated screen share and the video dropping frames.
Why does the discord shared screen bitrate suddenly fall?
In discord when a user is connected to a channel and sharing their screen or showing their screen in a call, they have to send packets to a server in a certain location.
If the user has a bad internet connection or the server that he is connected to is very far from his location then he will have a high ping with the server. This ping is the time for the data packets to reach the server and then come back to the user’s pc.
If a server is far from the person who is sharing the screen then there will be high ping and packet losses which will cause the bitrate to suddenly fall and the video will stutter and it will also be pixelated or turned down to a lower quality.
A really bad computer and router/modem is a good reason why the bitrate might fall. Having a bad router can cause slower speeds in the local network and cause the internet to slow down. This causes the bitrate to fluctuate a lot.
Does enabling hardware acceleration fix the issue?
Hardware acceleration is a feature that allows discord to use a good amount of the user’s graphics card/ graphics processing unit. This allows discord to use H.264 for encoding and decoding videos and use the graphics processing unit but there is a downside to this.
Having an average or bad graphics processing unit will have a negative effect rather than a positive effect if hardware acceleration is turned on. So, no hardware acceleration does not always fix the issue but if the user has a really good graphics processing unit then hardware acceleration helps fix the issue.
