“The Livepeer and MistServer teams share a conviction that the world’s most scalable, affordable, and reliable open video infrastructure should be paired with the world’s best open video software.”

For 15 years, MistServer has led the industry with its highly customizable and lightweight, deployable media server. Built on an open source core since its founding, we are thrilled to announce that MistServer’s full featured code-base is now free and open source.

The wide range of deployments and use cases of MistServer will continue to be served, just as you’ve grown to rely on. Only now, the former Pro and Enterprise versions are part of the free, open source release.

Going forward, MistServer will be joining the rapidly expanding suite of Livepeer Video Services. Including, a direct integration that leverages the distributed transcoding superpower of the Livepeer network.

Highlights of the open source 3.0 release include:

The entire suite of Pro-only features is now free and open source

Generic MKV-based process for easy integration with practically any other software

Massive latency reduction (previously 1-2 sec, now 2-3 frames end-to-end)

 from its founder, Jaron Viëtor.

Download, explore, and deploy MistServer for free!

Download

Built on an open source core since its founding, we are thrilled to announce that MistServer’s full featured code-base is now free and open source.

MistServer is now fully open source

Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) is an open source video transport protocol developed by Haivision, that excels at providing stable streaming at relatively low latency. Although SRT is primarily used in broadcasting and corporate environments, SRT is increasingly becoming popular for all kinds of streaming over the internet.

Before going into more details on why the SRT protocol is gaining more adoption compared to the more traditional transport protocol such as RTMP and RTSP, let’s take a brief look at where it fits in the context of live video streaming.

Here is a simplified process of how live streaming works:

Source used for broadcasting video and/or audio

Compresses the raw data from cameras and/or microphones for easier transporting across the internet

Compresses the encoded data to smaller sizes and different formats to be more accessible across different types of devices

Converts and repackages transcoded data as needed to be available for different types of formats chosen to view the video

Quickly distributes the content provided by the media server from the nearest location requested by the viewer

Decodes the data from the CDN and displays it for viewing

SRT is part of the transcoding process that delivers the data to the media server. Due to the nature of data getting transferred constantly in different variations, maintaining the optimum quality from the original source is very important.

There are features in SRT that assists in maintaining high quality data when transferring them.

Here are some unique features provided by SRT that help preserve the quality of data that is being transferred.

The ability to configure the time to synchronize to multiple feeds

The ability to set and adjust the bandwidth

Reconstruct NAK(Negative Acknowledgement) packages to provide a smoother experience

More adaptability by being codec agnostic for audio and video


We like SRT not only because it’s being actively maintained and is open-sourced, but also because SRT is designed to be highly stable and perform well in unpredictable network conditions by adapting to real-time network conditions. Another important aspect is that it also provides for security for the content distribution by using AES encryption.

Simply put: more reliable video means happier viewers.

SRT is still relatively new and not as widespread as RTMP, which means that you can’t stream SRT into popular live-streaming sites like Youtube, Twitch, and Facebook. Livepeer supporting SRT means that your streamers can stream SRT and get all the stability and security improvements that it was designed to deliver.

SRT streaming is simple to use, sign up for a free account at 

Currently, we provide a RTMP ingest URL like the following example:


rtmp://rtmp.livepeer.com/live{stream-key}

To use SRT transport method, simple replace the RTMP ingest URL with:

srt://rtmp.livepeer.com:2935?streamid={stream-key}

Another easy option is that the SRT ingest URL is located right under the RTMP URL in the Livepeer Video Services dashboard. If you are using the SRT URL from the dashboard, there is no need to provide the stream key as it is already included.

Below is an example of using SRT with OBS

Paste in the SRT ingest URL from Livepeer Video Services. 

Note that {stream_key} should be replaced with the given key, e.g. 56g6-xcd1-toox-w70z

SRT is free to use for all accounts. For more information to get started using SRT, check out our documentation. Here is more information on getting started using SRT in 

, also check out our documentation. Happy streaming!

Read SRT docs

Livepeer Video Services supporting SRT means that your streamers can stream SRT and get all the stability and security improvements that it was designed to deliver.

Livepeer Video Services now supports SRT

Thanks to your regular feedback, our team is introducing one of the most requested features for your video streams and applications: multistreaming.

The new Multistream API allows a source stream and transcoded renditions to be pushed to multiple destinations, such as Facebook, Twitch, and Youtube. Plus, there’s easy-to-use webhooks for 

Get started with our docs

Consumer-ready restream and multistreaming products are in high demand as live video streaming proves to be a critical revenue channel for content creators. The more destinations, the bigger the audience, the better, right?

There aren’t many developer platforms that let you build with and put multistreaming in your applications. Today, Livepeer is changing that.

Simple and self-explanatory, just like the rest of Livepeer’s APIs and features.



2.  Select any stream or spin up a new one
3.  Find 

of a destination, like “Twitch”
5.  Paste in its 

provided by the destination platform
6.  Lastly, select a resolution you’d like to stream, or leave as 

Rinse and repeat for each destination that you’d like to make available to stream.

Today, multistreaming is available for anyone with a Livepeer account, for free. The feature may require a paid subscription in the future, but for now we want you to kick the tires and let us know what you think!

Our inbox is always open at 

Build Multistreaming into your apps

We’re excited to announce that we’ve completed a total redesign of our Livepeer.com dashboard. The changes make it easier for users to find and manage their streams, understand active stream performance, and improves the overall look and feel of the dashboard.

Here are the biggest changes we’ve made:

See your Livepeer Video Services account all in one place - your new Dashboard Home Page

The redesign introduces a Dashboard Home page, which features quick links on how to get started with Livepeer.com, usage and billing information, and active stream management. This home page is the new center of the Livepeer.com dashboard experience.

Find and manage streams and stream sessions

In our old dashboard, it was difficult to sort streams and sessions, which made it time-consuming to find MP4 recording URLs and other stream information.

In our redesign, we created a new single session view that allows users to view session information without needing to click into individual streams, making it easier to find MP4 download links. Since sessions are created each time a user streams, the new view makes managing active and recently active sessions much easier, as they all appear on one page.

We’ve also added a search and filter functionality, to both the stream sessions page and the streams page, to make finding individual streams and sessions faster. You may filter sessions by name, created date, and duration. Streams can now be filtered by name, created, last seen, and status.

Understand how an active stream is performing with fewer clicks

To make determining if your stream is working properly easier, we’ve added a player with your source stream and transcoded renditions right into the stream page. By clicking into “View Stream Health” on the top, right-hand side of individual stream pages,  you’re now able to monitor playback quality and session ingest rate with one click. That said, if going directly to our 

 and copy-pasting a “Playback URL” into that page is preferred, that workflow will continue to be available.

On this page, we’ve also added an “Actions” button at the top right corner of the stream information page, allowing users to quickly set stream-level preferences like suspending a stream or setting a stream recording preference. We’ve also added a “Feedback” button at the top right-hand corner of all screens that makes it easier to share feedback directly with our team at Livepeer in just a couple of seconds - we look forward to hearing your feedback!

If you haven’t already, log in and take a look at our new dashboard. We’re excited for you to use it!

Have any feedback about the new dashboard? Want to give us feedback on any other part of our product or service? We’d love to talk to you — 

New Dashboard for the Livepeer Streaming API 

Our lives, from meaningful life events like birthdays, weddings, and baby showers, to work meetings, 

, have moved online this year. With change comes an opportunity to innovate - and that’s what we have done collectively as a world society amidst a global pandemic.

At Livepeer, we understand the increasing importance of capturing these meaningful moments, both for individuals and for companies riding this wave of digital innovation. We are therefore proud to announce the release of Livepeer Video Services stream recording, a feature much requested and anticipated.

This recording feature provides all Livepeer API and dashboard users with a .m3u8 and an MP4 link to an adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) recording of their completed livestream. Playback is delivered via Livepeer.com's CDN by default.

To take advantage of this newly released feature, check out the guide below. The first section is for Livepeer Video Services users who create streams using the Livepeer Video Services Dashboard directly. The second section is for those who use the Livepeer API.

Please note: If you are using recording and OBS, be sure to change your keyframe interval to 2.

Using the Livepeer Video Services Dashboard to record streams

If you’re using the Livepeer Video Services Dashboard to 

, enabling recording is as simple as checking the 

 toggle in your individual stream page. The URL for your individual stream page should look something like this:

https://livepeer.com/dashboard/streams/12345678-ab40-429d-a714-0e0fd4ab0abc.

 toggle is located immediately below the 

 section. You can also change the settings by using the "Actions" button at the top of the page. When 

 is switched on, future streaming sessions will be recorded and stored by Livepeer Video Services. The session recording playback URL will be available about 5 minutes after the live stream ends and will appear in the session table at the bottom of the stream page.

If you do not have a Livepeer Video Services account or an API key follow step 1 in this 

Before learning how to make a simple API request to turn recording on for streaming, we need to understand the Livepeer API 

 object is a single live streaming session.

 object shows the configuration and metadata totals of all its 

 means that new sessions are not recorded

 means that the session is actively being recorded or was recorded.

 means that the session is not being recorded or was not recorded.

To create a new recording-enabled stream:

, and details about which video profiles or renditions you’d like to transcode your stream into. See step 3 in this 

Sample response of stream with recording turned on:

To enable recording for existing streams:

 value is inherited by all future child-session 

To check if recording is enabled on an existing stream:

 object. A common use case is to request all recorded sessions with the same 

. For example, a user generated content (UGC) video platform may create a 

 object for each UGC live streamer and then want to show an archive of all recorded livestream sessions for each live streamer.

The playback URL for a livestream session recording will not be available until approximately 5 minutes after the livestream has ended.

Once the recording is ready, the session 

 parameter will return the .m3u8 recording playback URL. Additionally, the session 

 will return an .mp4 recording playback URL. 

The recording playback URL will look something like this: 

https://region-cdn.livepeer.com/recordings/<id-of-stream-session>/index.m3u8

. View the live stream with any HLS video player.

For more detailed information on stream recording or to ask any questions, share your thoughts, or make any kind of suggestion, feel free to get in touch at 

Livepeer Video Services New Stream Recording & MP4 Download Features

In this tutorial, we will dig in to the tips and tricks with tools as a follow up of our tutorial 

but not seeing streams play back. We will explore this in depth to help debug the errors.

For the livepeer.com UI, you’ll find your playback URL on that specific stream’s page. The URL to that stream page should look something like this: livepeer.com/dashboard/streams/7d91a8d4-c9df-45e3-abe3-dcdeb26ab2aa.

If you’re using the API directly, take a look at 

 on finding your playback URL by combining a base URL with a playbackId. If you don't know your stream playbackId, you can retrieve it via a GET request to the stream endpoint, followed by the stream’s id: 

Once you have access to a video player in your own application, or to a test player you typically use, determine what issue you’re having when loading the playback URL into the player:

Is the video not playing in your application or player at all? Go to step 3.

Is the video playing, but the quality is poor? Go to step 6.

If you don’t have a player you’re testing with, or if the issue is happening in a player you don’t have access to, go onto the next step.

Step 3: Test Playback URL in the Livepeer Test Player

. If you get a "Stream not found" error, confirm that your URL is correct. It should look something like this: 

https://cdn.livepeer.com/hls/123456abcdef7890/index.m3u8

Step 4: Determine Video Playback Issue in the Livepeer Test Player

Once you load your Playback URL into the Livepeer Test Player, does anything play back?

Yes, the quality of video is great in the Livepeer Test Player, but not in my own player: Go back to step 1 and check if you are using the correct playback URL in your own application or player. If the URL is correct, there may be something wrong with your player configuration.

Yes, but the quality is poor: Go to step 6.

Check the stream status below the Livepeer.com test player. Is it active?

Confirm your or your streamer’s broadcast software RTMP configuration is set up properly. If you are using OBS to stream into Livepeer, check out steps 4-5 in 

 and make sure all looks correct on your end.

Step 6: Check if Transcoding is Happening

Is there only one profile listed next to Playback settings below the Livepeer.com test player?

No: If two or more profiles are listed, go to the next step.

Yes: You are not transcoding your source stream and not taking advantage of Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR). Only the source profile is available for playback via the Livepeer.com CDN.

Make sure your broadcasting workflow is stable - the RTMP stream hitting Livepeer's ingest server seems to be having issues.There may be something wrong with your source stream. If you can, set the keyframe interval to 2 in your/your streamer’s broadcasting software. Try ensuring a stronger internet connection at the source via a wired ethernet connection or by broadcasting on a more reliable network. If the resolution, FPS and/or bitrate of the source stream is very high and if your internet bandwidth is low, playback will be slow and choppy. Consider transcoding your livestreams.

: see addendum to learn about curling your playlist to extract information from your playback URL directly.

Step 7: Check Profiles FPS (for API users only)

 to the Livepeer API stream endpoint with your stream-id to check the stream’s profiles. Do all of the profiles have the same FPS?

No: Your profiles' FPS is configured incorrectly. To fix that, create a new stream and set all profile FPS to the same value. For best performance, set them between 5 FPS and 60 FPS. Setting FPS to 0 is also acceptable and passes through the source FPS to the transcoded renditions.

Step 8: Check Source Stream in Livepeer Test Player

Go back to the Livepeer.com test player and make sure your playback URL is loaded.

The left player shows your source stream, as served by the Livepeer.com CDN with the transcoded renditions via the playback URL. This player is configured to only playback the highest resolution available. Except for in rare occasions, the highest resolution is the non-transcoded source stream i.e. the stream sent from your broadcast software.

Compare the source video in the left player with the transcoded renditions in the right player. On the right player, you can manually switch between transcoded renditions by clicking on the ⋮ symbol in the lower right corner of the player. Does the transcoded video on the right player show more problems than the source video on the left player?

No: If you can confirm both the videos on the right and left have similar issues, there is something wrong with your source stream. If you can, set the keyframe interval to 2 in your/your streamer’s broadcasting software. Try ensuring a stronger internet connection at the source via a wired ethernet connection or by broadcasting on a more reliable network. If the resolution, FPS and/or bitrate of the source stream is very high and if your internet bandwidth is low, playback will be slow and choppy.

Yes: If you created your stream via the Livepeer.com API, confirm your profile bitrate settings are reasonable by checking this 

. If they are, reach out to Livepeer.com for further help, 

Addendum for Advanced Users: Extracting information from playback URLs using your terminal

 on important parts of the video playback experience. The HLS and Manifest Files sections are especially relevant.

An easy and quick way to make sure video is being ingested into Livepeer and transcoded is to curl your Livepeer playback URL in your terminal. Example: `curl 

https://cdn.livepeer.com/hls/6a35pdxxxxxxxxxx/index.m3u8

`. You could use this curl command to replace steps 6 and 7 in the above debugging guide.

If curling the playback URL outputs an error, make sure you are streaming video into the RTMP ingest URL that matches the region of your playback URL, and go back to step 1 of this guide to continue debugging.

We’ll break down what a non-error response means below, but it should look something like this:

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=2650912,RESOLUTION=1792x1120,FRAME-RATE=30,CODECS="avc1.640028,mp4a.40.2"

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=539704,RESOLUTION=1280x800,FRAME-RATE=29.97,CODECS="avc1.4d4020,mp4a.40.2"

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=256352,RESOLUTION=854x534,FRAME-RATE=29.97,CODECS="avc1.4d401f,mp4a.40.2"

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=222792,RESOLUTION=640x400,FRAME-RATE=29.97,CODECS="avc1.4d401e,mp4a.40.2"

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=179976,RESOLUTION=426x266,FRAME-RATE=29.97,CODECS="avc1.4d4015,mp4a.40.2"

The response is a list of rendition “manifests”, which tells a player what different streams and corresponding resolutions/bitrates are available for playback (read 

 for more background info on resolutions/bitrates). The player then uses the list to select the most appropriate stream to display.

Each line starting with `EXT-X-STREAM-INF:` represents a different rendition. If you take a look at the first one, you’ll see that that rendition’s resolution is `1792x1120` and its FPS or frame rate is 30. We can see that this source stream is being transcoded into 5 different renditions that all have the same FPS, with give or take a .03 of a difference.

What did you think of this guide? Get in touch with any thoughts or questions at 

Debugging Stream Playback Issues

Welcome to Livepeer Video Service's first video tutorial. In the following video clips, you'll learn how to create an account, create your first stream object, install and setup OBS, stream into the Livepeer network, and watch your Livepeer-transcoded video. We'll be following our 

. It is recommended you have that open as you go through the video clips below.

The videos below show our previous Dashboard. The steps should be roughly the same, but you'll see something different if you follow along. We're currently working on updating this! 

Step 1: Create an account on Livepeer Video Services


Step 2: Verify your Livepeer Video Services account


Select RTMP ingest and playback URL pair on the stream page:

Thanks for watching our streaming video tutorial! We'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to us at 

 with thoughts, suggestions, and any questions you might have.


Video Tutorial : Stream into Livepeer for the First Time

 and have even tried interacting with our 

.You’ve tested Livepeer.com’s transcoding infrastructure first-hand, and see how it instantly enables video on any platform. You’ve decided you’d like to integrate Livepeer.com into your app. Now you’re wondering … well, what else do I need to know? What adjacent 

 software and features does Livepeer.com support?

Before we begin, keep in mind that Livepeer Video Services is constantly evolving, adding new features, and enabling new integrations. As we continue growing, we’ll keep this blog post and our support matrix with similar information current. Feel free to reach out with any questions, suggestions, and thoughts to hello@livepeer.com.

Let’s start at the beginning - ingest support

 located in Germany (Frankfurt) and the United States (Chicago). You’ll see these referenced in the RTMP ingest and playback URL pairs when you 

 on livepeer.com. For best performance, broadcasters in or around Europe should select the Frankfurt endpoint, and those in the Americas the Chicago endpoint.

We support RTMP, H264 + AAC streams and several broadcasting 

 - OBS 25.0.8, ffmpeg 4.3, and Streamaxia. Though we haven’t tested the following encoders, we are happy to support integrations with Xsplit, other versions of OBS and ffmpeg, and other RTMP encoders. We don’t support WebRTC and SRT encoders at the moment.

 to successfully send through Livepeer.com, we recommend sticking to resolutions up to 1080p and frames per second (fps) of 24, 25, 30, 60, uniform across all renditions. Reach out if you have a different use case here - we’re happy to chat about other resolutions and fps you might be interested in.


Finally, and very importantly, we recommend you stick to constant GOP sizes of 2s to 8s. GOP size is also called “

” on broadcasting software like OBS. The length of a GOP, or group of pictures, refers to the number of frames between two intraframes or I-frames. An I-frame contains all data needed to display that frame and generally, the more i-frames a video has, the higher the quality and larger the size of the video.

As with ingest, we have transcoding clusters in Europe and the United States, support H264 + AAC codecs, and transcode video into similar resolutions and frame rates.

 that enable a variety of features. At Livepeer Video Services, we support the Baseline, Main, and High 

. Profiles ensure compatibility between encoder and decoder devices - they essentially ensure that all involved can handle specific features supported by the profiles. A baseline profile generally supports a more basic set of features, as the name suggests. Main and high profiles are typically used for web streaming and high-quality broadcasting.

Once you’ve transcoded your video through Livepeer, you should expect to be able to watch your video as an m3u8 HLS playlist in a number of different 

. At Livepeer Video Services, we’ve tested with and support 

. For a detailed guide on how to integrate with THEOPlayer, take a look at our 

. Though we haven’t tested them internally, we’re happy to work with you on integration with 

At the moment, we’re seeing end-to-end 

 of 10-18 seconds in the EU and US with good RTMP ingest health, 2s segment size, and standard 3 segment buffering in player.

Finally, paying users can take advantage of CDN delivery and custom Livepeer Video Services CDN setups.

We hope this information was useful! At Livepeer Video Services, we’re building the future of video transcoding services, and can’t do that without your input. Please let us know what you think, tell us what you’d like to see us support in the future, reach out with any questions, and let us know how we can help by emailing us at hello@livepeer.com.

Software and features Livepeer supports

If you’ve been looking to integrate a video player with Livepeer Video Services, you’ve come to the right place. This is the first of a series of posts that will guide you in integrating Livepeer.com with a video player of your choosing. On this post, we’ll be using THEOPlayer to stream using Livepeer Video Services.

 and click on the “Get Started” button in the “Web Browsers” section. You’ll be redirected to a login page. Click on the “Connect with Github”, “Connect with Google”, or click the “Sign up now” button at the bottom and follow the prompts to create an account.              

Once you’ve created an account and are logged in:

select “SDKs” on the left-hand side of the page

name your SDK what you’d like, click next

Blog

Welcome to the Livepeer.com blog.

Livepeer Video Services now supports SRT

MistServer is now fully open source

Livepeer Video Services now supports SRT

Build Multistreaming into your apps

New Dashboard for the Livepeer Streaming API

Livepeer Video Services New Stream Recording & MP4 Download Features

Debugging Stream Playback Issues

Video Tutorial : Stream into Livepeer for the First Time

Software and features Livepeer supports

How to Integrate Livepeer in a Web App using THEOPlayer

Your First Livepeer Stream in Under 5 minutes

How to Stream With Livepeer Video Service's RTMP API

Ready to get started?