FFmpeg is a free and open-source command-line tool for recording, screencasting, and live streaming. It’s suitable for video game streaming, blogging, educational content, and more.

FFmpeg links your device (e.g, a laptop or a PC) to different streaming platforms (e.g., Gcore Video Streaming, YouTube, Twitch, etc.). It takes an image captured by a camera, converts it into a video stream, and then sends it to the streaming platform.

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Setup

  1. Install FFmpeg on your device. Follow the download instructions on the official website.

  2. To get the server URL and stream key, go to the Streaming list, open the Live stream settings you need, and copy the relevant value from the URLs for the encoder section.

For example, if you see these values on the Live stream settings page:

Concatenate them to form the full RTMP URL for the stream:

rtmp://vp-push-ix1.gvideo.co/in/400448?cdf2a7ccf990e464c2b…
  1. Open the command line interface (CLI) on your device and run the following command:
ffmpeg -f {input format params} -f flv {RTMP URL}

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Configure the stream parameters for optimal performance

We recommend configuring the stream parameters you will send to our server to ensure optimal streaming performance. You can adjust these settings via the CLI parameters of FFmpeg.

Example of a command line for streaming via FFmpeg with the recommended parameters:

ffmpeg -f {input format params} \
  -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -b:v 2000000 \
  -profile:v baseline -vf format=yuv420p \
  -crf 23 -g 60 \
  -b:a 128k -ar 44100 -ac 2 \
  -f flv {RTMP URL}

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Output parameters

  • Video Bitrate: To stream at 720p resolution, set the bitrate to 2000Kbps (-b:v 2000000). If you’re broadcasting at 1080p, set the bitrate to 4000Kbps (-b:v 4000000).
  • Audio Bitrate: 128 (-b:a 128k).
  • Encoder: Software (-c:v libx264), or any other H264 codec.
  • Rate control: CRF (-crf 23)
  • Keyframe Interval: 2s (-g 60).
  • CPU Usage Preset: veryfast (-preset veryfast).
  • Profile: baseline (-profile:v baseline -vf format=yuv420p)

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Audio parameters

  • Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz (-ar 44100) or 48 kHz (-ar 48000).
  • Use Stereo for the best sound quality (-ac 2).

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Video parameters

If you need to reduce the original resolution (downscale), follow the instructions in this section. If no resolution change is required, you can skip this step.

  • Output (Scaled) Resolution: 1280×720
  • Downscale Filter: Bicubic
  • Common FPS Values: 30