The professional ProHD Encoders for streaming live and on demand video.

The portable ProHD Encoders are ideal for video streaming for a variety of video input types and having the ability to simultaneously stream to multiple destinations, event live in HD, SD, with the most popular compression formats H.264, H.265 HEVC, FLV, AVI, Mpeg, Mpeg2, Mpeg4, WMV, MOV, 3GP. Dibview and OTTOPTV Encoder for streaming video are professional products for the transmission.

A streaming ProHD encoder is not itself an online streaming destination. Generally, you need to set up your live streaming destination separately. A ProHD streaming destination could be a live video platform like YouTube or Facebook Live, a CDN like Kaltura, or a streaming server such as WOWZA. However, many encoders allow direct streaming to viewers on the local area network.

Streaming ProHD encoders come in all shapes, sizes, and feature sets. Here are some of the key features that set streaming encoders apart.

Lots of simultaneous encoded streams and destinations

With advanced enough streaming encoders, you can easily push any one of  encoded stream to multiple destinations. Generally speaking, compact and less expensive devices can encode one stream and stream to one destination, whereas more powerful encoders can encode lots of separate videos and stream each to multiple destinations simultaneously.

The Types of live streaming destinations

ProHD Streaming media encoders without streaming destination limitation, which can go live to YouTube, Facebook Live, Twitch, whereas ISE08 advanced streaming encoder are able to stream to virtually any streaming destination. Before connect to an encoder, user need to double check its streaming destinations and how many streams it can encode at once. Additionally, some streaming encoders are integrated with CDNs for easier access.

The Streaming protocols

Streaming protocols are methods of delivering the live stream to the destination. The job of a streaming protocol is to decide how to cut up the video feed into chunks and deliver it online. 

Moreover, some protocols are better suited for sending video online or to a CDN for further distribution, while others handle delivery of video to viewers on the local network. Additionally, some of the more recent streaming protocols are capable of adapting to the end user's available bitrate. This is called adaptive bitrate streaming. Let's run through some of the most popular streaming protocols available on ProHD Streaming encoders today.

RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol)–RTMP is one of the most widely used streaming protocols today. Many popular CDNs like Facebook Live and Youtube accept RTMP streams from encoders. For protected streaming, a protocol called RTMPS is used (the last S stands for Secure). This protocol encrypts the stream before sending it out, making it a good choice for secure streaming. RTMP is very robust and universally supported, however, it only works with certain codecs.

RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) – RTSP is a network-control protocol, it is often used with IP cameras and local streams. Viewers can copy and paste the URL of the RTSP stream into a media player and watch the stream on the local network.

MPEG-TS –very low latency protocol, great for LAN streaming directly to viewers.

MPEG-DASH –one of the more recent protocols. Offers adaptive bitrate streaming, works with virtually any codec, and is used by major broadcasters.

HLS (HTTP Live streaming) – this protocol was originally developed by Apple in order to bypass using Flash on i-devices. Today, it is one of the most popular methods of delivering live video to the end user because it’s supported by nearly every browser, operating system, and even Smart TVs. HLS is robust, scales well, offers adaptive bitrate streaming, however there is significant delay in transmission, rendering it unusable for interactive live events.

Video Compression (codec optional)

In order to be streamed online, video has to be the first optimally compressed. Codecs are compression methods that make this possible. Codecs use different methods of video file compression: some work faster, some are able to create smaller overall files, but the compression technology is always evolving and moving forward. Here are some of the most popular codecs used by ProHD Streaming encoders today:

Motion JPEG (MJPEG)

MJPEG compresses individual still frames and has a “low CPU cost” of encoding/decoding. However, it requires more bandwidth than some other codecs. Additionally, MJPEG doesn’t support audio. It is most often used to stream surveillance footage or other video that doesn’t need live audio.

H.264 does not start compressing every subsequent frame from scratch. Instead, it looks at previous frames for changes. If pixels haven’t changed – H.264 just reuses previous data, thereby saving a lot of resources. Higher picture quality requires not only a higher bitrate, but is also more CPU resources. If you have enough of both however, the video will look great.

H.265 is the next generation of codecs after H.264 (uses same compressions principles). It promises identical quality to H.264, but at half the bitrate (which decreases the bitrate requirement for a given quality). Compared to its predecessor, H.265 has greater accuracy and uses a wider range of frame prediction tools.

The Bitrate

Bitrate describes how much data is transmitted per given much of time. The higher the bitrate – the higher the image quality. Such as , to achieve a quality high resolution stream (e.g. 4K, 8K), the bitrate has to be high. Bitrate is commonly measured in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps). On various streaming encoders, bitrate settings can range from 1000 Kbps to 30000+Kbps. For example, the minimum bitrate recommended by YouTube for 4K streaming is  35000–45000 Kbps.

Available streaming bitrate depends not only on the device’s physical limitations, but largely on the available network bandwidth. The device may be able to stream at 20000 Kbps, but if your network connection only allows for 5000 Kbps uplink speed, the final video will not be great, no matter how good the encoder. Many Streaming encoders offer the convenient “auto” bitrate option, where the encoder figures out the optimal bitrate based on your connection speed.

Frame rate

Frame rate reflects lots of images that are encoded per second. It is expressed in frames per second (fps). Reducing the frame rate for a channel reduces bandwidth usage. A frame rate of 30 has been the standard for digital video for the past two decades. Currently, a frame rate of 60 and higher is used more and more frequently, creating a very smooth, hyper-realistic look (only if the input source is @60fps, naturally). Keep in mind that the frame rate directly affects required bitrate: for the same resolution video, the higher the frame rate, the higher the bitrate.