July 14, 2020
by Live Expert

Multi-bitrate Streaming

How to Conduct Multi-Bitrate Streaming Using Livebox?

There are primarily two different ways to do adaptive bitrate streaming. One method is called Transcoding and the other method is using Multi bitrate streaming aka MBR. Transcoding is recommended in most cases since it is hassle-free and the conversion to multiple bitrates happens at the server end on the fly as you stream. Also, it can be turned on with a click of a button for any channel. If your Livebox does not have transcoding enabled, contact the Livebox team to upgrade to a box with transcoding, Also, Check out our other articles about the transcoding to learn more about transcoding.

As for Multi bitrate streaming, it has to be manually streamed in multiple qualities from the encoder, be it a hardware or software encoder. Some encoders support streaming in multiple qualities and some encoders don't. For some software encoders, you may need to open multiple instances of the encoder on your PC. As for hardware encoders, MBR can be used only if the hardware encoder supports MBR.

In this article, we're going to see how to achieve MBR using the encoder provided for download along with your Livebox server.

Go to Manage Channels from the navigation menu. Under manage channels select Multi-Bitrate.

On Multi-Bitrate page, select your channel and turn on multi-bitrate.

Once you turn on Multi-Bitrate, new preset options will appear. You can set the required resolution and click the “Save” button.

Note: You also have options to edit or set your required preset.

Once you click save, RTMP URLs for your resolution gets listed below. Make a note of the required RTMP links and click “Save”.
With each URL of definite qualities (resolutions), the player will adjust video quality to that of viewers bandwidth.

*The first given URL is the RTMP URL of your channel. The remaining URLs are RTMP URLs with resolutions.

Note: The RTMP URL should be used to initiate the live streaming on your server channel. And the other RTMP URLs of resolutions can be used to deliver the same streaming content in different resolutions.

After clicking save, give Service Restart to get your changes applied.

Now on your preferred encoders, add a source either from your camera device or any video files.
Then copy-paste the RTMP URL and other streaming URLs of resolutions on your encoder stream settings.

(The highlighted part of the streaming URL is the Stream key)

To view your live MBR streaming status with the definite video quality, go the Livebox Dashboard and check on the player for your resolutions.

Then go to Viewers Report to check the RTMP stats of your streaming channel. It shows audio and video bitrate of your channel.

You have successfully did Multi-bitrate streaming.

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July 14, 2020