SRS - How to Push HEVC via RTMP by OBS

April 8, 2023 · 3 min read

Written by Winlin, chundonglinlin

OBS 29.1 supports HEVC via RTMP, so you can do HEVC live stream by OBS and SRS now.

There is a new specification for HEVC via RTMP, please see Enhanced RTMP. This specification defines a new codec ID for HEVC, which uses fourCC hvc1, both OBS and SRS support it.

Note: Please see #3495 and #3464 for details.

Please note that SRS 6.0 had already HEVC(H.265) support for SRT, HTTP-TS, HLS, MPEG-DASH and WebRTC(Safari), please refer to H.265 Live Streaming Saving 50% Cost.

Prerequisites

To use HEVC via RTMP, you must:

Update SRS to 6.0.42+, or use the latest develop branch.
Use OBS 29.1+. You can download the beta version from here.
For H5 player, SRS has already upgraded the mpegjs.js to 1.7.3+
FFmpeg 6 support HEVC via RTMP.

Usage

First, run SRS in docker:

docker run --rm -it -p 1935:1935 -p 8080:8080 ossrs/srs:6 \
  ./objs/srs -c conf/hevc.flv.conf

Next, start OBS with the following settings in the Settings > Stream tab:

Server: rtmp://localhost/live
Stream Key: livestream
Encoder: Please select the HEVC hardware encoder.

Note: Please note that the HEVC software encoder is too slow to encode the video, so it causes the video laggy.

Now, open the web page to play the HTTP-FLV live stream: http://localhost:8080/live/livestream.flv.

You can also play the HLS, DASH or HTTP-TS live stream, after you enable the HLS or HTTP-TS in the config file.

What's Next

Although SRS supports HEVC via WebRTC for Safari, but SRS doesn't support converting the HEVC via RTMP to WebRTC. We're working on it now.

The OBS HEVC software encoder is too slow to encode the video, so it causes the video laggy.

Cloud Service

At SRS, our goal is to establish a non-profit, open-source community dedicated to creating an all-in-one, out-of-the-box, open-source video solution for live streaming and WebRTC online services.

Additionally, we offer a Cloud service for those who prefer to use cloud service instead of building from scratch. Our cloud service features global network acceleration, enhanced congestion control algorithms, client SDKs for all platforms, and some free quota.

To learn more about our cloud service, click here.

Conclusion

In this article, we introduced how to push HEVC via RTMP by OBS.

Although there are still some works to do, it's already a big step for HEVC live streaming.

We wrote this article with the help of GitHub Copilot.

Contact

Welcome for more discussion at discord.