The BoxCast platform supports RTMP ingestion from your existing encoder. If you don't see the RTMP option in your Dashboard, please follow the steps in this article to add RTMP to your account: How do I create a new RTMP Source?

If your account has the static RTMP feature enabled, you'll have a Server URL and Stream Key that don't change with each broadcast. Your static channels are listed under the Sources tab in the Dashboard. From there, you can rename the channel(s) for easier identification as well as copy the Server URL and Stream Key. You can also regenerate the Stream Key if you fear it's been compromised.

The RTMP settings can be configured in your encoder at any point. You can hit Stream on your encoder anytime, but it'll officially go live at the start time of your broadcast. We recommend clicking the Stream button on your encoder 10–15 minutes before your broadcast starts. This will only stream to the back end of BoxCast and will go live at the time you scheduled it to begin.

Note: RTMP as an encoding protocol doesn't currently support h.265 (HEVC). If you have a third-party encoder that is sending via RTMP, you can only encode in h.264.

Most RTMP encoders will want you to copy the Server URL and Stream Key separately. Unless specified by your encoder, you probably won't want to use the full RTMP URL.

We've tested many different encoders and offer specific instructions for several of them. Please review the following topics if you're interested in more details about your specific encoder:

The setup of your RTMP encoder depends on the type of content you're streaming, network conditions, and desired quality, but here are the maximum bitrates that BoxCast accepts. Sending higher bitrate streams may result in poorer quality:

I'm seeing a message that says "The RTMP source is not connected." What should I do?

If you're receiving this message in the BoxCast Dashboard, it means your encoder isn't connecting to our servers. Please make sure you copied the correct RTMP codes to your encoder and be sure you hit Stream. If you're getting an error from that encoder, please review our third party encoder articles for more help.

What happens if my encoder stops mid-broadcast?
If that happens, you don't need to start another broadcast on the BoxCast Dashboard. Once your encoder reconnects, it'll start streaming from the same server as before. We recommend just getting your encoder working again — we'll start streaming once we receive data.

When I stop streaming from my encoder, does it end the broadcast?

No. You can end your broadcast using the Stop Broadcast button in the BoxCast Dashboard. This ensures the server on our end gets shut down. If you don't do this, the end of your video will just keep looping and buffering for your viewers until the broadcast hits its end time.