Understanding Streamly's Resource Usage

Running a continuous live stream is fundamentally different from rendering a video in Adobe Premiere or playing a video game. It is a sustained marathon of intensive I/O operations, continuous memory management, and rigorous encoding mathematics. If a machine drops a frame while playing a game, the player barely notices. If a server drops a frame while broadcasting RTMP to YouTube, the stream stutters, viewers disconnect, and the platform algorithm heavily penalizes the channel.

Streamly is written in Rust, which guarantees memory safety without garbage collection pauses, making the application's core logic incredibly lightweight (often idling under 50MB of RAM). However, the heavy lifting is completely dependent on the FFmpeg encoding pipeline. Video transcoding is inherently demanding. The requirements below are dictated primarily by the demands of FFmpeg performing real-time video manipulation.

Minimum System Requirements (720p30 / 1080p30 Software Encoding)

These specifications are the absolute minimum required to run Streamly using software encoding (CPU only, using the libx264 codec). We only recommend these specs for low-action broadcasts (like 24/7 Lo-Fi radio channels with mostly static imagery).

Recommended System Requirements (1080p60 Hardware Accelerated)

For standard gaming broadcasts, high-action sports replays, or visually complex VOD loops, hardware acceleration is strictly necessary to maintain a locked 60 FPS without thermal throttling your CPU. Streamly fully supports NVIDIA NVENC, Intel QSV, and AMD AMF.

Hardware Acceleration Configuration

Network and Bandwidth Considerations

The most common cause of stream failure is not a hardware bottleneck, but an unstable network connection. RTMP is a TCP-based protocol, meaning packet loss will cause the stream to stall until the packets are re-transmitted. If your ISP suffers from severe jitter or throttling, Streamly's internal buffer will fill up, eventually forcing a stream disconnect.

We mandate the use of wired Ethernet (Cat5e or Cat6 cables) directly connected to your router or switch. Wireless networks (Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6) introduce latency spikes and packet loss due to environmental interference, which are fatal to RTMP streams.

When configuring your bitrate in Streamly's settings, follow the "Rule of 70". Your broadcast bitrate should never exceed 70% of your total available upload speed. For example, if speed tests show you have 10 Mbps (10,000 kbps) of upload bandwidth, do not set Streamly's bitrate higher than 7,000 kbps. The remaining 30% headroom is necessary to absorb network jitter, TCP overhead, and background OS telemetry without starving the FFmpeg output buffer.

Software Dependencies

As a portable executable, Streamly itself has very few dependencies. However, the system relies on FFmpeg to operate. You must have a relatively modern version of FFmpeg installed.