Choose how to publish

Which way to send video to a stream, from OBS to your own device, and what each one carries.

A stream takes video from one publisher at a time. Which ways it accepts is the stream's ingest list, set when you create it (default ["rtmp", "srt"]; the choices are rtmp, rtmps, srt, whip and sdk). Whatever you send, the video is not re-encoded: H.264 goes through bit for bit, and the ingest repackages it for the relays.

You have	Use	Stream `ingest`	Sound	Page
OBS, vMix or a hardware encoder	SRT (recommended)	`srt`	AAC-LC or Opus	OBS and SRT
An encoder that only speaks RTMP	RTMP or RTMPS	`rtmp`, `rtmps`	AAC-LC or Opus	RTMP and RTMPS
OBS's WHIP output, or a browser	WHIP	`whip`	not yet	WHIP
A script, a file, a test pattern, a camera	ffmpeg over SRT or RTMP	`srt`, `rtmp`	AAC-LC or Opus	ffmpeg
An H.264 file, or a Rockchip board with a camera	the `nearglass publish` command	any	none for a file or camera	The Nearglass command
Your own device and its encoder	the C library, `nearglass.h`	`sdk`	none	Devices

How to choose:

Start with SRT when your encoder has it. It recovers lost packets without stalling the picture, and you can tune how long it waits.
RTMP is the one every encoder has. A lost packet stalls the whole connection until it is resent, and the encoder's own buffering is outside our control.
WHIP is the choice for a browser or an encoder that speaks WebRTC. It carries video only for now: a stream sent over WHIP plays without sound. Use SRT or RTMP for sound.
The nearglass command and the C library talk to the relays directly, with a publisher token instead of a stream key. They need no ingest address, and so get no LL-HLS copy: Safari and iPhone viewers cannot play those streams. Which player plays what is on What works with what.

The rules for the picture are the same for every route: H.264, a keyframe every second (2 at most), no B-frames, constant bitrate. They are in the table on OBS and SRT. What sound is carried, and what is not, is on Audio.