How to Stream on Nostr with Cloudflare and OBS

1. Download and install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software). You can keep the default settings for the time being (they work for some)

2. Add a Screen input in the Sources window. This will capture your screen and stream it. The screen capture also captures your desktop audio if you have any playing. So, if you have audio playing on your desktop, that will stream as well.

3. Add an optional Mic input (Audio Input Capture). Select your source of audio, in my case I use an external Yeti microphone.

4. Sign up with Cloudflare Stream. You’ll have to probably dox your payment details as that’s necessary for Cloudflare payments. Cloudflare Stream starts at $5 prepaid.

5. Navigate to Stream > Live Inputs and create a new Live Input.

6. Once you have created your Live Input, scroll down to “Connection Information” section and take note of your RTMPS URL and your RTMPS key, you’ll need these for OBS settings.

7. Navigate back into OBS, and into Settings > Stream. Here you need to enter your RTMPS URL into the “Server” input field. Then, add your RTMPS key into the “Stream Key” input field.

8. Go back into your CloudFlare Stream account, and back into the live input you just created. There you should see the HLS Manifest URL. Copy this as it’s needed to set up your new stream on live.snort.social.

9. Navigate to live.snort.social (or whatever client that you end up using down the road) and sign in. If you are unable to sign in, go to snort.social and sign in there. Navigating back to live.snort.social should automatically log you in.

10. Click on “New Stream” button at the top. Fill in the information about your stream. You can host host images on nostr.build and copy the URL. Add your HLS Manifest URL into the “Stream URL” field. Click Start Stream to go live!

If you have any issues with video or audio quality, you may need to play around in OBS with bitrate settings, resolution size capture etc..

If your screen capture is zoomed in and not fully fitting on your screen, right click the “Desktop Capture” source, and go to Transform > Fit to screen. This should set it to full screen capture. You can also play around with capturing only windows.

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Discussion

Hey look who it is! Nostr’s top cat Karnage!

nostr:npub1rxysxnjkhrmqd3ey73dp9n5y5yvyzcs64acc9g0k2epcpwwyya4spvhnp8

That can get very expensive, since each stream consumes one minute of streaming. 10 people, 60 minutes, and you’ve consumed 600 minutes 🐶🐾🤯

I am only 50% into my $5 prepay and I’ve been streaming for several days now.

I assume not many viewers then. $5 gives like 10K mins? 🐶🐾🫡

Not sure. Yeah maybe not many viewers.

I am trying to think of a better (cheaper) solution for live streaming. Just video is doable already, streaming is a tricky one. 🐶🐾🤔

nostr:npub1y3uh89v5a4vq92t8q0j6su94zhvcdxpywjn3l6hpsr5welarqtrqj7yzhd did an article showing how to spin up a VPS on the cheap and do it yourself. Looked very approachable even for admin newbies.

Here ya go:

nostr:note1xy6fycs7fc9j3mmgf6hygrawt0jf9f0hh3h0824zhs2t899amgksjmkygx

Depends on where you are watching it from and how many are watching. But we want seamless experience (something like Instagram or whatever) 🐶🐾🫡

Seems from what he was telling me, itd be bandwidth dependent. A lot of VPSs have 1GB unmetered… prolly be a while before you’d outgrow that.

“Unmetered” is the key. It’s all up to a limit if you can even get the full 1Gb out to start with. 🐶🐾🫡

Hmm. Like you said, all about provider. I was pushing ~200GB a month out of my Oracle instance, but I wasn’t streaming video.

We will break things and find out though! I like what jascha did because it’s decentralized. Might not be an issue for most streamers - bigger ones would possibly need a more tailored service which would be self funded by zaps.

Yeah, we need to think in terms of non-tech moms and dads. I can do it, but nobody in my family would be able to even understand the concepts behind it🐶🐾🤣

To be fair, setting up a good stream is not easy on any platform atm. I used to be on twitch. That was a nightmare to get right.

If we make it good, we’ll see a huge adoption by a large population! Let’s think hard how we can do it.

Also, nostr:npub1rhaxmxxgs5jkw4zesrptnwd5nrknh5lkaxnlzzegz9vphlgfdlqsjmej47 consider this angle. I really want to make streaming a thing for nostr. Imagine scrolling a feed of stream in real-time and then picking one you want! 🐶🐾🤯

That's why testing with nostr:npub1c9w7fj2urxtw4z8te9rr7j69scn0rnvk4s5uzcsuxrrqnxasasks03405h 🤙

lowendbox.com is a fantastic place to find some dirt cheap VPS/dedicated servers all over the globe at ridiculously low prices. The place is very community driven, so ask away if you require something special.

Also, if it's really cheap, don't feel too bad if it fails to live up to its expectations, but the reviews usually tell you want you need to know.

Good luck!

thanks for sharing all the notes about Streamstr and the how-to's. great bookmarks!

Seriously, what can't you do on nostr?

Nostr fixes things 😂

Extremely cool

Nice writeup 👏

Finally the guide we were looking for 😄

Made my life much easier to start streaming on nostr. Thanks! =3

nostr:note1t7yem385jjustprtkyx9h7ljp2u8t0lxke2a2xnjxrmktsyummzq76f69q

Tried to capture this note using https://archive.today and found that it doesn't capture the [show more] part: https://archive.ph/Pg1ag

If anyone knows of a way to load a note and have it automatically show the extended version, please let me know. It would be nice to be able to use tools like https://archive.today to capture an entire extended note.

procuro parceria pra transmitir conteúdo ao vivo , tenho sistema de iptv operando aqui, preciso de mais gente que ajude a gente criar um sistema de transmissão ao vivo

nostr:npub1t3ggcd843pnwcu6p4tcsesd02t5jx2aelpvusypu5hk0925nhauqjjl5g4

Oh perfect, thank you Jeroen 💜💜

U got it 😎🤙

Curious how much it’ll cost me to stream using Cloudflare 🤔

I bet the zaps would pay for itself

🤞

Can anyone point me towards a layman's explanation as to how streaming is facilitated over Nostr - is all the video and audio being handled by cloudflare or similar service, therefore the relay just points the client to the source and thus keeps the impact to relay bandwidth and processing requirements low?

It seems one should be able to use rmtp and streamyard which I already do for other places I stream to. live.snort.social was simple, go there, connect with alby done.

Click new stream, all looks very familiar but then it asks for a url for "Stream Url" which I have no idea how to create. Usually a system like this generates a url when you set up the stream. I have no intention of adding something like cloudflair when I already have a streaming solution.

Does this mean I am out for nostr streams or am I missing something simple?

It’ll get more simple. This service is just really new. We are literally steaming as we design and build it out right now 😆

So does that mean for now I can't just use streamyard?

I’ll ping nostr:npub1v0lxxxxutpvrelsksy8cdhgfux9l6a42hsj2qzquu2zk7vc9qnkszrqj49 , he may have better answers for you

Cool, gave you a zap.

Any HLS stream will work, look for link to .m3u8 HLS stream

I don't understand why I need cloudflare.

There are other hosting services like owncast but are a bit more technical. You basically need any service that can provide a HLS output link for the stream since hosting the streams at their own webpage would be tremendously costly (like twitch or YouTube and so on)

Buy visa gift cards with cash or use privacy dot com for the cloudflare payment part.

Yesss! Join the zap streamers! 🫂

Thank you for sharing your steps!!!

🙇‍♂️