vMix moves its menus around between versions, so this guide names the boxes and what goes in each rather than a click path. Find the labels wherever your version keeps them.
1. Find your encoder settings
Everything your encoder needs is in your account: sign in, click Streaming in the left menu, open your service, and scroll down its Overview to the Live stream to service box. It lists four values, each with a copy button:
- Server URL: the RTMP address your encoder sends to
- Stream Name: the name of the stream. On a TV station it is
live. - Username and Password: the publishing login for your channel. This is not the email and password you use to sign in to Stream Brothers. The password is blurred: click it to see it.
If the box also shows a Stream Key line, your channel accepts a single key instead: you can use the Stream Key wherever this guide says Stream Name, and leave the username and password out. If it shows Sign-in: None, your channel needs no login at all: leave those fields empty. The video dashboard tutorial shows the box with pictures.
Copy them across rather than typing them. A single wrong character in the server address or stream name and the connection is simply refused.
2. Add a destination
Open the Stream settings (the cog next to the Stream button) and choose Custom RTMP Server as the destination.
3. Two boxes, not one
- URL: your Server URL, exactly as copied, and nothing after it
- Stream Name or Key: your Stream Name on its own
Putting the stream name on the end of the URL as well is the most common reason a first vMix broadcast is refused, and vMix shows no helpful error for it.
4. Sign in to publish
Enter your channel's Username and Password in the destination's login fields. In some versions they sit behind a Login or Advanced button.
5. Quality
Choose a custom quality profile and set:
- Video codec: H.264 (x264, or your graphics card's hardware encoder)
- Resolution and frame rate: 1080p or 720p, at 25 or 30 fps
- Video bitrate: 2,500 to 4,500 kbps. Your plan takes up to 5 Mbps per channel, and your upload speed should be at least twice what you send.
- Keyframe interval: 2 seconds, fixed. Viewers' players need a regular keyframe to start and to switch quality smoothly.
- Audio: AAC, 128 kbps, 44.1 or 48 kHz, stereo
Turn off scene-change keyframes so nothing shifts the 2-second spacing.
6. Go live
Click Stream. It turns red while you are on air.
Check that it is live
Back on the Streaming page, your service shows a green LIVE badge on its Overview within a few seconds of your encoder connecting. Then open your player (the Player page link under Widgets & Links) in another browser or on your phone and watch a minute of it yourself before you announce the stream. Viewers usually see the picture 10 to 20 seconds behind real time; that delay is normal.
If it will not connect
- Re-copy the Server URL and Stream Name from the Live stream to service box. The most common mistake is putting the stream name on the end of the server address as well as in its own box.
- Make sure you used the channel's publishing Username and Password, not your account login. If you clicked New password in the Live stream to service box, update it in your encoder too.
- Only one encoder can publish to a stream name at a time. Stop any other encoder sending to it.
- Still stuck? Start a chat with us from any page: we can see whether your encoder reached the server and why it was turned away.