Documentation

We have various documents and guides available, both for users and developers of MistServer. If anything is unclear or you have suggestions for improvements, please contact us.

MistServer user documents

User documents are detailed documents about the usage of MistServer, if you're unsure how to get a feature working or MistServer itself, this is your first stop.

Item	Description
MistServer online manual	Online manual environment.
MistServer Manual (pdf)	Contains information about installation, configuration, integration and specifications.
MistServer changelog	Changelog, including upcoming changes.
Blogpost: Live streaming with MistServer and OBS Studio	Contains the basic information for live streaming in combination with OBS Studio.
Blogpost: Raw H264 from Raspberry Pi camera to MistServer	Shows how you can set up a Raspberry Pi camera live stream with MistServer.
Blogpost: An introduction to encoding and pushing with ffmpeg	Basic information about how to encode and push streams with ffmpeg.
Blogpost: Recording live streams with MistServer	How to set up live stream recording using MistServer.
Blogpost: Fantastic protocols and where to stream them	Explains how to choose between the most popular protocols (Last updated: June 2017).
Blogpost: Live streaming with Wirecast and MistServer	Contains the basic information for live streaming in combination with Wirecast.
Blogpost: Connecting to our API with PHP	Describes how to set up MistServer using our API through PHP.
Blogpost: Building an access control system with triggers and PHP	An example of how you could set up an access control system for MistServer.
Blogpost: Setting up a transcoder	An example of how you could set up a transcoder for MistServer.
Blogpost: Library playback with the STREAM_SOURCE trigger	An example of how you could set up MistServer with huge media libraries.
Blogpost: Cleaning up links and combining your media server with your website through a reverse proxy	An example of how you can set up a reverse proxy with MistServer.
Blogpost: Setting up advanced analytics through Prometheus and Grafana	An example of how to set up advanced analytics with MistServer.
Blogpost: Repushing to social media and streaming services	An example of how to push to social media or other streaming services through MistServer.

Performance

One of the most common questions in streaming media is "what can I expect?". Well with MistServer you have no need to wonder, we can show you. We publish the results of some of our tests the builds go through online. Feel free to go through them and contact us if you have any questions.

Item	Description
Research Paper Q2 2016	Load balancing comparison between state of the art and MistServer
White Paper Q2 2014	Burst handling is examined per media server
White Paper Q1 2014	The performance of MistServer 2.0 shown and why we've started the Research Initiative
White paper Q3 2013	The roots of MistServer, our first ideology and starting point

Example of MistServer statistics

Below you can find a simple example of the basic statistics possible with MistServer. If you're interested in the more advanced statistics please ask us.

Server specs
CPU	8 core Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 @ 2.40 GHz
RAM	64GiB

Specifications

This page describes the capibilities of MistServer. For minimum system requirements, please see here.

MistServer feature list

Core
On the fly stream repackager	✓
Browser based management interface	✓
Low footprint high performance	✓
Modular design	✓
Low latency	✓
Multiplatform	✓
Streaming
Adaptive bitrate	✓
SMIL RTMP multibitrate index	✓
Wildcard support for live/vod (single setting for multiple streams)	✓
Passthrough	✓
Subtitle support	✓
Recording	✓
Smart HTML5 metaplayer	✓
Stream process (encoders)	✓
Integration
API	✓
Triggers - event based server flow changes	✓
Stream meta-data	✓
Basic analytics	✓
Advanced analytics	✓
Prometheus integration	✓
Seamless integration with other programs/databases	✓
Security
Digital Rights Management	✓
Access control	✓
Encryption	✓
Stream password protection	✓
HTTPS	✓
Rate-limiting	✓
Access logs	✓
Scaling
Load balancer	✓
Pull from other servers/services	✓
Push to other servers/services	✓
Extremely fast boot times	✓
One set of binaries per customer	✓

MistServer supported inbound protocols

Protocol
RTMP single bitrate	✓
RTMP multi bitrate	✓
MPEG-TS (uni-/multicast)	✓
Annex B H264	✓
RTSP	✓
MP4 files	✓
HLS files	✓
HLS pull	✓
TS files	✓
FLV files	✓
MKV files	✓
MKV Stream	✓
MP3 files	✓
ISMV files	✓
DTSC files	✓
DTSC pull	✓
OGG files	✓
SRT (Secure Reliable Transport)	✓
WebRTC	✓

MistServer supported outbound protocols

Protocol
HLS (CMAF)	✓
DASH (CMAF)	✓
DASH-IF Live Media Ingest Protocol (progressive CMAF push)	✓
MP4	✓
MP4 live	✓
WS/MP4 (MP4 over websocket)	✓
HLS (TS)	✓
LL-HLS (CMAF)	✓
RTMP	✓
RTMP multibitrate	✓
RTMP push single-/multi bitrate	✓
WebRTC	✓
MPEG-TS (unicast)	✓
MPEG-TS (multicast)	✓
MPEG-TS push	✓
RTSP (stream/push)	✓
HDS	✓
FLV	✓
MKV	✓
MP3	✓
DTSC	✓
OGG	✓
WAV	✓
AAC	✓
SRT	✓
File recording (TS, MKV, FLV, MP3, WAV)	✓

MistServer video support matrix

	AVC/H264	HEVC/H265	AV1	VP8/VP9	MPEG2/H262	Flash**	Theora
DTSC	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HLS (TS)	✓	✓	-	-	✓	-	-
HLS (CMAF)	✓	✓	-	-	✗	-	-
DASH (CMAF)	✓	✓	-	-	-	-	-
MKV	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
MP4	✓	✓	-	✗	✗	✗	✗
WS/MP4 (MP4 over websocket)	✓	✗	-	-	-	-	-
RTMP/FLV/HDS	✓	-	-	-	-	✓	-
RTSP	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗
TS	✓	✓	-	-	✓	✗	✗
SRT	✓	✓	-	-	✓	✗	✗
OGG	✗	✗	-	✗	✗	✗	✓
WebRTC	✓	✗	-	✓	-	-	-

"-" stands for Not Applicable
** The flash codecs are VP6, JPEG, H.263 and Screen Video 1&2.

MistServer audio support matrix

	AAC	AC3	MP3	MP2	Flash	Vorbis	Opus	PCM	G711
DTSC	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
HLS (TS)	✓	✓	✓	✓	-	-	-	-	-
HLS (CMAF)	✓	✓	✓	✗	-	-	-	-	-
DASH (CMAF)	✓	✓	✓	✗	-	✗	✗	-	-
MKV	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
MP4	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
WS/MP4 (MP4 over websocket)	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
MP3	-	-	✓	-	-	-	-	-	-
RTMP/FLV/HDS	✓	-	✓	✗	✓	-	-	✓	✓
RTSP	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓
TS	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
SRT	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
OGG	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✗	✗
WAV	-	-	✓	✗	✗	-	-	✓	✓
WebRTC	✗	-	-	-	-	-	✓	-	-

"-" stands for Not Applicable
** The flash codecs are ADPCM, Nelly and Speex.

Operating System Support

While the list below doesn't contain all of the operating systems we can run on, it's a list containing the more widely known operating systems. Want to know if another one is supported? Contact us.

Operating System Support	3.0	2.x
Unix	✓	✓
Solaris	✓	✓
Linux x86	✓	✓
Linux x86_64	✓	✓
Linux ARM	✓	✓
Linux MIPS	✓	✓
OS X	✗	✓
Windows 64 bits	✗	✓

OS X and Windows support will be included in the future for 3.0 builds