Concepts & signal flow
Streaming protocols & NDI help
The Streaming protocols & NDI questions live-event techs bring to Ask Roadie most (also called NDI, NDI HX, RTMP, SRT). Pick your symptom, or describe your own in plain words, and get the likeliest fix first, with the manual page when there is one.
Common Streaming protocols & NDI questions
What techs run into most, and what's usually behind it. The step-by-step fix for your exact topic is in Ask Roadie.
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Best encoder settings for a reliable RTMP push to YouTube/Facebook/Twitch
Short answer: Platforms segment playback on keyframes, so a 2 s GOP plus CBR gives clean segmenting and predictable throughput; leaving upload headroom prevents the buffer/drop cycle.
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How much bandwidth does NDI use and how many streams fit on my network?
Short answer: NDI is bursty and near-uncompressed on Full mode; sizing to 80% headroom prevents the retransmit/drop spiral once the link saturates.
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I need very low latency (interactive) — which streaming protocol?
Short answer: WebRTC/WHIP trade CDN-scale for real-time interactivity; LL-HLS trades a few seconds for massive resilient scale — matching protocol to the latency+scale need avoids over-engineering.
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NDI source is not showing up in the receiver's source list
Short answer: NDI auto-discovery relies on mDNS multicast, which subnets, host firewalls and multicast-filtering switches routinely block; Discovery Server replaces mDNS with a central unicast registry.
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NDI video is choppy, stuttering, or tearing (often over Wi-Fi)
Short answer: Full NDI's bitrate and burstiness overwhelm Wi-Fi; lowering the bandwidth mode and using Reliable UDP or HX trades a little quality for stability on lossy links.
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Should I use Full NDI or NDI|HX?
Short answer: Full NDI is lightly compressed and bandwidth-hungry but lowest latency; HX is heavily compressed for constrained links — the choice is a latency/quality vs bandwidth trade.
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SRT — caller, listener, or rendezvous, and how do I get through a firewall?
Short answer: SRT runs over UDP with an explicit handshake; choosing the mode that matches which end is reachable is what gets the connection through NAT/firewalls.
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What firewall ports does NDI need?
Short answer: NDI separates discovery (5353/5959/5960) from per-stream media (5961+), so a partially open firewall produces the classic "I can see it but not connect" symptom.
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What SRT latency and encryption settings should I use?
Short answer: SRT recovers lost packets by retransmitting within the latency window, so the buffer must exceed RTT; a mismatched AES key length or passphrase blocks the handshake outright.
Not on the list? Describe it your way, or paste the error code off the display. Ask Roadie works the problem with you until it's fixed or you have a clear next move.
How Ask Roadie helps with Streaming protocols & NDI
- 1. Pick Streaming protocols & NDI. It's already in the list.
- 2. Describe what you're seeing. In your own words, or the error code off the screen.
- 3. Get the likeliest fix first. Steps in order, the manual page when there is one, and a note when other techs have confirmed it.
- 4. Still broken? Tap 👎 and it keeps going from where you left off.