Review on 🎥 URayCoder H.264 Live HDMI Video Encoder: Stream Your IPTV with RTSP, RTMP, HTTP, UDP, SRT, ONVIF by Joseph Morris

If you're looking for a cheap and easy way to stream single camera videos on Youtube, this device is for you. You don't need an expensive computer or external encoders. This little box does it all. Full Disclosure: I was offered a cash reward for a five-star review. But despite the less than outstanding documentation, I still think it deserves 5 stars. I bought this encoder to stream church services on Youtube. The hardest part of setup is connecting the encoder to your internet network, unless your router's IP address (default IPv4 gateway) is set to 192.168.1.1. If it doesn't, you'll need to temporarily change your computer's IP address to log into the encoder's control panel. Once you've logged into the encoder, you can make changes very easily. The recently updated guide and videos walk you through this process on Windows and Mac. I used a Canon VIXIA HF R800 camcorder to record video. Canon camcorders do a good job here as they can output pure HDMI video (no display indicators). Just go to the camcorder's menu and turn off "On Screen Display" and "Power Saving Mode". For audio you can use the 3.5mm jack on the encoder if you want to use external audio. Or you can use the sound from the camcorder's microphone via the HDMI cable. (FYI, the Canon camcorder also has an audio input, so external audio can be routed through it.) Just set the correct value in the "Audio Input" field in the control panel. The "HDMI" option means it will receive audio from the camcorder. "ANALOG” means audio is received from the 3.5mm jack on the encoder unit. The guide does a good job with all the options available from the panel. The settings I used for YouTube. Bit rate: 6000. Encoder size: 1920x1080. Speed: 48000 (Youtube sounds terrible when you use 44100) Audio Bitrate 320000 If you need technical support, you can get support via email, skype or whatsapp. Technical support is located in China, so it usually takes 1 day to get an email response. I needed technical support because there wasn't enough documentation. They were helpful, but I still needed a technician to log into my computer with TeamViewer to set the DNS configuration in the encoder panel. How to connect to Youtube** Update 11/20/2020 Ever since Youtube removed the "Start Streaming" button, I've encountered an audio/video sync issue when reusing the stream key. The stream will sync for a short time, and then the audio will lead the video. You can use a new stream key each time, but that's cumbersome. Currently the only workaround I've found is to manually disable/enable the "RTMP(S)/RTSP PUSH URL" field in the encoder field. ** Complete DNS configuration update. The documentation is wrong. The gateway address of the router should be entered in the fields for DNS1 and DNS2. This does not apply to all networks. Mine wasn't set up that way. You need to check your network settings for IPv4 DNS servers and enter these values. To connect to Youtube, you need to input the "Server URL" and "Stream Name/Key" you get from Youtube into the "RTMP(S)/RTSP-PUSH-URL" located in the control panel is located. It would be much easier if they split this into two fields, but they force you to combine both pieces of data into one long string. Just don't forget to add an extra "/" character between the two dates, otherwise it won't work. The manual contains an example of what the string should look like. The encoder also allows you to add some basic text or logo to the screen. The encoder will send a test pattern if it doesn't detect a video stream, which is very useful. For creating a simple stream, this encoder works well with minimal hardware. The documentation is still under development. I would like to explain all possibilities. Once you connect the encoder to the network, it's very easy to use and set up.