DualStream Relay vs FFmpeg

DualStream Relay sends a stream from a PC to DualStream’s servers, which distribute it to Twitch, YouTube, Kick, and custom RTMP destinations. Twitch, YouTube, and Kick can be connected with one click, without copying stream keys. If the connection drops, Disconnect Protection keeps destination platforms live on a custom standby screen and resumes streaming after reconnection. You can upload the screen viewers see during an interruption. Output support varies by destination: up to 2160p60 on YouTube, 2K on Twitch with Enhanced Broadcasting, and 1080p60 on Kick, Facebook, TikTok, and custom RTMP. Relay is available on Windows, macOS, and iOS. The free Test Drive plan includes instant replay clips with a watermark. Premium includes multistreaming, Disconnect Protection, and watermark-free clips; it costs $9.99 a month, with the first 30 days free, or $99 a year. One Premium subscription covers the Windows and macOS apps, iPhone app, OBS plugin, and MCP server.

FFmpeg is free, open-source software for recording, converting, and streaming audio and video on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its command-line tool converts media files between formats, supports local recording, and lists AVI among its output formats. Output protocols include HLS, RTMP, RTMPS, RTP, RTSP, SRT, and UDP. Hardware acceleration is available for encoding and decoding. Decoding support includes Vulkan, VAAPI, and OpenHarmony, and Vulkan codecs can work on implementations of Vulkan 1.3. The Vulkan compute approach supports FFv1 encoding and decoding and ProRes RAW decoding, but only for codecs designed for parallel decoding. FFmpeg’s transcoding components run in parallel, which can improve throughput and CPU use; gains may be limited when one component dominates the processing. The project accepts contributions through its Forgejo instance and offers mailing lists, IRC, forums, bug reports, a wiki, and conferences. Version 8.1 Hoare was announced as available for download on March 16, 2026.