Third Party Encoders:

The basic requirements for a third party HDMI encoder are:

1. H.264 or H.265 video encoding
2. 1000Mbps ethernet port   (100 Mbps can work but often cannot support more than 2 displays at once)
3. Secondary stream support  (if PIP/Tiling is needed)
4. RTSP protocol
5. HDCP support
6. Static IP settings

There are many suitable encoders on the market.  The best place to purchase these is Aliexpress.com.  A search for "h264 hdmi encoder" will pull up many models that will work.

Below we have instructions for how to setup one such device.  We have tested many devices and the web interfaces are usually very similar to this one.

Step 1

Locate the device IP address (usually static and printed on the box).  If it is DHCP, you can use an IP scanner or similar to locate it.  Once you have logged into the web control page, find the network settings and set your final STATIC IP.  The device must be STATIC or DHCP reserved because NetPlay can not automatically find it like it could for Video Storm products.

Step 2

Next you will configure the primary (high resolution) network stream.  Find the corresponding page.

The important parameters are marked with the "<==" indicator.  You should find corresponding settings and set them to match as shown above.

• Key interval should always be 30 if possible (also known as key frame interval).  If not possible, set to as close to 30 as possible.
• Encoded size should be set to the highest value it can support
• Encoded frame rate or output frame rate should be set to 30.  If you watch a lot of sports, you can try using 60 instead (but this may cause picture problems)
• Max bit rate.  12 Mbps is ideal for 1080p.  18 Mbps is ideal for 4K.  See MaxBitrate example above.
• RTSP mode should be enabled, all other modes disabled (for residential applications).  If using commercially, you will likely use MULTICAST instead (see below)

If using commercially, setup the main stream for MULTICAST instead of RTSP.  Follow this LINK  (residential skip this)

Step 3

Next setup your secondary stream.  This is a SD quality stream used for subwindows (tiling, pip, etc).

The important parameters are marked with the "<==" indicator.  You should find corresponding settings and set them to match as shown above.

• Key interval should always be 30 if possible (also known as key frame interval).  If not possible, set to as close to 30 as possible.
• Encoded size should be set to 720x480 or 640x480
• Encoded frame rate or output frame rate should be set to 30.
• Max bit rate.  3200 Kbps is ideal.
• RTSP mode should be enabled, all other modes disabled.
• If  there is a setting for TCP/UDP mode, select UDP

Step 4

Last we must setup the audio stream. 

• Audio sample rate should be 48000 if possible
• Audio codec (or encoding) should be AAC or PCM.  Dolby is also supported.

Step 5

Last step is to configure the SOURCE in virtual matrix source setup.  Navigate to the "source setup" page on your virtual matrix.

Your settings should match the picture above.

• Profile can be set to ON if your encoder outputs a fixed resolution (most can do this)
• URL for Stream 1 will be of the form:     rtsp://static_ip_of_encoder:544/url_extension_main_stream
• URL for Stream 2 will be of the form:     rtsp://static_ip_of_encoder:544/url_extension_secondary_stream
• The encoder status pages/documentation should tell you what to use for the url_extensions

If you find that AV sync tends to get off for this source when viewing for extended periods, add --drift to the Custom Args field.