[Karrot_Kream]

If your friends have access to VLC on all of their devices, and have some appetite for tech, why not use an RTSP server and just hand them RTSP URLs as "channels"? You don't get browser playback, but as long as everyone has VLC or an RTSP capable media player they can just open the stream on whatever device they have.

[at_a_remove]

Said friends are not technical. They want something on their Roku, their Firestick, etc.

[Karrot_Kream]

Oh gotcha. Ya, then your setup sounds great, and it looks like ffplayout will simplify a lot of the steps!

I just proposed that setup because that's what my partner and friends do to view livestreams of movies together or, specifically with my partner, our home security camera setup. We're all technical though and I don't offer the rest of my family this setup.

[at_a_remove]

I somehow ended up as Technical Guy out of the people I know. It can be a burden.

Livestreaming is, well, "the space" exists but it largely occupied by solutions where the Hollywood types figured this time they won't be caught on the back foot, so they're busy policing what is sent around, so the homegrown stuff is largely where it is at if you want shove movies around, but then you're veering into "how technical are the recipients?" and it gets interesting.

I used to run a RealServer decades ago. Video is always ... interesting.