Owncast

Video related errors

First steps

  1. Make sure you have a supported version of ffmpeg on your Owncast server. Download ffmpeg 4.1.5 or above.
  2. Look at your owncast logs in the console or your admin. There may be specific error messages to tell you what you can do next.
  3. Take a look at transcoder.log for detailed logging that you can provide when asking for help if you don’t see anything in the Owncast logs.
  4. Make sure your copy of ffmpeg was not installed via Snap packages, as the sandboxing of Snap distributed software isn’t compatible in this case. If you see the error Error: unable to open display in transcoder.log, this might be your problem.

Unable to generate thumbnail error

If you see an error in your Owncast logs stating that it was unable to generate a thumbnail for your stream, it’s likely because you have Video Passthrough enabled, and the video you’re sending to Owncast is not in a playable format.

If you see this error it’s also likely that your viewers are having problems playing your stream.

Solution

Turn off Video Passthrough in your Owncast server’s video settings.