The most dependable starting point is a long-running FFmpeg container with a prepared playlist, a tested encoder, a stable wired uplink, and YouTube’s RTMPS ingest. There is no universally best Compose file: the right encoder and configuration depend on your host, source files, stream format, and recovery needs. The example below assumes a Linux Docker host, SDR output, local video files with compatible streams, and H.264 encoding; validate it on your actual machine before leaving it unattended.
Choose the stream format before choosing the container
For 4K/2160p at 60 fps, YouTube’s current published encoder guidance, accessed 2026-10-03, recommends 50 Mbps for H.264 or 35 Mbps for AV1/H.265. The corresponding minimums are 14 Mbps and 10 Mbps. These are YouTube’s ingest recommendations, not a guarantee that a particular host can encode at that rate or that an internet connection can sustain it. See YouTube’s encoder settings and bitrate guidance.
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| Output choice | YouTube 4K60 minimum | YouTube 4K60 recommended | What to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| H.264 | 14 Mbps | 50 Mbps | FFmpeg encoder is available and sustains real-time 4K60 on your CPU or GPU. |
| AV1 or H.265 | 10 Mbps | 35 Mbps | YouTube ingest support, FFmpeg build support, compatible encoder hardware if applicable, and playback needs. |
Use a stable upload connection with headroom above the selected video bitrate plus audio. A 50 Mbps video target alone is not a sufficient connection target; variability, audio, and other traffic also consume capacity. The exact headroom required depends on your connection and setup, so test the actual uplink over a sustained period.
- YouTube specifies constant bitrate (CBR), recommends a 2-second keyframe interval, and says not to exceed 4 seconds.
- YouTube supports RTMP and RTMPS and recommends RTMPS for encrypted delivery into Google’s servers. Its guidance states: “We recommend streaming to YouTube Live with RTMPS, a secure extension to the popular RTMP video protocol.”
- For SDR, YouTube specifies Rec. 709. Do not apply SDR settings blindly to an HDR stream; YouTube’s HDR guidance differs.
- YouTube accepts AAC or MP3 audio. The example below uses AAC stereo. YouTube lists AAC-only support for 5.1 surround audio over RTMP/RTMPS.
Read the current YouTube settings page before changing codec, frame rate, color format, or HDR/SDR targets.
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Decide whether to encode on the CPU or GPU
CPU software encoding
Software H.264 encoding avoids GPU passthrough configuration, but 4K60 at the recommended bitrate is a sustained workload. There is no universal CPU threshold established here. Test the exact input, filters, FFmpeg build, and preset you plan to run; watch for missed frames, rising CPU load, thermal throttling, and audio/video drift.
NVIDIA hardware encoding
NVENC can reduce CPU encoding work if the host GPU, driver, container runtime, and FFmpeg build support the chosen encoder. NVIDIA documents FFmpeg integrations including h264_nvenc, hevc_nvenc, and av1_nvenc; that does not mean every GPU supports every codec or that every container image includes those encoders. Check NVIDIA’s FFmpeg with NVIDIA GPU Hardware Acceleration guidance and verify the exact hardware and build.
Docker does not install host GPU drivers or automatically provide an NVENC-capable FFmpeg binary. For NVIDIA, configure the host driver and NVIDIA Container Toolkit first. Docker Compose GPU reservations require capabilities: [gpu]; use either count or device_ids, not both. See Docker Compose GPU access and Docker Engine GPU access.
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Prepare the playlist and the YouTube ingest details
Make the media predictable
For the simplest operational setup, use files with compatible frame dimensions, frame rates, video and audio codecs, channel layouts, and stream counts. The example assumes one video and one audio stream per item. Different formats can trigger filter or concat errors, cause visible changes at transitions, or require extra processing. Normalize files in advance if you need consistent transitions and output.
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Create a text file named playlist.txt on the host. With the example mounts below, list container paths, one file per line:
file '/media/part-01.mp4'
file '/media/part-02.mp4'
file '/media/part-03.mp4'The FFmpeg concat demuxer can read a list of files, but file concatenation and repeated playback do not by themselves guarantee seamless transitions or gapless looping. Confirm that your particular files work together and watch a full loop before treating the playlist as continuous.
Get the RTMPS endpoint and keep the key private
In YouTube’s live controls, obtain the RTMPS server URL and stream key for the scheduled or ongoing broadcast. Store the server URL in configuration and the key in a local secret file; do not put the key in the Compose file, playlist, image, source control, or a public log. Anyone with the key may be able to send video to that stream. Rotate it if it is exposed.
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Starting Compose configuration for CPU-based H.264
This is a starting point, not a tested universal deployment. It assumes a Linux Docker host, an FFmpeg image you have selected and pinned, a shell in that image, an FFmpeg binary with the required demuxer, filters, H.264 encoder, AAC encoder, and RTMPS protocol, and local files mounted under /media. Set FFMPEG_IMAGE to that image reference and YOUTUBE_RTMPS_URL to the server URL supplied by YouTube. The Compose secret file must exist at ./secrets/youtube_stream_key.
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services:
live:
image: ${FFMPEG_IMAGE:?set a pinned FFmpeg image}
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
YOUTUBE_RTMPS_URL: ${YOUTUBE_RTMPS_URL:?set the YouTube RTMPS server URL}
volumes:
- ./media:/media:ro
- ./playlist.txt:/config/playlist.txt:ro
secrets:
- youtube_stream_key
entrypoint: ["/bin/sh", "-ec"]
command: |
key="$$(cat /run/secrets/youtube_stream_key)"
exec ffmpeg -hide_banner -loglevel info
-stream_loop -1 -re -f concat -safe 0 -i /config/playlist.txt
-map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0
-vf "scale=3840:2160:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=3840:2160:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2,fps=60,format=yuv420p"
-c:v libx264 -preset veryfast
-b:v 50M -minrate 50M -maxrate 50M -bufsize 100M
-g 120 -keyint_min 120 -sc_threshold 0
-color_primaries bt709 -color_trc bt709 -colorspace bt709
-c:a aac -b:a 128k -ar 48000
-f flv "$${YOUTUBE_RTMPS_URL}/$${key}"
secrets:
youtube_stream_key:
file: ./secrets/youtube_stream_keyThe filter scales to fit 3840×2160, pads to that canvas, sets a 60 fps output, and converts pixel format to 8-bit 4:2:0. It may resize or pad source material; it does not create genuine 4K detail from a lower-resolution source. The output settings target SDR Rec. 709. The bitrate and GOP values target YouTube’s H.264 4K60 recommendation and 2-second keyframes (120 frames at 60 fps). The veryfast preset is only a starting choice: if the host cannot encode in real time, use a capable GPU encoder or a different host/preset and test the resulting output.
-stream_loop -1 asks FFmpeg to repeat the concat input, and -re reads at the input’s native rate. Neither proves that file boundaries will be seamless, nor does either supervise recovery after a network interruption. The restart: unless-stopped policy restarts a container when its main process exits; it cannot fix an FFmpeg process that remains alive but has stopped delivering useful video. Add log monitoring and an alert or external health check appropriate to your operation.
Optional NVIDIA Compose reservation
After configuring the host driver and NVIDIA Container Toolkit, add a GPU reservation to the service. Choose either a count or explicit device IDs; do not specify both. The selected image and command must use an encoder actually supported by the GPU and FFmpeg build.
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resources:
reservations:
devices:
- driver: nvidia
count: 1
capabilities: [gpu]Then replace libx264 with the matching available hardware encoder, such as h264_nvenc when supported, and tune its options only after checking that build’s encoder help. A Compose reservation is device access, not a guarantee of compatibility or real-time performance.
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Verify the exact FFmpeg image before going live
FFmpeg options vary by build. Run these checks against the actual image rather than assuming a tag includes the required features:
docker compose run --rm --entrypoint ffmpeg live -version
docker compose run --rm --entrypoint ffmpeg live -protocols
docker compose run --rm --entrypoint ffmpeg live -encodersConfirm that the output includes the required encoder, AAC, concat demuxer, scale and fps filters, and RTMPS support. For an NVIDIA build, inspect its specific encoder help as well, for example:
docker compose run --rm --entrypoint ffmpeg live -h encoder=h264_nvencFFmpeg’s command-line documentation covers input and processing options, and its protocol documentation covers protocols including RTMPS. Run a private or unlisted test broadcast first, inspect YouTube’s incoming stream status, and check the resulting picture, audio, frame rate, bitrate, and transitions before scheduling an unattended run.
Make restart and recovery behavior explicit
Separate the responsibilities: FFmpeg reads and encodes the media, Docker restarts an exited process under the chosen policy, and an operator or monitoring system detects failures that do not terminate the process. Test these cases rather than relying on a single restart setting:
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- Stop and restart the container; confirm it reads the intended playlist and returns to the expected place.
- Interrupt the uplink briefly and observe whether FFmpeg exits, reconnects, or remains stalled. Verify YouTube receives video again after recovery.
- Test end-of-file and playlist wraparound; look for black frames, audio gaps, or errors at each boundary.
- Check disk and memory use, container logs, CPU/GPU load, temperatures, and sustained upload stability during a long run.
- Have a way to rotate the stream key and restart safely if credentials are exposed.
FFmpeg, Docker, and YouTube documentation do not establish one universal playlist-looping or reconnect-supervision design. The specific behavior depends on the input, FFmpeg build and options, transport interruption, and how the process is supervised.
Common problems and fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube reports a low or unstable bitrate | Uplink cannot sustain video plus audio, or the encoder misses real-time output. | Check sustained upload and encoder load; reduce the output target or move to a host/encoder that sustains the selected settings. |
| FFmpeg says an encoder or protocol is unavailable | The image’s FFmpeg build lacks that encoder or RTMPS support. | Inspect -version, -protocols, and -encoders; use a suitable image/build. |
| Compose cannot access the GPU | Host driver, NVIDIA Container Toolkit, Compose reservation, or device selection is not configured correctly. | Follow Docker’s GPU access prerequisites and Compose reservation format; test a supported encoder. |
| Playlist fails at a file boundary | Input files have incompatible streams, codecs, dimensions, timestamps, or layouts. | Inspect and normalize the files to compatible formats; test transitions and a complete loop. |
| Container restarts repeatedly | Bad playlist path, unreadable secret, invalid RTMPS URL/key, unsupported option, or unavailable input. | Read container logs, validate mounts and credentials, then test the FFmpeg command interactively before restarting unattended. |
| Container stays up but YouTube stops receiving video | The FFmpeg process may be stalled or disconnected without exiting. | Monitor logs and YouTube ingest status; use a health check or supervisor that detects this state and can restart or alert. |
| Video is not truly 4K60 or looks wrong | Source may be lower resolution/frame rate, scaling or frame duplication may be occurring, or color/HDR settings may not match. | Confirm the source properties and intended SDR/HDR path, then check the received stream in YouTube’s controls. |
Copyright, reused content, and stream-key safety
A technically valid stream does not establish that you have rights to every song, video, image, or recording in the playlist. Get appropriate rights or permission for the material, including any third-party music or footage; a livestream can be interrupted or claimed even when a video is prerecorded. YouTube monetization decisions are separate from whether the encoder works: repetitive or reused programming may not qualify under applicable YouTube policies. Review YouTube’s current rules before building a channel around a recurring loop, and use this copyright safety checklist as a preflight aid, not as a substitute for rights clearance or YouTube policy.
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