It looks like Facebook are finally making the leap to 1080p for live streaming video. Most users have been stuck at 720p30 since the platform started their Live video service but more recently there has been an option for some Facebook Gaming users to encode at 1080p. Dedicated Wowza Streaming Facebook servers have offered 1080p support for a few years.
Please note that this article was first published in early 2019. A lot has changed since then.
Important information April 2020 – Facebook may down-scale some 1080p Live Streams to 720p even via the API where 1080p is usually available. We sent a live stream using the Facebook API and it did achieve 1080p when live i.e 1080p was displayed to viewers but the archived version was downscaled to 720p. This is likely a direct result of efforts to reduce bandwidth – perhaps at peak times only – during the current crisis.
Edit – November 2020 – 1080p is working fine with live streaming devices using the full Facebook Live Partner API. Screenshot below is form a Mevo Start camera. The Live feed and archived versions are both 1080p.
Facebook haven’t updated their published specifications for going live – their help pages still show the 720p30 4mbps 128kbps audio with keyframe at 2 second intervals. In the limited tests we’ve conducted (21/5/2019) it seems that the 1080p upgrade isn’t fully implemented yet.
Update early 2020 – Facebook developers can implement 1080p live streaming via the API. So if your hardware or software is up to date and has the new API settings available then 1080p is supported.
Here are the new reference specs for Facebook Live:
Update Early 2022 – We are seeing most RTMPS streams achieve 1080p on Facebook. If you’re streaming through a web browser or an encoder that auto-configures the datarate then you could see 480p or 720p if it thinks your connection is too slow. That’s not to say you actually have a slow connection but the auto-config thinks you might!
I don’t know if we will see 1080 60p in regular Facebook streams (game streamer accounts have it). For now 1080 30p seems to be the limit.
Manual streaming via RTMPS will probably still be 720p unless your account has been 1080p enabled. And if the developer of your streaming hardware/software hasn’t updated their FB API integration to support 1080p then you could also be stuck with 720p.
Regional roll-out underway
Some users are seeing 1080p fully supported on ingest, live viewing and later during playback. We don’t know if it’s account specific or simply related to the CDN access points globally having the feature enabled. The good news is that the roll out is almost certainly underway.
So we could send 1080p but in our test (with a business Page) the “resolution too high” error messages were still present.
Whilst the ingest page states 1080p is the maximum supported resolution we could see that 720p was delivered to viewers on this test.
We then ran some test streams in a Facebook Group – a user based in Ukraine could send 1080p to the same Group with no log errors and full 1080p HD live streaming and replay. In the UK with our account we saw errors in the event log and could only see 720p displayed to viewers.
Officially it’s still 720p
See the update at the top of this article – essentially 1080p is now part of the API. Manual streaming via RTMPS will still be limited to 720p for most accounts.
Once Facebook publishes more details we’ll have proper information about the maximum frame rates and datarate – with luck that will be 8mbps for 1080p 50/60 streams. A bump in audio to 256kbps would be nice too.
Currently 1080p is working for a small number of users via RTMPS with a manual stream key. Devices or software using the automated Facebook API will probably need an update. Our Magewell UltraStream HDMI unit is limited to 720p via the API but happy to send 1080p to FB via RTMPS.
In late May 2019 we streamed 1080p to Facebook using the simulcast option in Vimeo Premium. The feed went to Vimeo Live and was relayed by Vimeo to three different Facebook Pages in full HD. Vimeo use the full FB partner API. They do recompress rather than restreaming so in theory there will be some losses. However, we are assured Vimeo’s ingest and transcoding system is doing a pretty good job and delivers decent quality 1080p to FB.
This welcome upgrade will make multi-casting to several destinations a lot simpler with Facebook , YouTube and Vimeo all supporting 1080p.
Hi interesting Post. Do you know, if it possibile to request the “resolution high” feature to get it earlier? I also liked the idea to go live via Vimea Live. Is it possible to use it with the planned facebook live feature? (We use the crossposting features)
Thanks – Valentin
Hi Valentin,
I’m not aware of any method to speed up the upgrade process. Facebook are still publishing the old 720p 4mbps guidelines for encoding for standard streaming. FB Gaming does have 1080p but this doesn’t apply to non-gaming account streams. Some of our clients get 1080p, we only get 720p but have seen 1080p in testing. In time FB will roll it out across the board – keep your eyes open for an official announcement.
Gavin
You must join Facebook level up program to be able to stream 1080. I own a facebook page STREAMING TEAM ROMANIA and on this page i can stream at 1080p.
Hi Ionut,
Thanks for your comment. That used to be the case but things are changing. We have been streaming 1080 to regular client Pages (not Gaming/Level up accounts) since May 2019. In the last couple of weeks Facebook updated their API (Oct 2019) to support 1080 and they also removed the simulcast limitation. Once vendors update their kit/apps with the new API features 1080p will be standard. It’s not clear when RTMPS will fully support 1080p for everyone but some users have had it on their Pages and personal profiles since May 2019.
Thanks again for your comment – will check out your Page.
Gavin
May I know your OBS or streamlabs setting?
Hi,
We only use software for streaming when hardware encoding is not practical. With regards to OBS settings for Facebook there has been an update to their recommended settings.
The new guidelines are up to 1080p60 4mbps for video and 128kbps for audio keyframe interval 2 seconds.
However, if you put those settings into OBS it’s more likely than not that your stream will be downscaled to 720p30.
So, if your Page/Group is limited to 720p30 then you may as well send 720p30 4mbps with 128kbps audio. Keyframe interval should default to 2 seconds if you let OBS decide but you can manually enter it if preferred.
The reason why streaming software like vMix or online solutions like Vimeo can achieve 1080p on Facebook is because they use the Facebook API rather than manual RTMPS.
Right now testing exactly what Facebook can do or will allow is difficult to work out. The global pandemic has meant that streaming providers are cutting datarates (and possibly streaming resolution options) to reduce bandwidth and ease the burden on ISPs and other service providers.
I don’t have any advanced settings to offer in regards to OBS. You can choose X.264, New NVENC, NVENC or QuickSync depending on your system capabilities. Usually x.264 is better but needs a lot of system resources.
StreamLabs OBS isn’t something I’ve used other than their Android app (which is neat).
Gavin
We use vMix, I have different pages on one FB page through vMix streaming at 1080p60 with 4 MBps bitrate (and 4.5 too), I get 1080p but on my main church page, I only get 720p. What is strange is our off shoot pages, we can get 1080p on those pages but any live or upload on our main page is still up to only 720p using the same platform. Any advice appreciated!
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your question. If you’re syndicating via Facebook (Cross Posting) then streams are usually 1080p using the full API. It is unusual to see 720p if the other cross-posted Pages are 1080p from the same feed. Facebook don’t provide direct tech support so you can’t really ask them why it’s not working.
If I’ve understood correctly you’re sending 1080p to Page 1 (main Page) but it’s displaying 720p. Cross-posted versions of the same feed on Pages 2/3/4 etc are 1080p – is that right?
Finally – I don’t think 1080 60p is currently supported for non-gamer accounts. At best I think it’s 1080 30p. Could be worth trying that to see if you achieve something better than 720p.
There’s a tech support guy from FB Live in one of the Facebook Groups I use. He’s helpful – doesn’t have direct access/can’t pull strings for anyone but has confirmed 1080 60p is in the works. The 720p roll-out is taking time so that when they fully release it to all users it should be working well.
Gavin