Check Stream Health
A stream health check is the all-in-one probe: is the stream reachable, how fast does it connect, what codec/resolution/frame rate is it carrying, and is the measured bitrate steady? StreamTest runs all of these from our servers in one pass and gives you a single "healthy / unreachable" verdict plus the supporting numbers — the pre-flight you run before going live, or the first thing you check when something downstream looks wrong. It works across RTMP, SRT, HLS, and RTSP, auto-detecting the protocol from the URL.
Run the test
Paste your stream URL (or run the pre-filled example). StreamProbe probes it from our servers — reachability, codec, resolution, frame rate, and a live bitrate sample.
How to read your Stream health results
Reachable & live are not the same
A URL can be reachable (the host answers, the handshake completes) yet not live (no media is flowing). Stream health treats those distinctly: "reachable but not live" usually means a disconnected publisher or a wrong stream key, while "unreachable" points at a firewall, wrong port, or dead origin.
Connect time
Connect time is the TCP/UDP setup latency from our vantage point — the same path your viewers and CDN traverse. A low, consistent connect time is healthy; a high or erratic one foreshadows buffering even when the stream technically "works".
Codec, resolution, frame rate
A healthy stream carries a codec your downstream players accept (h264/AAC for the widest reach), a stable resolution, and a steady frame rate. A codec mismatch is a silent killer — the probe passes but real players reject it.
Bitrate steadiness
The 30-second bitrate sample is the vital sign. Flat at target is healthy; drift or sawtooth is the early symptom of upstream loss or an overloaded encoder. The paid stability metrics (jitter, packet loss, GOP) refine this from "looks fine" to "will fail in 20 minutes".
Frequently asked questions
What does "stream healthy" mean in StreamTest?
It means our server reached the stream, completed the protocol handshake, read a valid keyframe (so it is genuinely live), and measured a sensible codec, resolution, frame rate, and bitrate. A reachable-but-not-live or codec-mismatched result is flagged separately rather than called healthy.
Should I health-check a stream before going live?
Yes. Many stream failures — bitrate drift, codec mismatch with downstream players, a firewall on the ingest port — only surface under load or hours in. A pre-flight health check catches them before your audience does.
My stream is healthy now but failed earlier — can I catch that?
A one-shot check only sees this instant. Continuous monitoring re-probes around the clock, retains uptime and bitrate history, and alerts you the moment health degrades — that is what turns an intermittent failure into something you can actually diagnose.