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PealCast Beta

Buying guide

The best encoders for church live streaming.

Five encoders we would actually put in a church booth — free software through broadcast-grade hardware. Every one of them speaks SRT, so your service keeps going when the church internet has a bad minute.

See the five picksHelp me choose →

What an encoder does

Your camera makes a picture. An encoder turns that picture into a live stream and sends it somewhere. That is the whole job. It can be free software on a computer in the booth, or a small box that does nothing else. If your church streams anywhere today, you already own one.

Why every pick here does SRT

Church internet is shared with the office, the school and everyone's phones. SRT is built to recover from that — dropped packets get resent before anyone watching notices. It is the difference between a service that freezes at 10:25 and one that does not.

You get both addresses either way. Every PealCast channel is set up for SRT and RTMPS from the moment you create it, so nothing here locks you in — use whichever your encoder supports, and switch any time.

The five we recommend

Listed cheapest first. We sell no hardware and take no commission on any of it — where a box is weak, we say so. Prices are manufacturer list prices as of August 2026 and do move.

Best free option

OBS Studio

Software · runs on a computer you already own

Free

open source

The free software encoder that most churches start on — and plenty never outgrow. It runs on a Mac or Windows computer, takes in cameras through a capture device, and streams straight to PealCast over SRT.

Best for: A church with a laptop and one or two cameras, and a volunteer who is comfortable clicking through settings.

What's good

  • Costs nothing, and SRT is built in — no plugin, no add-on.
  • Lyrics, lower thirds, sermon slides and scene changes all included.
  • The most help available anywhere: every church AV question has already been answered.

What to know

  • It is a computer, so it needs a volunteer to run it, updates at the wrong moment, and can be brought down by anything else on that machine.
  • Cameras need a capture device (roughly $30–200 each) to get into the computer.
OBS setup guide
Best value — switcher and encoder in one box

Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro

Hardware switcher + encoder

$349

ATEM Mini Extreme, 8 inputs: $1,249

Four cameras in, one live program out, and the streaming built into the box. This is the single most common piece of gear in a church booth, and since ATEM Software Control 9.5 it streams SRT as well as RTMP.

Best for: A church that wants to cut between cameras live and would rather push buttons than run software.

What's good

  • Switching, audio, graphics and streaming in one $349 box — nothing else at this price does all four.
  • Streams on its own, so no computer has to stay alive through the service.
  • Steps up cleanly: the Extreme takes eight inputs, and the ISO models record every camera separately for editing later.

What to know

  • HDMI only — long camera runs need SDI-to-HDMI converters or an SDI model.
  • SRT needs a software and firmware update first (9.5 or newer, and the firmware updates separately from the app).
Blackmagic setup guide
Simplest set-and-forget box

Blackmagic Streaming Encoder HD

Hardware encoder

$599

4K model: $785 · formerly sold as Web Presenter

One SDI cable in, one stream out, and nothing else to think about. If your church already has a switcher or a camera with an SDI output, this is the least complicated way to get that signal to PealCast.

Best for: A church that already switches its cameras somewhere else and just needs a dependable box to send the finished program out.

What's good

  • Does one job, so there is almost nothing to misconfigure on a Sunday morning.
  • 12G-SDI in, with the down-conversion handled inside the box.
  • Can run off a phone connection over USB when the building internet fails.

What to know

  • No switching, no graphics — it encodes whatever you feed it.
  • SDI in only, so an HDMI camera needs a converter.
Blackmagic setup guide
Best all-round appliance

Magewell Ultra Encode AIO

Hardware encoder

$899

HDMI-only and SDI-only models cost less

A small rack box with both HDMI and SDI inputs that streams to several places at once, records to an SD card while it streams, and is configured entirely from a web page on your church network.

Best for: A church that wants hardware reliability plus a local recording, without stepping up to broadcast prices.

What's good

  • HDMI and SDI on the same box, so it fits whatever your cameras use now and later.
  • Records to an SD card or USB drive while it streams — a safety copy that never depends on the internet.
  • Set up and monitored from any browser on your network, which makes remote help far easier.

What to know

  • No switching — one input at a time (it can mix two, but it is not a switcher).
  • Everything lives in a web interface, so someone has to be comfortable with a settings page.
Magewell setup guide
Best broadcast-grade choice

AJA HELO Plus

Hardware streamer + recorder

~$2,101

MSRP; options add cost

The box you buy when the stream simply cannot fail. Two independent encoders inside mean it can stream to PealCast and record a full-quality archive at the same time, to an SD card, a USB drive, or straight onto a network drive.

Best for: A larger church, a multi-site campus, or any church whose recording is as important as the live service.

What's good

  • Streams and records at once, at different qualities — the archive is never the compromised copy.
  • SDI and HDMI in and out, so it drops into an existing rack without adapters.
  • Built for installation: front-panel buttons, scheduled recording, and hardware support behind it.

What to know

  • Six times the price of the ATEM Mini Pro, and most churches will never use the difference.
  • No switching, and the setup assumes someone who speaks broadcast.
AJA HELO setup guide

Side by side

Every one of these streams to PealCast over SRT at 1080p.

EncoderPriceCamera inputsSwitches camerasRecords locallyNeeds a computer
OBS StudioFreeWhatever your capture device takesYes, unlimited scenesYes, to the computerYes — it is software
ATEM Mini Pro$3494× HDMIYes, 4 camerasYes, to a USB driveNo
Streaming Encoder HD$5991× 12G-SDINoNoNo
Ultra Encode AIO$8991× HDMI + 1× SDINoYes, to SD or USBNo
AJA HELO Plus~$2,1011× SDI + 1× HDMINoYes, incl. network drivesNo

SRT support: all five — and every one of them does RTMPS as well. PealCast provisions both addresses on every channel, so either protocol works out of the box.

How much buffer each one lets you set

The SRT buffer is what hides packet loss from your congregation. Only two of these five let you change it — which is worth knowing before you go hunting through menus for a setting that is not there.

EncoderWhere the setting livesHighest it allowsWhat we set
OBS StudioOn the SRT URL — add latency=60000000 (OBS counts in microseconds)65,535 ms (the protocol ceiling)60 seconds
ATEM Mini ProNo latency field in ATEM Software Control — Server, Key and Passphrase onlyNot exposedNothing to set
Streaming Encoder HDNo latency field — Server, Key and Passphrase onlyNot exposedNothing to set
Ultra Encode AIOA fixed dropdown: 30 · 60 · 120 · 500 · 1000 · 5000 · 8000 ms (defaults to 120)8,000 ms8000 ms
AJA HELO PlusNo latency field — URL, stream ID, security and passphrase onlyNot exposedNothing to set

65,535 ms is a hard ceiling for every SRT encoder ever made — the protocol carries this value in a 16-bit millisecond field. Ask for more and it wraps around silently: we measured a 90-second request arriving as 24.5 seconds, which is less protection than asking for 60. And whatever you set, the buffer covers packet loss and congestion, not a dead line — if the internet stops entirely, an SRT session ends after about five seconds of silence, which is why auto-reconnect matters more than any buffer. The full test and numbers →

Which one should our church buy?

Find the sentence that sounds like your church.

“We have a laptop and one camera, and a tight budget”

OBS Studio (free)

Add a capture device for the camera and you are streaming today. Move to hardware later if running the computer becomes the weak link.

“We want to cut between two or three cameras”

Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro ($349)

One box switches the cameras, mixes the audio and streams the result. It is the standard church booth setup for good reason.

“We already have a switcher and just need to get the signal out”

Blackmagic Streaming Encoder HD ($599)

One SDI cable in, stream out. The least that can go wrong on a Sunday.

“We need a local recording as well as the live stream”

Magewell Ultra Encode AIO ($899)

Streams and records to a card at the same time, and takes HDMI or SDI so it fits whatever you own.

“The stream and the archive both have to be bulletproof”

AJA HELO Plus (~$2,101)

Two encoders inside: a live stream for your people and a clean high-quality archive, recorded straight to your network drive.

Also worth knowing

What we left off the list, and why.

Epiphan Pearl Nano — around $1,495

A genuinely excellent SRT encoder and recorder that sits between the Magewell and the AJA. We left it off the list only because the AJA covers the same ground with wider support and the Magewell costs far less; if you already own a Pearl, it works with PealCast exactly the same way.

LiveU Solo Pro — bonded cellular

Worth knowing about if your church meets in a school, a rented hall, or outdoors. It combines several cell connections into one stream and sends SRT, which is the only real answer when there is no dependable building internet.

⚠️ Teradek VidiU X and VidiU Go — discontinued

These used to be the obvious church recommendation, and you will still see them recommended everywhere. Teradek discontinued both in 2026 and points buyers at its Prism line. They still stream to PealCast fine, so an existing one is no reason to spend money — but we would not buy one now.

Cheap no-name HDMI encoders — around $100

The $100 boxes on Amazon do list SRT, and some of them work. What you are also buying is a device with no firmware updates, no support line, and nobody to call at 10:25 on a Sunday. For most churches the ATEM Mini Pro is the cheapest box we would actually stake a service on.

Already streaming through BoxCast, Resi or Restream? You do not need any of this. Add PealCast as an extra destination there and your existing production feeds us while you trial — BoxCast, Resi, Restream.

Whichever you choose, the settings are the same — see the stream setup guide.

Encoder questions churches ask

Any of these, pointed at PealCast — and you finally know who watched.

Start free, copy your SRT address, and see the Shepherd’s Report on your own stream.

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