Video Pass-through
Video Pass-through routes an input video signal directly to a configured output destination without re-encoding. The compressed bitstream is forwarded as-is, preserving the original quality and eliminating the latency and quality loss associated with a decode-re-encode cycle.
Key capabilities
Forward incoming compressed video to one or more outputs without decoding or re-encoding. Preserves original codec, bitrate, and quality. Significantly lower latency compared to transcode paths. Can be combined with active transcode destinations on the same pipeline.
Broadcast engineering context
When an already-encoded contribution feed arrives at the encoder (e.g., from a remote encoder via SRT), re-encoding it would introduce a generation loss and additional latency. Pass-through avoids this by forwarding the compressed stream directly. This is particularly valuable in relay and distribution topologies where the encoder acts as a routing node rather than an encoding node.
Use cases
- Signal relay — forward an SRT contribution feed to multiple destinations without re-encoding
- Clean feed distribution — pass an unmodified feed to a monitoring or archive destination
- Low-latency monitoring — provide a reference output with minimal added delay
- Hybrid pipelines — mix pass-through and transcode outputs from a single input
UI Settings
Navigate to Settings → Destinations, select a destination, and set Mode to Pass-through. Other destinations on the same pipeline can use a different mode (e.g. Transcode) at the same time — pass-through is configured per destination, not per encoder.
Video