Optimized YouTube 24/7 streaming script that reduces costs from ~$2 to ~$0.20 by eliminating unnecessary video processing.

1. Smart Download (yt-dlp): Forces YouTube to provide a 1080p H.264 file specifically, ensuring the video is already in the perfect format for streaming.

2. Direct Stream Copy (ffmpeg): Uses -c copy to remove all video processing. Instead of "reading, decoding, resizing, re-encoding, and sending," it now just "reads and sends," reducing CPU usage by ~99%.

• Python 3.7+
• FFmpeg installed and available in your PATH
• YouTube stream key
• YouTube video ID to stream

1. Install Python dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Create a .env file in the project root with your credentials:

   STREAM_KEY=your_youtube_stream_key_here
   YouTube_ID=your_youtube_video_id_here
   

3. Run the stream:

   python stream.py

1. Build the Docker image:

   docker build -t youtube-stream .

2. Run the container with environment variables:

   docker run -d --name youtube-stream \
     -e STREAM_KEY=your_youtube_stream_key_here \
     -e YouTube_ID=your_youtube_video_id_here \
     youtube-stream

   Or use a .env file (make sure it's in the same directory):

   docker run -d --name youtube-stream \
     --env-file .env \
     youtube-stream

3. View logs:

   docker logs -f youtube-stream

4. Stop the container:

   docker stop youtube-stream
   docker rm youtube-stream

The script downloads a YouTube video in the exact format needed (1080p H.264 MP4) and streams it directly to YouTube's RTMP server using stream copy mode, which requires minimal CPU resources since no re-encoding occurs.

• The video will loop infinitely
• Press Ctrl+C to stop the stream (or docker stop if using Docker)
• Ensure FFmpeg is installed: ffmpeg -version (included in Docker image)