Adaptive Bitrate Streaming: One Toggle, Four Qualities

Switch on ABR in your web player settings and your live stream plays in 360p, 480p, 720p, and 1080p, on the embedded player and on direct HLS links. Every viewer gets the best quality their connection can hold, switching automatically, with no buffering wheel.

One-Toggle Setup 360p to 1080p Auto Quality Switch Player + HLS Links

Free plan available. Hosting plans from $49/month.

LIVE
1080p
Adaptive Bitrate Selection LIVE
1080p 5,800 kbps ACTIVE
720p 2,800 kbps ready
480p 1,200 kbps ready
360p 600 kbps ready

Because your audience's internet is not your problem to fix

Broadcasters serving global audiences have trusted Livepush ABR to keep streams watchable on every connection, from stadium Wi-Fi to rural 4G.

4
Renditions per stream
300K+
Live events delivered
50,000+
Broadcasters and organisations
5 PB
Bandwidth delivered

What is adaptive bitrate streaming?

A single-quality stream forces one choice on every viewer: if it is 1080p, the viewer on hotel Wi-Fi buffers; if it is 480p, the viewer on fiber wonders why your production looks soft. Adaptive bitrate removes the choice by serving all quality levels at once.

With ABR on, Livepush generates 360p, 480p, 720p, and 1080p renditions of your stream in the cloud. Each viewer's player continuously measures its own bandwidth and plays the highest rendition it can sustain, switching seamlessly mid-stream as conditions change.

Your one stream
1080p 720p 480p 360p
Server-side, not encoder-side
You keep sending one stream. Livepush creates all renditions in the cloud, so your upload and CPU load do not change.
Seamless switching
Quality changes happen between segments with no pause, no reload, and no visible interruption to the viewer.
Player and links together
The same setting powers your embedded web player and your direct .m3u8 HLS links, so every playback surface behaves the same.

Enabled with one toggle in your player settings

ABR lives in the Web Player settings of every stream, right beside auto play, live rewind, and the viewers counter. Flip it on and the next segments already carry four renditions. No encoder changes, no restream, no configuration files.

  • Single switch in the dashboard: Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR)
  • 360p, 480p, 720p, and 1080p renditions generated automatically
  • Pairs with accelerated CDN delivery for faster segment loads worldwide
Web Player Settings LIVE
Auto Play
Decide if video should auto play on page load
Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR)
Viewers will be able to watch your live video in 360p, 480p, 720p & 1080p
Live Rewind
Enable users to quickly catch up with previous and live action at the same time

Every viewer keeps watching, whatever their connection

The player picks per viewer, not per stream. Your fiber viewers hold 1080p, the commuter on 4G rides 480p through the tunnel and climbs back up after, and the weakest connection still gets a stable 360p instead of a spinner.

  • Bandwidth is measured continuously; quality follows in real time
  • Downswitches prevent buffering; upswitches restore quality automatically
  • Protects watch time: viewers leave buffering streams, not lower-res ones
Live Audience · Quality Mix AUTO
1080p 438 viewers · desktop 52%
720p 231 viewers · laptop + tablet 27%
480p 142 viewers · mobile 17%
360p 34 viewers · weak signal 4%

All the renditions, none of the encoder work

Traditionally, ABR meant encoding a ladder of qualities yourself and pushing them all upstream. Livepush does the ladder in the cloud: you send your usual single stream and the renditions are cut server-side, before CDN delivery.

  • One upload, same bandwidth, same encoder settings as before
  • Rendition generation runs on Livepush infrastructure, not your machine
  • Need to reshape the source itself first? That is cloud transcoding
Where the Work Happens CLOUD
Your encoder
1 stream · as usual
Livepush cloud
cuts 4 renditions
CDN
edge delivery

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Adaptive Bitrate:
Common Questions

Renditions, switching behaviour, HLS links, and what it costs your encoder (nothing).

What is adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR)?
Adaptive bitrate streaming serves your live video in multiple quality levels at once. Each viewer's player measures its own connection and picks the best rendition it can sustain, stepping down when bandwidth drops and back up when it recovers. The result is smooth playback for everyone, from a phone on 4G to a desktop on fiber.
Which quality renditions does Livepush ABR generate?
With ABR enabled, viewers can watch your live video in 360p, 480p, 720p, and 1080p. All renditions are generated in the cloud from the single stream you send; you do not encode or upload anything extra.
How do I enable adaptive bitrate streaming?
It is a single toggle. Open your stream's Web Player settings in the Livepush dashboard and switch on Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR). From that point your web player and direct HLS links carry all four renditions.
Does ABR work on direct HLS links too, or only the web player?
Both. The embedded web player switches quality automatically, and your direct .m3u8 HLS link becomes a multi-rendition master playlist, so any HLS-compatible player (hls.js, Video.js, AVPlayer, ExoPlayer, Smart TVs) gets the same adaptive behaviour.
Do I need to send multiple streams from my encoder for ABR?
No. You send one stream at your usual quality, and Livepush generates the lower renditions server-side. Your upload bandwidth and encoder load stay exactly the same as a single-quality stream.
How is ABR different from the cloud transcoder?
ABR creates multiple parallel renditions for viewers to switch between during playback. The cloud transcoder changes the one stream itself (resolution, bitrate, FPS, orientation) before it is distributed. They solve different problems and can be relevant at different stages of the same broadcast.
Why does adaptive bitrate matter for viewer retention?
Buffering is the fastest way to lose a live viewer. With a single 1080p stream, anyone on a weak connection just buffers. With ABR, that viewer drops to 480p and keeps watching. The stream stays watchable at every connection speed, which directly protects watch time and audience size.
Is ABR available on every plan?
Adaptive bitrate streaming is part of Livepush's Live Event Hosting toolset for web player and HLS delivery. See the pricing page for which plans include it; hosting plans start at $49/month with a free plan available for testing.