Editing Recording Twitch Live Stream (section)

== Streamlink ==

Source: [https://streamlink.github.io/ Streamlink on GitHub]

Can be installed with homebrew or pip.

Usage: <ref>[https://streamlink.github.io/cli.html Streamlink CLI] - GitHub</ref>

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ streamlink --twitch-disable-ads -o path/to/output.ts https://twitch.tv/[twitchUser] best
</syntaxhighlight>

The `--twitch-disable-ads` pauses recording during preroll and ad breaks in order to avoid discontinuity in the saved stream which interferes with playback in players such as VLC. <ref>[https://github.com/streamlink/streamlink/issues/3210#issue-710685043 Twitch.tv embedded ads] - GitHub</ref>

Streamlink output format is MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS). The output stream will need to be converted into a more usable format with a separate utility, e.g.:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ ffmpeg -i yourvideoname.ts -c:v libx264 outputfilename.mp4
</syntaxhighlight>

See also [https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/api/ Twitch API] and [https://pytwitchapi.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ Python Twitch API].

=== Kick ===

Streamlink can also be used for kick.com streams. 

The latest version of the program (5.5.1) currently does not support Kick streams natively.

Kick streams require a [https://github.com/nonvegan/streamlink-plugin-kick 3rd-party plugin] to be installed. 

This plugin is installed by copying a python script to the Streamlink plugins directory (`~/Library/Application Support/streamlink/plugins/`). 

The plugin depends on the `cloudscraper` Python package, which can be installed with `pip`:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ pip install cloudscraper
</syntaxhighlight>

However, `streamlink` is installed with `brew`. Brew in turn relies on its own python installation, which is different from the system installation. (`/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.x/3.x.x/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.x/lib/python3.x/`) 

When streamlink is run using brew's python install, `cloudscraper` isn't accessible. It's necessary to create a link to the cloudscraper packs installed via pip:   

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ cd /usr/local/Cellar/python@3.x/3.x.x/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.x/lib/python3.x/
$ ln -s /Users/[USER_ACCOUNT]/.pyenv/versions/3.x.x/lib/python3.x/site-packages/cloudscraper ./cloudscraper
</syntaxhighlight>

In addition to the `cloudscraper` package, I found that the Kick plugin also requires the `requests_toolbelt` package. Again, make a link to the system version of this package from within the brew distribution in the same way that the link was made for the `cloudscraper` package.

After these steps are taken, streamlink should be able to record a Kick stream:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ streamlink o path/to/output.ts https://kick.com/[kickUser] best
</syntaxhighlight>