PeerTube

What it's good for#

If you make videos (a woodworking channel, recordings of your choir, talks from a local group) and don't want them on YouTube, PeerTube gives them a home you control. You upload a video, PeerTube prepares it to play smoothly on phones and computers, and you share the link. There are no adverts, no recommendations pushing something else, and nobody can take your videos down but you.

Videos live in channels. People on other PeerTube servers, Mastodon or Friendica can follow a channel and see each new video in their own feed, and comment on it from there.

Before you install: decide on its address#

This is the one decision you can't change later, so it's worth a minute.

PeerTube builds every link, every video address and every channel around the address it was installed with. Other servers know your channels by that address, so it's your PeerTube's identity on the fediverse.

• If you have a domain set up in LibrePortal, with Traefik running, and PeerTube's access is Public, it takes https://video.<your domain>. This is the only kind of address that can federate.
• If you don't, PeerTube uses your server's own address and port on your network, like http://192.168.1.50:9123. That's fine for sharing videos around the house or over the LibrePortal VPN, but other servers can never follow it.

To check: LibrePortal works PeerTube's address out again whenever it rewrites the app's setup, rather than writing it down for good as it does for Funkwhale; check what an existing PeerTube does when a domain or Traefik is added later, or the server's network address changes

Leave Open Sign-ups off while you install. The install checks that sign-ups are closed, and stops PeerTube if they aren't. You can open them afterwards.

Signing in#

PeerTube has one built-in admin account, called root. LibrePortal gives it a generated password before PeerTube first starts, so PeerTube never makes up a password of its own or writes one to its log. Sign-ups are closed in a new PeerTube, so nobody else can make an account, and there's no setup page for a first visitor to claim.

Sign in with the username root, or with the admin email. The install asks for the Admin email; leave it empty and one is made up: admin@video.<your domain> with a domain, or admin@peertube.invalid without one, an address that can never receive mail. The password is in the Login Details shown when the install finishes. Press Welcome on the app's page to see it again.

The first start takes a while: PeerTube sets up its database before it answers, and LibrePortal waits up to ten minutes for it, then checks that root's login works.

Uploading your first video#

Sign in, press Publish and choose a file. Your account already has a channel to put it in, and you can make more channels for different subjects. Give the video a title and choose who can see it: public, unlisted (anyone with the link) or private.

After the upload, PeerTube transcodes the video: it makes copies at smaller sizes in a streaming format that plays well everywhere. This is the heaviest thing PeerTube does. On a small server a long video can take a while, and it only does one at a time. LibrePortal's settings keep it modest:

• HLS Streaming is on, and the older Web Videos format is off, because keeping both doubles the space each video takes.
• Make 480p and Make 720p are on, and Make 1080p is off. The original is always kept as well.
• Transcode Jobs At Once is 1.

Change them on the Config tab and press Update Configuration. PeerTube's own admin pages show these settings, but LibrePortal's values win.

Letting other people in#

There are two ways, both in PeerTube itself. As the admin, you can create accounts for people from PeerTube's administration pages. Or turn on Open Sign-ups on the Config tab and let people register themselves. A new account is always an ordinary user, never an admin, so opening sign-ups doesn't put root at risk. Without a mail server, new people aren't asked to confirm their email address.

The Tools tab has two tools. Reset User Password takes a username and sets a new password (leave it empty to generate one). Use it for root too: it updates the Login Details at the same time. List Users shows every account, its display name and whether it's an admin, a moderator or a user.

Works with#

PeerTube works with the other fediverse apps in the catalogue, like Mastodon and Friendica. People follow your channels from there. PeerTube itself follows whole servers rather than people: from its administration pages, you can follow another PeerTube so its videos show up on yours.

If you run both on this server, PeerTube's Works with list shows whether they can reach each other, with a Check button that tests everything another server would need, and Follow links for your channels that open the follow page in the other app. LibrePortal never follows anything for you; you press Follow yourself.

Following needs a domain on both sides. Without one, Friendica can still follow a channel's feed on your own network.

Good to know#

• Updates wait for you. Every PeerTube release changes its database the first time it starts, and some change how videos are stored or how it talks to other servers. So LibrePortal starts PeerTube on Manual and pins it to an exact version: pressing Update brings fresh builds of that version, and nothing jumps to a new release on its own. When a newer release appears on the Updates tab, Upgrade moves PeerTube up one version at a time, taking a backup and checking it at every step, so you do it when you've read the release notes. If you'd rather it climbed on its own, set it to Automatic and it steps up one verified version a day. A backup is taken first, as always. See Updates.
• Memory and CPU. About 0.3 GB when it's idle, database included, and up to 0.7 GB and two CPU cores while it transcodes a video. Transcode Threads (in Advanced mode) sets how many cores one job may use.
• Videos take space, and so do backups. Each video is kept as the original plus a copy at every size you make. LibrePortal backs up the database and all of PeerTube's files, videos included, so check your backup location has room. After the first backup, only new videos add much.
• Viewers share with each other. When several people watch the same video at once, their browsers pass pieces of it between themselves, which takes load off your server. It also means viewers can see each other's network addresses. PeerTube lets each viewer switch this off in their own settings.
• It contacts no one else by default. The plugin catalogue, the new-version check and importing videos from YouTube and other sites are all off. Plugin Index, Version Check and Video Import switch them on.
• Email isn't sent until you fill in the Mail Server settings. Password-reset emails and notifications need them; the Reset User Password tool doesn't.
• Live streaming is off. Live Streaming is in Advanced mode, but live streams arrive on a port of their own (1935), which LibrePortal doesn't open for PeerTube. To check: document live streaming once LibrePortal opens port 1935 for PeerTube; today turning Live Streaming on opens no port
• Its own port stays on plain http. Everything PeerTube writes points at the address it was installed with, so its own port isn't switched to HTTPS. The domain address is HTTPS either way.
• Public, with no extra login in front. Other servers and video players have to reach it, and an extra login would lock them out. If it's only for your own network, you can make it private, and it simply won't federate.
• One per server. PeerTube can't run as several copies side by side.