Passthrough vs Transcoding vs Streaming: Why The Same Server Supports Different Stream Counts

Quick Summary Passthrough streaming repackages a stream without re-encoding it and skips the expensive GPU stages. Transcoding decodes and re-encodes the video and engages the full GPU pipeline. A full streaming workflow adds an adaptive bitrate ladder, multi-format delivery, and sometimes AI analysis, which activates every variable at once and forces them to contend for…