Differences from the JavaScript SDK

The Video Media SDK for Node.js shares the Room, Participant, and Track model and event names with the Twilio Video JavaScript SDK. It connects with the same Access Token and VideoGrant format. It uses the JavaScript SDK object model.

Shared concepts

The following concepts work the same way in both SDKs:

To install either SDK, use npm.
To return a Room, use the connect() method. The Room exposes participants and emits Participant lifecycle events.
Remote media flows through RemoteParticipant, trackSubscribed, and trackUnsubscribed.
Tracks come in three varieties: video, audio, and data.
Publish tracks through LocalParticipant and received through RemoteParticipant.
Room re-emits Participant track events with the emitting RemoteParticipant as the final argument.

What changes on the server

The Node.js SDK runs on a server without camera, microphone, or screen. The following table maps each feature between browser and server.

	Video JavaScript SDK	Video Media SDK for Node.js
Send video frames	Captures local media from a camera or microphone.	Push raw frames without device capture.
Render video frames	Renders remote media.	Doesn't render the raw decoded frames.
Accept audio inputs	Accepts various input from devices.	Uses 48 kHz mono S16LE PCM.
Tune bandwidth	Supports adaptive simulcast and the TrackPriority API.	Uses `bandwidthProfile`, `encodingParameters`, and `setContentPreferences()`.
Create local tracks	Creates asynchronously after device permission.	Creates synchronously without device prompt.

Platform differences

The JavaScript SDK runs in a browser. The Node.js SDK runs on Node.js 24 or later on Linux x64 or macOS x64. On Apple Silicon, install Rosetta. To learn more, see system requirements.

Next steps

Quickstart: Connect to a Room and move your first frames.
Work with media frames: Learn the I420 video and PCM audio formats that replace device capture and rendering.