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High performance events on Twitch require subs for HD, 480p replaced by 360p+

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Mod Abuse:

Misleading title.

There are 2 types of subscriptions on Twitch.

Some streams (usually high-production tournament events) have required that you subscribe to their stream, to access 720p and up. In this scenario, the highest res you were able to get for free was 480p. Since there is now no longer a 480p transcode, the best you will be able to get is 360p. The vast majority of streams on Twitch on any given day are not these types of events with this subscription model.

The vast majority of streamer on Twitch are individuals. They often have subscriptions you can purchase too. However, from most cases I've seen, they dont lock HD resoultions behind the subscription paywall, instead they tend to offer things like the ability to chat, or custom chat icons etc. In this situation, your resolution options will remain unchanged (unless you specifically liked watching at 480p).

---

Coming from Twitter, it seems Twitch is now only letting people have 360p for streams that have subscription HD as an option. It looks like less popular and personal streams are still unaffected, but things like MLG and LoL's LCS require it.

https://twitter.com/TwitchTVSupport/status/372490266256498688

It now says "Low, Medium, and High" for quality on major streams, I believe low is 240p, medium is 360p, and high is "360p+".
 

Nozem

Member
Twitch is often terribly laggy for me. No way i'll ever pay for HD if they cant even deliver SD streams without lag.
 

Mokubba

Member
First post again lol.

so that means EVO will be 360p because that's the only one I remember with the option.
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Title should likely be "Many Streams", because I don't see any personal streamer who is effected by it yet, but any tournament steam I have checked so far says I have to pay to view it in HD.

Wait... That's pay to watch or to stream yourself?

Pay to view major streams at 480p and up.
 

idlewild_

Member
Wait, the LCS streams too? But you never had to pay for HD in the past unlike OGN...

Shame, will switch to youtube or azubu if that's the case.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
For a minute I was actually upset but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense with the type of service they run. It isn't cheap or free.

I suspect many will have fits about it but it actually makes sense. Especially with the impending next gen consoles looming which both use it.

480p on your browser is good enough so I hope even the ones like me who don't want to pay can live with it.
 

Tenck

Member
Twitch is such a laggy mess most of the times I'm watching a big event. Never going to support them in their current state.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Twitch is shit but I'm forced to use, just like Youtube. This new "feature" makes Twitch even shittier, if that even is possible.
 

CTLance

Member
I don't follow these streaming things much, but I'd say this makes twitch rather unappealing. At least from my perspective.

I mean, locking out 720p and above I can see, given their disproportionate bandwidth requirements, but not even a meager 480p? We're going back to the stone ages with this, aren't we.
 

profit

Member
Wait, this has been the case for a lot of big tournament streams for a while now. Sure sometimes you got 720p for free and +720p needed to be paid for. But this really isnt that new.
Besides, the reason they switched to "low, medium, high" was to get rid of the resolution options because the higher resolution didnt always mean the best quality, or so thats what I understood of there statement.
 

patapuf

Member
For a minute I was actually upset but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense with the type of service they run. It isn't cheap or free.

I suspect many will have fits about it but it actually makes sense. Especially with the impending next gen consoles looming which both use it.

480p on your browser is good enough so I hope even the ones like me who don't want to pay can live with it.

360p for a game like starcraft or dota is not enough imo. Makes for a horrible viewing experience.
 

Hybrid897

Member
Sucks that there is no 480p unless its what the streamer is sending out.

360p makes it really difficult to read text on screen and 720p is too much for my poor Australian bandwidth limit :(

I'd much rather a

ILikeSeeingNothing: 240p
Low: 360p
Med: 480p
High: 720p
Source

Option
 

BitStyle

Unconfirmed Member
Terrible. If I didn't have to put up with the countless lag and problems that persisted over their site the previous year, I would've accepted this.
 
Yo 8.95
gDujCjC.png
 

wildfire

Banned
Is Twitch the bad one or is it UStream?


They are both bad at this point. Ustream was the unreliable POS that failed to host the Nintendo Direct during E3 properly.

Twitch is a lot more stable in general but policies like this just made watching tournaments with text like Eve Online and Starcraft miserable.

When Own3d was still in business they had their own issues like not paying streamers (not my immediate problem as a viewer but still garbage for the underlying implications which no doubt led to its closure) and a pretty sloppy UI.
 

BernardoSLR

Neo Member
lol Subscribe to each channel to get HD!? And I've even seen channels with a $20/month subscription! ahahah I pay $60 for Internet and $20 for a stream on Twitch..... These guys are on crack.
 

Zemm

Member
Oh wow, no 480p? Ridiculous, that was the best middle ground if 720p was too laggy (which is like 60% of the time with their servers) since 360p is awful.
 

hwy_61

Banned
As mentioned already, their streams are hot garbage. They constantly stop to buffer. I never have any issues with any other sites. Just twitch.

I ain't paying for squat.
 

jediyoshi

Member
lol Subscribe to each channel to get HD!? And I've even seen channels with a $20/month subscription! ahahah I pay $60 for Internet and $20 for a stream on Twitch..... These guys are on crack.

That's not

nope.

And you're right, those individual streamers are cray.
 

Tizoc

Member
eH My net hates Twitchtv and I can usually just run it at 240p...so I ain't missing out on a lot =V
 
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