Twitch transcoding has a few issues. It's not always available (especially to non-partners), and it is of low quality (which is understandable considering the number of streams Twitch has to provide this service for).

After the recent support of multiple audio streams (for VoD vs. live audio) I propose Twitch add support for sending multiple video streams on the mux to Twitch. This improves multiple issues:

• No requirement for streams to have, or be provided, transcoding options from Twitch's side
• Higher quality viewing options for the client (broadcaster encoded streams of higher quality)
• Reduced load on Twitch's transcoding servers
• Broadcaster controlled stream options

With NVENC being far more sophisticated and generally available to many broadcasters, with most consumer cards supporting 2 encoding streams (and Quatro cards supporting 3+), enabling broadcasters to provide their own quality options increases stream broadcast quality and reduces/removes the need for Twitch to provide this option. This should in turn increase the number of broadcasters not using this feature to be granted Twitch transcoding.

Many broadcasters that would use this feature should be in tune with their community and requirements. A typical example of this being used:

• 5Mbit 720p60
• 2Mbit 480p30

A more sophisticated example for bigger broadcasts (eSports):

• 6Mbit 1080p60
• 4.5Mbit 720p60
• 3.5Mbit 480p60
• 1.5Mbit 480p30

Broadcasting software already has preliminary support for multiple encoding streams (OBS) and bigger broadcasts from eSports companies and events likely use expensive multi-transcoding hardware for their streams to multiple services. With Twitch supporting direct stream support from broadcasters unlike competitors like Youtube, etc. this should continue Twitch's legacy of being the higher quality platform for media broadcast.

During a live stream, could a viewer please choose any of the video statistics under Settings > Advanced > Video Stats, and have only that statistic pinned somewhere on the screen? In my mind it would show up like a running FPS counter in a video game, without having to keep the entire blocky chunk of Video Stats cutting off a huge section of the stream's video (and sometimes the streamer's webcam). For example I find myself constantly checking the "Latency to broadcaster" statistic whenever I watch any stream. I always want to know the delay between what I see instantly in chat and when the streamer will have a reaction to the chat message.

In my experience, many viewers are not aware of the Latency to Broadcaster statistic being available, and often find themselves accruing a huge delay and getting behind on things happening without knowing it. Any number of things can cause these micro delays to accumulate: issues with viewer's internet connection, or the streamer's, or with Twitch's servers too. When I see a delay more than 5 seconds, I want to fix that.

Many people think refreshing the page is the only way to reset the Latency to try and make it smaller, but a quick pause/play of the video or a quick toggle on and off of the Low Latency mode also does the trick. Having the latency to broadcaster pinned somewhere over the video would help me know when I need to do these tricks to reset the latency and have a more interactive experience.

Thanks for your time!

Best,
Ettin

You should provide more quality options for the smaller Twitch channels as well as non-partnered channels. Right now, you can only have more quality options if you are a streamer with a high amount of viewers or a Twitch Partner. This means that the quality is stuck on "Source" and cannot be altered whatsoever. This needs to be changed. I am on a Chromebook and I can't watch a whole 1080p60/30 or 720p60/30 quality stream without the stream constantly buffering every few seconds. When it stops buffering, it 'plays' the stream for about a few more seconds before it starts to buffer again, and ruins my experience and my ability to watch the stream. My Chromebook is only capable of Twitch streaming qualities up to 480p quality, and anything above that makes the video player suffer as a result. I've been trying to enjoy these streams to no avail and end up leaving because it is practically unwatchable with the constant amount of buffering. Please remove the 'exclusivity' and allow all Twitch streamers to have quality options. This constant buffering is getting on my nerves.

It's been a few weeks since Twitch changed how stream quality auto changes based on whether the tab is in the current tab/window or not. This change automatically lowers the quality of streams to 480p (or lower) for streams not in the current tab, and when the stream is tabbed back into focus it does not always resume the originally selected quality.

This is affecting multiple browsers, with or without extensions, so this is seems very much a Twitch end feature to lower data use.
This change however has resulted in some issues:
-More buffering
-Streams hanging/pausing when tabbed out
-Quality not restoring when tabbed back
-Playback issues such as audio desync when the stream quality changes and latency has to catch up
-Streams in background no longer has thumbnail view in task view (windows key + tab) to simultaneously view multiple streams and is instead just a black screen video player.

Overall I feel like the changes have not improved the user experience and has instead introduced more issues than it saves. It should be up to the user to open as many streams as they wish at whichever quality and maintain such experience regardless of window focus.

I use auto host when i am not streaming, however when i got live the host remains... which is fine. however last night (at this point) when the person i was hosting ended for the night it ended my stream as well... which caused a loss of stream to be seen by 5.5 hours. that is insane! Granted i hadn't noticed until i had gone back. how do you expect newer streamers to be aware of this "broken hosting system". Please either put in your KB's that Twitch can't handle the demand of that and for it to not kill ones stream that they MUST /UNHOST when they start if actively hosting. Maybe this is a "new" issue since the amount of streamers has increased hugely since the pandemic started?