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Since it's MLG weekend, I figure it's a good time to ask people how they usually watch streams. I'll be moderating a PAX panel with DJWheat, EG CEO Alex Garfield, Tosspot, and a local FGC streamer on how to get started as a streamer. If you're not going to PAX, you can still watch it on twitch.tv!. To get ready for Q&A I'm doing a bunch of encoder tests, trying to decide what some good recommendations for XSplit encoder settings are. But to pick the right tests, it helps to know how people usually watch streams. I searched for threads on this but the only one I could find is about the stream pages on the Team Liquid site, not the stream itself.
It would be a big help if TLers could take this 3-question poll about their setup when they are watching streams. Thanks!
EDIT Sorry the first question here is a bit of a mess. I should really be asking "if the stream is offered in resolutions up to 1080p or higher, what would you watch?" If your #1 favorite stream only uses 720p, but your #3, 4, and 5 use 1080p and you watch them using 1080p, pick 1080p. Also assume you don't have to pay for the stream.
Poll: At what resolution do you usually watch streams?720p (123) 47% 1080p or higher (64) 25% 480p (47) 18% lower than 480p (27) 10% 261 total votes Your vote: At what resolution do you usually watch streams? (Vote): lower than 480p
(Vote): 480p
(Vote): 720p
(Vote): 1080p or higher
Poll: What display do you use to watch streams?Fullscreen on my gaming desktop (115) 53% Default player size (not fullscreen) on my gaming desktop (32) 15% Fullscreen on a very large (> 26") monitor or a TV, but still from a computer (28) 13% Fullscreen on a laptop or tablet (23) 11% Default player size (not fullscreen) on a laptop or tablet (12) 6% Other (add a comment to tell me about your setup!) (4) 2% Fullscreen a TV using a Roku or other CE device (2) 1% Smartphone (2) 1% 218 total votes Your vote: What display do you use to watch streams? (Vote): Default player size (not fullscreen) on my gaming desktop
(Vote): Fullscreen on my gaming desktop
(Vote): Default player size (not fullscreen) on a laptop or tablet
(Vote): Fullscreen on a laptop or tablet
(Vote): Fullscreen on a very large (> 26") monitor or a TV, but still from a computer
(Vote): Fullscreen a TV using a Roku or other CE device
(Vote): Smartphone
(Vote): Other (add a comment to tell me about your setup!)
Poll: What's your internet DOWNLOAD speed where you watch streams?> 10.0 mbps (109) 53% 6.0-10.0 mbps (33) 16% < 1.5 mbps (30) 15% 3.0-6.0 mbps (22) 11% 1.5-3.0 mbps (11) 5% 205 total votes Your vote: What's your internet DOWNLOAD speed where you watch streams? (Vote): < 1.5 mbps
(Vote): 1.5-3.0 mbps
(Vote): 3.0-6.0 mbps
(Vote): 6.0-10.0 mbps
(Vote): > 10.0 mbps
*What's that? They're going to live stream a panel about live streaming? Yo, dawg ...
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First question is kind of awkward. I watch it on the highest quality available without having to pay. Usually 720p, but there's a couple 1080p streams I follow.
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Yeah, and I forgot to include "at Barcraft" in the where do you watch streams question. But I can't edit polls after the fact... it'll have to be close enough for jazz.
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United States5162 Posts
I like to watch streams popped out taking up about 2/3rds my screen. And as Grobyc said, I'll watch the highest quality that's free.
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I can't stand fullscrean, I'm always switching tabs to facebook, TL, liquipedia and other stuff.
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720p with fullscreen sometimes. But most of the time I am switching through tabs or messaging people on skype.
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I edited the first question a little. Are the people picking 720p because they watch streams that don't have 1080p available? Would you watch 1080p if it were available or is it too much bandwidth/decoding for your machine to deal with while you're alt-tabbing and doing other stuff?
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Most streams are 720p so that's what I actually typically use, but if 1080p is available I'd use it.
My 2nd monitor is a TV so I'll fullscreen it there if I'm watching big events like GSL. For player streams I usually pop out the player and have it cover 2/3 of screen, so I can use skype, notepad, etc while watching.
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opterown
Australia54784 Posts
for a multi-stream weekend tournament, i have all streams open on my desktop.
good thing i have two monitors (one of which is 2560x1440 res) ;D
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interesting that the two highest numbers in "what speed is your internet" are the highest and lowest options ;p
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240p because I have 90 gb monthly bandwidth TT
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At the highest available no-costs resolution.
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i dont have bandwidth caps to worry about but i checked the past three months and im averaging over 400gb a month
dunno how people deal with that bs when it comes to watching streams
if its a big tournament or i am going to sleep i will throw a stream up on my tv, otherwise ill just have one fullscreen on my 2nd monitor if anything worth watching is on
i use the highest available resolution
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United Kingdom1103 Posts
usually 480 in a window on my 24" desktop... I'd like to stream @ 720p but can't due to shitty internets becasue I live in the middle of knowhere 
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Always the highest resolution.
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Screenshot of my computer desk inside spoiler. It's a little out of date, but the monitor layout is still the same.
+ Show Spoiler +
The 32" TV there is prime for the HQ streams, and even LQ streams look dandy on it. I don't always have the TV on, though, so monitors two and three get the streaming duty. Most of the time I'll be playing a game or something on 2, with chat windows on 1.
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Average settings, but, as many people pointed out, i like to switch taps/windows a lot, but sometimes i also go bigass full screen on my 27" Monitor with my popcorn for MLGs and stuff i really like to spend time on. Maybe you should add this category (Fullscreen for big events nights, standard most of the time to be able to switchs tabs and windows, cause i feel lots of people are doing this)
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I seldom really focus on one or two streams... I'll just run the default size windows (usually highest possible resolution)
+ Show Spoiler +Here's a pic of my old setup ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/x67Dw.jpg) I now have the vertical monitor on the left but the point is two pop-out windows fit very well in that space
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I watch 720p and usually just on my gaming PC, but I have a 32" TV right next to it in my room that I'll use for finals or other really exciting matches.
Also if there are 2 games I really want to see at once, I turn my TV abot 45 degress and watch 1 on my TV and one on my computer. Pretty sick.
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Thanks to everyone who replied! Scootaloo, I hope you are sponsored by Asus or Vizio or something!
So everyone who replied has very good Internets, but still watching 720p streams. You can usually deliver a good 1080p stream with < 8mbps. So why are people watching 720p streams instead? Does the 1080p stream stutter for you?
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I watch most streams on my secondary monitor, while using the primary for other stuff (gaming, photo-editing, browsing, whatever...). Since my seconday monitor is an old thing, there's no point in going over 720p.
When I feel like watching a stream fulltime (like with some interesting matches in the top tournaments), I'll use my main monitor and swap to 1080p if available.
I have 50 Mbps download bandwidth, so that's plenty, but sometimes streams stutter (this is often, but not always, independent of resolution). It seems to be a common issue with Twitch in Europe unfortunately.
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On August 26 2012 23:11 imMUTAble787 wrote:
i dont have bandwidth caps to worry about but i checked the past three months and im averaging over 400gb a month
dunno how people deal with that bs when it comes to watching streams
if its a big tournament or i am going to sleep i will throw a stream up on my tv, otherwise ill just have one fullscreen on my 2nd monitor if anything worth watching is on
i use the highest available resolution
This sums up what I do as well for the most part. Sometime's I'll open up multiple streams(tournaments, two streamers playing each other, etc.) I'd say I split my time 75/20/5 for fullscreen/default to chat/fullscreen with chat on second screen.
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I used to watch in 720p-1080p when available on 2nd monitor while sc2/TL/other is on first monitor. Stream is usually fullscreen on 2nd monitor unless there is a few good streams or tournaments going, then i do a side-by-side streams on 2nd monitor. Then i moved and my net is pretty crap now (comcast, nothing better around) so i'm lucky if i can even get a 240p stream to stay decent. So i can't do this anymore..
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I'm in New Zealand we have horrible internet so everything is at less then 480p all the time.
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Most of the time i use my nook tablet for watching streams (smaller than ipad) so I just use 480p since it doesn't look that much worse than 720p. When there is a large event going on (mlg, iem, dh, hsv, ipl) then i watch on my computer with the highest quality.
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I always watch the highest quality available. I have no problem watching 480p or even 360, even if it is a little blurry I am not all that picky. Sometimes I have a couple streams open at the same time, like MLG red and blue. Never had an issue with stream lag where I live, but I have great internet so...
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One thing I find interesting is:
720p 50fps streams generally use 1800 to 2000 kbps
1080p 30 fps streams generally use 2500kbps (some people like to lower the compression to even lower standards, requiring 3000-3500kbps but this is very rare!)
What this means is that a >10 mbit download is mooore than enough.
52% of people have a >10mbit connection, yet only 23% watches 1080p.
Why do people with a sufficient connection, often watch 720p, rather than 1080p? I am really curious about this trend.
EDIT: after some more research it would seem that people actually have data limits?! I thought datalimits were already in the process of being permanently removed, years ago. I live in the netherlands and none of our ISPs have any data limits attached. I easily use over 2 terabytes of data a month, probably.
More and more people are getting fibre optics in our country. Which equal 100mbit down 100mbit up, there's a "fair use" policy in place, but that only means that you shouldn't use up 10+ terabytes a month consistently :-).
In whole of europe I think that the only country consistently applying low speeds, overpriced connections and bad data limits, is belgium. There is one or two ISPs that have a monopoly position there and they are really ruining the available connections for decent prices there.
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On August 28 2012 16:09 kaluro wrote:
One thing I find interesting is:
720p 50fps streams generally use 1800 to 2000 kbps
1080p 30 fps streams generally use 2500kbps (some people like to lower the compression to even lower standards, requiring 3000-3500kbps but this is very rare!)
What this means is that a >10 mbit download is mooore than enough.
52% of people have a >10mbit connection, yet only 23% watches 1080p.
Why do people with a sufficient connection, often watch 720p, rather than 1080p? I am really curious about this trend.
EDIT: after some more research it would seem that people actually have data limits?! I thought datalimits were already in the process of being permanently removed, years ago. I live in the netherlands and none of our ISPs have any data limits attached. I easily use over 2 terabytes of data a month, probably.
In the US data limits are getting worse, not better . Also, even a "10-12 mbps" advertised connection might not always give you that speed. What's more, if you want to be able to do other things while watching a stream (browse the web, use spotify/grooveshark, etc.), you might not want to always watch 1080p.
The bitrate/compression and CPU needed to stream SC2 can go as high as you want. Encoding a ZvP max battle at 18 CRF and medium preset takes 30,000 Kbps (!!) which takes a Blu-Ray quality transfer rate and a dedicated i7-3960. But maybe if 70% of TL viewers have 6Mbps+ internet, people should stream at higher bitrates? EDIT: of course, people who respond to a poll probably have better internet than TL in general, who have better internet than lots of viewers.
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EPT![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15545173/Four.jpg)
