A resource-friendly way to stream Twitch.tv content

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 11, 2016
Music and Video
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5

Twitch.tv is a popular destination to watch live streams of various video game and related broadcasts. Most Internet users tune in using a web browser, and that is working fine most of the time.

Twitch used to use Flash exclusively on the site but has since then started to integrate HTML5 video streams on the site as well.

Regardless of that, you may notice that the Twitch browser client can be quite the resource hog. While you may be able to adjust some settings, quality of stream for instance, to reduce its resource hunger, you may prefer a better way of streaming Twitch streams that don't tax the computer as much.

Livestreamer Twitch GUI

Livestreamer Twitch GUI is a graphical user interface for the popular Livestreamer application. We reviewed Livestreamer before here on Ghacks. It is a command line application to watch Internet streams in your favorite media player on the computer.

Livestreamer Twitch GUI makes things more comfortable by adding an interface to the whole process. You need to configure the program before you may use it.

First of all, it is required to download it and Livestreamer to the system. Livestreamer is available for Windows and as source code, Livestreamer Twitch GUI for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Once you have both on your system, you may want to check the settings to make sure everything is set up correctly. The frontend reminds you if something is amiss when you start to play a video as well.

The preferences are quite extensive. I suggest you enable the advanced settings and features preferences at the top to display even more.

Preferences

twitch preferences

While there are lots of preferences displayed on the page, the following ones may be of interest to the majority of users:

  • Set the preferred stream quality. It is set to source by default, but you may change it to a desired quality. This is interesting if your Internet connection is slow or unreliable, or if you prefer maximum quality all the time.
  • Livestreamer lists several parameters including the path to the livestreamer.exe executable, but also stream type and parameters.
  • Videoplayer sets the media player that Livestreamer Twitch GUI will load the stream in. If you leave it blank, the default player will be used.
  • Control various GUI related preferences. Change the theme from light to dark, enable or disable OS integration, and set refresh rates (off by default).
  • Filter streams by language. You may remove broadcaster languages to filter out streams.
  • Configure desktop notifications, for instance when favorites are streaming.

Make sure you hit the apply button at the bottom of the page after you are done. The application displays a prompt if you miss it though.

Browsing Twitch

twitch streamer

Livestreamer Twitch GUI lists several options to browse streaming channels on Twitch. You may use the featured, top games or top channels listings for instance, or use the search at the top for that to find specific streams.

The account-specific section requires that you sign in to a Twitch account. You may then access your subscriptions, live streams, hosted streams, and favorites using the program as well.

twitch stream

Once you have found a stream that you want to watch, you may simply click on it to start the process. If things are set up correctly, the stream opens in the default media player automatically.

Livestreamer Twitch GUI displays options in its interface while the stream is playing in the main media player. Since the stream is displayed in the media player, you won't get access to the chat for instance or other controls while using it.

That's why an option to launch the chat is displayed by the program. You also find options to change the stream quality, and even stream only the audio.

Closing Words

If you run into resource woes regularly when streaming Twitch content, you may want to give Livestreamer Twitch GUI a try.

While it requires an initial setup to get everything going, it is not overly complicated and a one-time process only.

Summary
A resource-friendly way to stream Twitch.tv content
Article Name
A resource-friendly way to stream Twitch.tv content
Description
Livestreamer Twitch GUI is a graphical user interface for the popular Livestreamer application which sends media streams to the default video player on the system.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Why not make use of the mplayer.conf?

  2. Mike J said on August 1, 2010 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Huh, I have never even seen this “font cache” pane; videos play at once for me, using VLC & XP SP3.

    1. Martin said on August 1, 2010 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      Mike, in theory this should have only been displayed once to you, at the very first video that you played with VLC. The time this window is displayed depends largely on the number of fonts in your font directory.

      1. Mike J said on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm
        Reply

        huh, I lucked out for a change?? Amazing!!
        Apparently VLC keeps this info through version updates, but I didn’t see this message after a fresh OS install about 8 weeks ago, & a new VLC.

  3. myo said on August 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    yes, yes, i have the same problem. sometimes, VLC crashes when it is playing .mov file.

  4. Kishore said on August 13, 2010 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    Error:
    Buidling font Cache pop-up

    Solution:

    Open VLC player.

    On Menu Bar:

    Tools
    Preferences

    (at bottom – left side)
    Show settings — ALL

    Open: Video
    Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
    Text rendering module – change this to “Dummy font renderer function”

    Save
    Exit

    Re-open – done.
    Progam will no longer look outside self for fonts

    Source – WorthyTricks.co.cc

    1. Martin said on August 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm
      Reply

      Great tip, thanks a lot Kishore.

  5. javier said on August 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    @Kishore, I’ll try your tips, but does this mean it will no longer show subtitles either?
    I do use subtitles, but the fontcache dialog box pops up (almost) everytime I play a file.

    Could this be related to the fonts I have installed? Or if I add/remove fonts to my system?

    I’ll try to do a fresh install also, if your tips does no work. I’ll post back here later…

    /thanks
    /j

  6. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,

  7. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,Dont worry, VLC is currently sorting out this issue and the next version will be out soon.

    No probs @ Martin !! Its my pleasure

  8. Ted said on October 22, 2010 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Try running LC with administrator privileges. That seemed to fix it for me

  9. Evan said on December 8, 2013 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I am using SMplayer 0.8.6 (64-bit) (Portable Edition) on Windows 7 x64. Even with the -nofontconfig parameter in place SMplayer still scans the fonts. Also, I have enabled normal subtitles and it is still scanning fonts before playing a video. Also, it does this every time the player opens a video after a system restart (only the fist video played).

  10. Mike Williams said on September 6, 2023 at 1:26 pm
    Reply

    Does that mean that only instrumental versions of songs will be available for non-paying users?

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