Streaming Twitch (& other live streaming) Using Livestreamer

[eumoria]

Hey Friends!

I'm probably not the only one that watches a lot of twitch.tv here. As a bit of a videophile, if you don't already know, Flash as a video player is kind of a pile of garbage. This comes into glaring detail when watching a high quality 60fps stream on twitch. With typical settings (in Windows specifically but also true in Linux) it won't smoothly display each frame and also screen tearing occurrs. Also much of the post-processing available in h.264 (/x264) isn't used. I'm here to tell you about a little application called Livestreamer!

Livestreamer is an application that pipes the stream you want to watch into VLC (VideoLAN), MPC-HC or really any player of your choice. It makes watching streams so much more enjoyable. You wouldn't believe the quality increase in both clarity and smoothness when using a proper media player.

NOTE : Using this method bypasses Ads. If you enjoy a streamer I recommend donating or running their stream muted and minimized so ads can run. Both Twitch and content producers live on these ads. Only until Flash stops being terrible or they start using a new method I will recommend this. For small content producers ads are great.

OK to the meat of it. Livestreamer is a CLI application. That means it runs in command line, it does not (at the moment) have a GUI. Considering it only has one purpose, "Play This Stream," it doesn't really need it but if you haven't used a CLI app before it might take a bit of description. Don't worry! It's easy!

1: Download Livestreamer:
(scroll down and click the livestreamer-v*.*.*-win32-setup.exe link whatever version it is)

2: Download VideoLAN:
(you can also use other players but Livestreamer will use VLC by default. It works great try this first)

3: Install VideoLAN

4: Install Livestreamer
At the end of the installation it will open a configuration file. This is where you can allow it to pipe to another application such as MPC-HC. If you want to do this just reply if you don't know how and I can explain. Just close this window if you want to use default VLC.

OK so with everything installed it's time to open up a stream!

Go to https://www.twitch.tv and find your favorite streamer or even just a game you like being streamed. Once you have a stream open copy the streamers name. Their name will be at the end of the URL also twitch.tv/<their name>

Now open up the command line. Several ways to do this (in Win7, if you have Win8 install Win7 then try again):
1: Go to Start --> All Files --> Command Line
2: + R then type in CMD hit enter.
Other methods? Probably. All jokes aside in Win8 you can just search for in your *snicker* Metro.

Now that your command prompt is open you need to navigate to the Livestreamer folder. By default you can type:
cd \Program Files x86\Livestreamer


Now type this:
livestreamer twitch.tv/<username> source
For instance, shameless promotion, livestreamer twitch.tv/eumoria_ttv source

NOTE: For more popular streamers other quality options are available. Source (best), High, Medium, Low, Mobile.

It will take a moment then pop open VLC with the stream you chose!

Congratulations! You no longer are shackled to Adobe's horrible media player. Enjoy your streams!

[F13ND]

Thanks eumoria! Really improved the video quality!

[Larry]

But who would want to miss that wholesome Twitch chat?

[Kilgore Trout]

kappa

[BigBiker05]

A much much much easier way is to download the chrome app 'better twitch tv' and it allows you to watch streams with VLC.

[eumoria]

A much much much easier way is to download the chrome app 'better twitch tv' and it allows you to watch streams with VLC.

I use betterttv and that only works if the stream you're watching is HLS, a lot of smaller streamers are not.

You can also Google "Bog's VLC script" and it will do the same thing for you but it will also stutter and close the link like betterttv will.

There are other methods this one is just rock solid and also gives you the option of other players. I use MPC-HC and not VLC

edit: HLS is HTTP Live Streaming, when you reach a certain viewer count on Twitch they give the viewer available stream options (the Source, High, Low thing) when you have that status you can just basically link into VLC and all is well. Their system is changing constantly so there isn't much of an "always works" option without piping. i.e. sometimes sound won't work, etc.