Are you a YouTube snob? We don't blame you. We wish we could flick a switch and have all of the service's content run in 4K, or at least 1080p at 60 frames per second. We just can't get enough of that silky smooth video, especially when we're watching someone accomplish some crazy gaming feat.
However, if you've been turning to YouTube instead of a rival service like Twitch to watch people play games in real-time, you've probably felt a little underserved. Until now, YouTube's live streams have only been able to run at 30 frames per second, whereas Twitch streams have been able to hit 60fps. But now, if you have an HTML5-friendly browser (which you can check here), you'll be able to watch YouTube live streams at 60fps.
Last year, YouTube added support for 60fps to YouTube streams, but that now extends to live streams. Earlier this year, meanwhile, it dropped Flash for HTML5 by default for streaming videos, something that is also now coming to live streams.
That means you'll be able to speed up and slow down the stream as you see fit—or, if you missed a moment, skip backwards to catch up.
"When you start a live stream on YouTube at 60fps, we'll transcode your stream into 720p60 and 1080p60, which means silky smooth playback for gaming and other fast-action videos. We'll also make your stream available in 30fps on devices where high frame rate viewing is not yet available, while we work to expand support in the coming weeks," YouTube product manager Alan Joyce said in a blog post.
Those who do more game streaming than stream watching will find that some of the more popular apps for doing so—Elgato Game Capture, XSplit Broadcaster, and XSplit Gamecaster—have been updated today to support 60fps YouTube live streaming. Additionally, any other application that uses YouTube's live-streaming API should be able to set a little flag to enable 60fps streaming.
"These are the latest in a series of improvements we've been making to live streaming on YouTube and there are plenty left to come, so stay tuned for more very soon," Joyce writes.