Chat has been complaining that the stream delay was pretty bad. Twitch listened and decided to open a beta to reduce stream delay by an average of 33%. The beta started today, if you go into your settings you can click the reduce stream delay box and it should reduce the delay. If you would like to voice your opinion and give stream delay feedback, they have opened a forum for you to discuss. The stream delay is available for all Twitch Streamers not just partners as that was stated yesterday.
via Twitch Blog
How have we reduced the delay? We’ve successfully cut the video segment size from four seconds to two seconds, which decreases the amount of video that is stored in the processing pipeline. If you’re a broadcaster who spends a lot of time interacting with chat, this new reduced delay option means you’ll spend less time waiting for replies.
You can enable this option at any time, but it must be turned on prior to the start of your broadcast to take effect.
We’re releasing the reduced delay beta as an option to broadcasters because it does come at a small quality of service cost – particularly to viewers with poor internet connections. Some viewers may experience changes in playback, with shorter, more frequent buffering times. Because less video is queued on a viewer’s computer, they will be more susceptible to variations in download bandwidth, and may experience more interruptions in service while video buffers. Rather than require every channel to switch to the reduced delay option, we’re leaving it up to the broadcaster to decide what is best for his or her community. If you spend a lot of time interacting with chat, a decreased delay may be incredibly beneficial to your community.
