YouTube introduces 60fps live streaming

YouTube has launched 60fps live streaming, a few months after adding support for higher frame rate video playback on its site. 

YouTube launched 60fps live streaming yesterday as an “early preview” on HTML5-compatible browsers.

“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,” said YouTube product manager Alan Joyce in a company blog post.

“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 said that high frame rates are “especially important” for gaming streams, and that any app using its live streaming API can now add a new ‘high frame rate flag’ to enable 60fps streaming.

At the same time, YouTube announced it has added HTML5 playback for live streaming – “another long-requested feature” – with plans to add more live streaming improvements soon.

“As of this week, YouTube live streams will use an HTML5 player in supported browsers. And because our HTML5 player supports variable speed playback, you can skip backward in a stream while it’s live and watch at 1.5x or 2x speed to catch back up,” said Joyce.

Separately, YouTube also announced yesterday that it is adding the ability for users to click to buy products from within video ads that appear on the service.

TrueView for shopping will let advertisers showcase product details and images that viewers can click to buy from a brand or retail site across mobile phones, desktops, and tablets.

“Brands that have participated in our early tests of TrueView for shopping have seen strong results for driving interest and sales. Online home goods retailer Wayfair, for instance, saw a three-times revenue increase per impression served when compared to previous campaigns,” said Google.