Our team (and this dog) present to you: 1080p streaming on Twitch

Your Twitch streams will soon look finer than ever thanks to our new 1080p/60fps video support.

For starters, we’re no longer limiting our ingest bitrate to 3.5 megabits. We officially recommend 3–6 megabits for most streams, skewing toward the higher end for 1080p broadcasts or faster, more demanding games.

We’re also rolling out a new set of numbered quality options (transcodes, if you’re fancy), starting today. Viewers now have more choices, and you won’t have to worry about them dropping to 480p when “source quality” is unavailable. Combined with our recent transcode updates, it’s never been easier to stream higher quality video to more people.

How do you know if your channel has the new quality options? Visit Twitch Inspector and check your latest stream data for an indicator called “Transcode V2.” Once you have access (we’re rolling out support for all channels in the coming weeks), your viewers will be able to open the video settings menu and find more p’s than a plate of pepperoni pizza.

Twitch Inspector is about more than just quality options, though. It lets you monitor and troubleshoot your stream stability and run test streams before you go live so your viewers will have the best experience possible.

If you’re new to streaming, or even if you’ve been doing it for years, it can be difficult to know what video quality your hardware and your internet connection can handle, or what your broadcast software settings mean. To get started, check out our new site at stream.twitch.tv with recommendations for setting up your own stream, and then watch the video below from Twitch Labs. It has a trash talking science dog.

Remember: with great power comes great responsibility. Just because you can stream at 1080p and higher bitrates doesn’t necessarily mean you should. It’s better to have a stable stream at a lower resolution or bitrate than a higher quality stream that makes you drop frames. If you’re unsure, check out our streaming guide and use Twitch Inspector. We promise not to lead you astray.

Seriously, though. Trash. Talking. Scientist. Dog.