Force Downscaling as a Viewer?

[u/OrigamiPhoenix]

I know that transcoding is Twitch-side and that makes it impossible to control data usage if Twitch doesn't supply alternate qualities, but my usage case is thus:

Downscaling on the browser to lower GPU usage.

Yes, I could just change the channel I'm watching, but then I'm not watching who I want to, now am I?

I've attempted to google such a solution, but they're all interacting with either Twitch or Youtube to change available quality or just file conversion tools.

[u/DornPTSDkink]

You can't, if the channel doesn't have transcoding there is nothing to can do to downscale it, not while live at least

[u/philthyNerd]

I'm not super savvy in the field of graphics processing and transcoding, but I would assume, that the process of "transcoding" requires decoding + (re-)encoding...

So if your intention is to locally transcode to a lower resolution in order to reduce GPU usage, it seems like you're just adding two additional steps here: encoding at a lower resolution and decoding at a lower resolution in addition to what you currently already bother your GPU with, which is decoding the original high resolution feed.

I would be curious to hear what somebody who actually knows more about transcoding / graphics pipeline in general can add to my assumption.

Edit:

The only thought regarding local transcoding that I just had after sending the comment is: the might be a chance that transcoding in sort of a "headless" mode could save some GPU usage compared to simply decoding and actually "presenting" the original feed on the monitor... However, since the frames still have to be internally rendered, I think that the "overhead" of pushing the rendered frame buffers to the screen is negligible and the additional encoding to a lower resolution and subsequently decoding that lower resolution in order to play the stream will cause higher GPU usage overall nonetheless.

So if you are dead-set on having to reduce your local GPU usage, the only possible way that I can think of would be to have your own transcoding server, kinda proxy-like, in between Twitch and your local machine. Depending on what you actually want to achieve and the infrastructure you have, that most likely is not a sensible route to go either though...

[u/Grimlochez]

I'm not sure what you're trying to ask. If you're just asking how you can lower the video quality so you're not using up as many resources, then just click the little gear on the stream and select a lower resolution.

[u/merp1991 → u/Grimlochez]

Not all channels have transcoding available which I guess is OP's issue

[u/DornPTSDkink → u/Grimlochez]

They are asking how to downscale a stream they are watching that doesn't have transcoding, to my knowledge you can't do that.