YouTube Gets 4K Streaming: Here's How to Watch it

Subsequently offer 4K videos for years, YouTube is spreading the ultra-high resolution love to its live broadcasts. The platform has officially added 4K streaming support for both standard and 360-degree livestreams, and you lot won't have to wait very long to encounter them for yourself.

YouTube's 4K streams will kick off with tonight's broadcast of The Game Awards, which begin at nine p.one thousand. ET but should exist available on-demand afterwards. The annual gaming manufacture awards show will also be circulate to places similar Twitch, Twitter and Facebook Alive and will even be viewable in VR, though YouTube seems like the only place to lookout the show in glorious 3840 10 2160 resolution.

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Google's weblog post doesn't specify what hardware you'll need to picket livestreams in 4K, though you should exist proficient to become as long as you take a 4K Tv or monitor and a device capable of playing YouTube videos. You'll also need decent bandwidth — while YouTube doesn't give whatever recommendations, Netflix suggests having a download speed of at to the lowest degree 25 megabits per second.

Your stream should default to 4K if yous have the correct display, only if not, yous can click the settings icon at the bottom right of your video and make sure quality is set to 2160p.

The debut of live 4K YouTube streams is only i of many recent instances of 4K video coming to the masses. This year's PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One S consoles are both capable of 4K streaming (and in the PS4 Pro's case, 4K gaming), while streaming devices such as the Chromecast Ultra and Roku Ultra have made ultra-high-resolution video more attainable than ever.

YouTube'south 4K livestreams could be a great way to make alive events such as concerts and awards shows look even more true-to-life, especially when it comes to immersive 360-degree video. It'south ultimately upwardly to creators to brand that happen, so here's hoping that YouTube's biggest channels embrace the platform'due south live-in-4K future.

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Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored and was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide. When not at work, yous can usually grab him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.