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While you would be correct in thinking Steam already supported "video streaming" via the recently introduced Steam Broadcasting, a new update to the Steam Client Beta released earlier today has added the ability to stream structured video content for the first time. The first (and currently only) video to receive this functionality is "Free to Play", Valve's own Dota 2 eSports documentary released back in March 2014.
The new option provides users the ability to directly stream films and video content from Steam servers without having to download the whole thing onto a local hard drive, much in the same way Netflix and other streaming services function.
By clicking the "Watch" option on the store page after downloading the latest Steam Client Beta update, a new HTML5 video player will open and begin to stream. The player looks somewhat similar to the video player which has occupied Steam Store pages for a long time now while also featuring several significant improvements, such as being able to change between various resolutions (1080p, 720p, 540p, 360p), displaying how much bandwidth is required for each setting, a playback speed option (50%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 120%, 150%, 200%), and optional multi-language captions used to display subtitles.
Once Valve has managed to get most of the kinks worked out, it's likely the new video streaming functionality will be made available across the Steam Store for other suitable titles, such as Indie Game: The Movie. For now, there's a full FAQ available over on the Steam Support website. Here's hoping the system will also be used for more widespread streaming in the future should the likes of Netflix or Hulu Plus ever arrive on the Steam platform.
The new option provides users the ability to directly stream films and video content from Steam servers without having to download the whole thing onto a local hard drive, much in the same way Netflix and other streaming services function.
Once Valve has managed to get most of the kinks worked out, it's likely the new video streaming functionality will be made available across the Steam Store for other suitable titles, such as Indie Game: The Movie. For now, there's a full FAQ available over on the Steam Support website. Here's hoping the system will also be used for more widespread streaming in the future should the likes of Netflix or Hulu Plus ever arrive on the Steam platform.
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