Twitch.tv
Twitch.tv | |
URL | http://twitch.tv |
Status | Special case (archives of streams actively purged after an amount of time) |
Archiving status | Partially saved (popular videos only) |
Archiving type | Unknown |
Project source | Phase 1,Phase 2, Items, Index |
Project tracker | Phase 1, Phase 2 |
IRC channel | #burnthetwitch (on hackint) |
Justin.tv—sorry, cough, I mean to say—Twitch.tv is a live video streaming service.
Twitch was rumored to have been acquired by YouTube/Google but Amazon was the final buyer.[1]
Broadcast retention changes
After Twitch's acquisition by Amazon, changes were made to how long broadcasts (sometimes called VODs) were retained for viewing on the site. Previously, all partnered accounts had indefinite storage, while standard accounts had storage for a few days. This was then cut down to two months.
Changes To VODs On Twitch
Aug 06 2014 · Engineering, Tech
Our goal at Twitch is straightforward: deliver the highest quality video. This includes the ability to watch video on demand (VOD) on all of our platforms, not just the website.
In order to create a system that supports live and VOD across the globe and on multiple platforms, we need to make significant changes to the way we’re currently storing video. Today, we’d like to discuss what these changes are, why they’re necessary, and how they benefit the entire Twitch community now and in the future.
[...]
Looking at Viewership Data
We found that the vast majority of past broadcast views happen within the first two weeks after they’re created. On the days following, viewership reduces exponentially.
We also discovered that 80% of our storage capacity is filled with past broadcasts that are never watched. That’s multiple petabytes for video that no one has ever viewed.
Highlights, on the other hand, have much more value and longevity. Over their lifetime, highlights get 9x as many views as past broadcasts.
[...]
As for existing past broadcasts, beginning three weeks from today, we will begin removing them from Twitch servers. If you would like to keep your past broadcasts, we encourage you to begin exporting or making highlights of your best moments so that they’re saved for posterity.
[...][2]
Thus a mission was started to archive as much of Twitch as we reasonably could. Our efforts can be found in the War Room and on the Talk page.
Known exceptions
Although most partner accounts have broadcasts deleted after 60 days, there are some exceptions. Most of these are esports tournament channels, but other channels may be excluded for reasons such as being culturally significant. Below is an incomplete list of these exceptions.
Channel | Indefinite since | Probable reason |
---|---|---|
Dota 2 The International | Policy Inception | Esports tournament |
Riot Games | Policy Inception | Esports tournaments |
Beyond The Summit | Policy Inception | Esports broadcaster |
Twitch Plays Pokemon | Policy Inception | Culturally significant |
joinDOTA Red, Blue, Community | Policy Inception | Esports broadcaster |
Games Done Quick | Policy Inception | Culturally significant (charity fundraiser) |
Tip of the Hats | Policy Inception | Culturally significant (charity fundraiser) |
Rocket League | April 2016 | Game channel & esports tournaments |
ESL CS:GO | Policy Inception | Esports broadcaster |
DreamHack Counter-Strike | Policy Inception | Esports & LAN event broadcaster |
shroud | Policy Inception? | Notable streamer & esports personality |
Ninja | January 2018 | Notable streamer |
StarCraft | Policy Inception | Game channel & esports tournaments |
PlayOverwatch | August 2017? | Game channel & esports tournaments |
PlayHearthstone | Policy Inception | Game channel & esports tournaments |
FACEIT TV | Policy Inception | Esports service & tournaments |
teamfortress.tv | Policy Inception | Esports broadcaster |
Bob Ross | June 2016 | TV show & culturally significant |
PGL | Policy Inception | Esports tournament organizer |
Notch | Policy Inception | Minecraft creator |
deadmau5 | Policy Inception | Musician |
Mojang | Policy Inception | Game developers, including Minecraft |
Yogscast | Policy Inception | Culturally significant |
Twitch | Policy Inception | The site (duh) |
Twitch Presents | March 2017 | Also the site, special event streams |
The Game Awards | 2016? | Awards show |
2017 | Website | |
Xbox | Policy Inception | Console platform |
PlayStation | Policy Inception | Console platform |
Nintendo | Policy Inception | Game developer & console manufacturer |
PAX | Policy Inception | Gaming convention |
IGN | Policy Inception | Magazine & website |
PokerStars | Policy Inception | Poker website & tournaments |
Site structure
- HTML page requests: http://secure.twitch.tv/swflibs/TwitchPlayer.swf?videoId=a387099879
- Flash requests: https://api.twitch.tv/api/videos/a387099879?as3=t
- You can just type it directly as well: http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon/b/503249758 → https://api.twitch.tv/api/videos/a503249758?as3=t
- There's also this: https://api.justin.tv/api/broadcast/by_archive/503249758.json?onsite=true
- JSON file contains list of URLs to their FLV files.
- Highlights: https://api.twitch.tv/api/videos/c2673085?as3=t (notice the start and end offsets)
- http://www.twitchtools.com/video-download.php provides the above service
youtube-dl -i
appears to do some of them- Scraping: https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/videos/top?limit=20&offset=0&period=all
- Is there any irregularities? Differences between highlights and past broadcasts?
Archives
By Archive Team
Archives will be made available later as WARC files in the archiveteam_twitchtv collection at the Internet Archive. You can access them by the Wayback Machine, but you'll need search an index to find the media files.
A work-in-progress searchable index is now available!
Renegade Stream Archives
These archives are made in a manual fashion through the efforts of streaming communities. Feel free to expand this list.
- Vinesauce Stream Archival Effort - A crowdsourced effort by fans of the Vinesauce Group to archive 1714 of their streams.
- Klaxa.eu's Archive of The 4chan Cup - An existing, complete archive of The 4chan Cup, starting from the 2014 Autumn Games up till today.
Other
Butt Controversy
In June 2016, Twitch deleted a bunch of custom emoticons on the grounds of obscenity. (See http://www.dailydot.com/esports/twitch-butt-emotes/[IA•Wcite•.today•MemWeb] for details.)
The emotes can be found in the backend at: https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/emoticons/v1/<id number>/<size> where id number ranges from 1 to 103667(as of 20160622), with no leading zeroes, and size is 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0.
Note: sizes 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 are valid as well, but return the same data for most(all?) emotes as the next highest available 'whole number' or the largest below that one, i.e. for 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, will match 1.0, 1.0, 2.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0 respectively)
All emote graphics and sizes (but not their associated chat 'shortnames' i.e. "<3" for emote #9, which cannot be easily determined) still existing in the backend system up to emote id 103667 were archived through Archivebot here; the resulting WARCs can be downloaded through the viewer.
See Also
External links
- "TPP'S VODS WILL BE SAVED IN THEIR ENTIRETY"
- "Amazon Might Buy Video Game Streaming Service Twitch Before Google Can"
- "Twitch is Trying to Restore Deleted VODs"