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Valve Overhauls Steam Trailer Player with Adaptive Interface and Dynamic Streaming

Valve re-encoded 400,000 trailers to enable bandwidth-sensitive streaming for smoother playback

After years of complaints, Valve finally fixes Steam's worst feature
An image about Steam has 400,000 trailers and Valve had to re-encode all of them for new video player update

Overview

  • The new interface automatically adapts to desktop, mobile (including iPhones), Steam Deck and big picture mode
  • The player now switches between 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p streams according to users’ internet bandwidth
  • Valve overhauled scrubbing and seeking to reduce pauses and hitches and to smooth full-screen transitions
  • Engineers re-encoded about 400,000 Steam trailers to support the updated streaming technology
  • A limited number of older trailers remain capped at low resolutions because their original source files are unavailable