TwitchXP

TwitchXP is a featherweight Windows utility that allows you to watch Twitch.tv streams without limitations using either the system's default video player (provided it supports HLS protocol) or other, third-party ones of your choosing.

This makes the app especially useful for users running PCs with outdated hardware or oldschool OSes, such as Windows XP, inadequate for smoothly running Twitch.tv streams (either via Flash or HTML5).

Contrary to what its name might lead you to believe, the app should work on all versions of Windows from as far back as Windows 98 all the way up to the latest Windows 10.

Taking the utility for a spin shouldn't be much of a challenge. Of course, it's worth mentioning that you need to choose and install a video player before you can actually use it to its full potential.

You can choose any video player with support for HLS like, say, VLC or, if you feel like going for a even more raw solution, you could choose command line based ffplay or mplayer.

Nevertheless, once installed, you can start using TwitchXP straight out of the box. Launch the app, enter the twitch channel link in the dedicated section on the upper part of the main window, select the playback quality, choose either the default system player or manually select another and hit the "Play" button.

You're also provided with the option to hide the player console window (in the case of command line based tools) and to save the playlist for easier access in the future, and that's about it.

TwitchXP is a fairly interesting and definitely useful application that's sure to ear the appreciation of a minority of users out there who are still using outdated hardware and software, which may lead to difficulties while playing Twitch.tv streams with the typical means.