{
  "id": 10487536,
  "title": "Steam adds low-latency Pyrowave codec to Remote Play — new codec offers better game streaming on local networks but costs '5-10 times' more bandwidth",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/steam-adds-low-latency-pyrowave-codec-to-remote-play-new-codec-offers",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-28T16:10:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Hardware",
    "slug": "tom-s-hardware",
    "url": "https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/steam-adds-low-latency-pyrowave-codec-to-remote-play-new-codec-offers-better-game-streaming-on-local-networks-but-costs-5-10-times-more-bandwidth"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Maister, an open-source developer, created a video codec called Pyrowave specifically for in-home game streaming. Steam has implemented this new codec in its beta client, offering better game streaming on local networks with lower latency. However, Pyrowave requires significantly more bandwidth, about 5-10 times more than other streaming codecs. Despite using more bandwidth, Pyrowave provides consistent quality and excellent error resilience, making it suitable for constant bitrate applications. Though Pyrowave may impact other users on your LAN, it is intended for local network use only. To test Pyrowave, users need the Steam beta client and a Gigabit Ethernet connection.",
  "summary": "The Pyrowave codec was specifically created for the purpose of game streaming, taking advantage of the large bandwidth and powerful compute available on home networks.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}