How can I improve the CPU performance when I watch something on Twitch in Firefox?
So I decided to mark this as an answer because there doesn't seem to be a way for the user to improve things when watching Twitch in a browser.
After further research, I found for myself that it's more feasible to look for other methods to mitigate Twitch's poor performance overall. Here is the alternative method which makes it possible to watch a video stream in VLC. I found this guide on xmodulo.com, initially via linux.com:
FIRST THINGS FIRST
You can paste into the terminal via Ctrl + Shift + V. This should make life a bit easier for you, when you just want to start it up real quick. No need to type it out or use the mouse.
Twitch supports timecodes! You can start a video at the 4th minute by adding
?t=4mat the end of the URL.
Livestreamer is a command line interface (CLI) client which, upon given a streaming URL, retrieves live streaming video from the URL, and pipes it into a native video player running on local host. So with Livestreamer, you can enjoy live streaming from various sources via a much stable and lightweight video player such as VLC or mplayer, without opening a web browser. Currently, Livestreamer supports streaming from over 20 different web sites including Dailymotion, YouTube Live, Twitch/Justin.tv, Livestream and UStream.
Install Livestreamer on Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip
$ sudo pip install livestreamer
By default, Livestreamer attempts to pipe streaming video into VLC player. Thus you also need to install VLC player on your Linux system:
$ sudo apt-get install vlc
Watch Live Streaming from the Command Line with Livestreamer
To watch any live streaming channel/program, first obtain its corresponding URL from its official site.
For example, let's say the URL for the live streaming content that you want to watch is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr.
To check available streaming quality (i.e., bitrate) of the given content, simply run livestreamer command with the URL:
$ livestreamer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0
The output for that is
[cli][info] Found matching plugin youtube for URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0
Available streams: 144p (worst), 240p, 360p (best)
To watch a live stream in the best available quality, run livestreamer command in the following format. This will automatically launch VLC player, and streaming will start on VLC:
$ livestreamer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Pw3ofFWgs best
To watch a live stream in specific streaming quality (e.g., 360p), run livestreamer as follows:
$ livestreamer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Pw3ofFWgs 360p
If you have your own favorite streaming player, you can let Livestreamer launch the player instead of default VLC, as follows:
$ livestreamer --player=mplayer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Pw3ofFWgs 360