Steam Link and Controller what are your thoughts (POLL)

Will you buy Steam Link and or Controller?

  • I will buy a Steam Link but not a Controller

    Votes: 18 17.8%

  • I will buy a Steam Controller but not the Link

    Votes: 28 27.7%

  • I will buy BOTH 'cause I am awesome

    Votes: 20 19.8%

  • Neither I spent all my money on weed

    Votes: 35 34.7%
  • Total voters
    101
I gotta say Valve is really on fire with the client and host updates for the Steam Link. I've had the Link for two weeks, it has received three updates (including the first out of the box update) and it now works much better than it did two weeks ago. I've been playing mostly Dirt 3 and Space Marine. Night and day difference from what things looked like two weeks ago compared to now.

With Dirt 3, the Nvidia hardware encoder looked *terrible* and would still drop frames. I couldn't run on Beautiful Nvidia encoding without it turning into a mess, so I was using Software encoding which looked better but appeared to add some frame delay (~30ms total). Game runs fine now at 1080P/60 FPS with no dropped frames, Nvidia encoder, ~20 to 24ms delay)

For Space Marine, the game ran like garbage with 1080P streaming and I had to switch the host to run the game at 720P. I forgot what I was using to encode it at the time. Space Marine also runs fine now at 1080P/~60 FPS with no dropped frames, Nvidia encoder, ~20 to 24ms delay)

And they already fixed an issue I had with the XBox 360 Controller. I've completely run out of shit to complain about in two weeks of Link ownership :D
 
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Read they also had an update to the controller which had positive comments.

Ha, mentioned on the previous page. oh well
 
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I have it on good authority that I'll be receiving a controller as a Christmas present. Looking forward to testing it out with some long assed RPGs.
 
Saturn_V said:
You can leave the host computer to run any desktop resolution you want. (I'm on an ultrawide, 2560x1080)

But you need to set the game's resolution to 1080. And you can do that within the game's settings after you've launched it.
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Glad to know this now!! I used my steam link a couple times and kept changing my desktop resolution. Which in the end was really annoying so I stopped using it. Hope this clears it all up now.
 
Steam Controller December 15th Beta Update
DECEMBER 15 - PIERRE-LOUP

Today we're shipping an update to Steam Beta that includes a large overhaul of the way we handle configurations for Steam Controllers. We chose to not include it in last week's main Steam client update because it's likely there'll be some teething pains, due to the amount of change involved. It initially enables a small set of new features, but more importantly, it puts us in a position where we'll be able to easily add more features related to community configurations.

After you get the update, you'll be prompted to register your controller to your account. Doing this tells Steam which account to draw configurations from. After you've then personalized your controller, you'll go through a migration process, where we take any configurations you've made and move them over to the new system. This could take a little while if you have a lot of configurations, but it will be a one-time operation.

The controller & account registration system allows you to take your controller to another PC and easily use your configurations, even if you're not the account logged into Steam on that PC. When playing games with multiple controllers, this also allows each controller to have its own configuration, a feature we previously weren't supporting properly. The backend changes we made to support this system also made it much easier to support community sharing of configurations for non-Steam games, so we managed to get that feature in as well.
 
Basically my Steam Controller plays sounds, I can dim the lights and supposedly save and share configurations for non Steam games. Freaking awesome!
 
Pretty impressive how quickly they're sending out quality software updates for the controller.
 
I need help connecting my steam link. I don't know if these are stupid questions but I have not found an answer yet.

I have my PC connected to home network. My home network is provided by DU. On my PC I see the information for the home network as follows:

192.168.70.128 as my IP of PC with default gateway and DHCP as 192.168.70.1.
On my steam link I see IP as 192.168.70.130 with same default gateway and DHCP.

However, even with this setup it does not see the computer.

My computer is downstairs and connected to the wall (my whole house came networked by default). My Steam Link is upstairs and connected to the wall (same network) yet cannot see the computer.

I have tried streaming from my computer to my PS3 in the past with a similar setup using Vuze downloader without issues.

What am I missing here? Any help will be appreciated or I am going to sell my Steam Link. Wireless is not an option since router and link are too far apart.

Let me know.
 
KickAssCop said:
My computer is downstairs and connected to the wall (my whole house came networked by default). My Steam Link is upstairs and connected to the wall (same network) yet cannot see the computer.
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Is In-Home Streaming enabled on the Steam client on the host computer?

Steam, Settings, In-Home Streaming, Enable Streaming
 
How does streaming 5.1 audio to the steam link work? A long time ago when I tried streaming to my htpc that was hooked up to me 5.1 home theater and had lots of audio issues. I was on a wired gigabit connection.
 
no 5.1 support for Steam IHS / Steam Link. Stereo only.

My Steam Link is connected to a AVR/HT rig- and I don't have any audio issues. I did when I was trying to connect via Powerline Ethernet. Straight Ethernet now.
 
Neither, but I'm not voting because drugs are bad mmmkay. I have no living room setup; funds instead go into computer stuff like a GTX 980Ti and a 34" 21:9 monitor. I also hate controllers for anything but racing/flight sim type games (in which case a wheel or joystick are preferred rather than a console-type controller).
 
KickAssCop said:
Yes enabled. Still cannot see the computer. I am about to pull my hair out. :S
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See if your computer's blocking ports via h/w or software firewalls.

"Steam IHS Troubleshooting" said:
Streaming uses UDP ports 27031 and 27036 and TCP ports 27036 and 27037. Please make sure Steam can listen on these ports in your firewall software. Make sure they are on the same subnet and no other program is using UDP port 27036, which is used for the initial discovery protocol.
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And I'd would look at the network settings in the Link too, verify that the IPs are the same your computer sees. Possibly test wifi too, just to check if the Link can see the host machine that way.
 
Du is the service provider for my house and wired the whole Lan.
Link does see the same network as stated above.

I will try the ports. I even disabled firewall and Link did not discover my PC.
 
Is there a way to stream kodi to the steam link with sound? I added it to steam as a non steam game and can get video but no sound.
 
KickAssCop said:
Yes enabled. Still cannot see the computer. I am about to pull my hair out. :S
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Can you try another LAN connection in the house with the link? Can you switch from the LAN to a WIFI connection instead and see if it works? Your home LAN is it connected through the DU router or is there a separate switch involved?
 
There is a router and a switch that I can see.
I don't have another LAN. Link sees the computer over wifi but that does not work for me since router is far away and downstairs from my TV set. Also very difficult to run a cable around my house.

Both use same IP ranges when connected to the wall. I am frustrated by this.
 
KickAssCop said:
There is a router and a switch that I can see.
I don't have another LAN. Link sees the computer over wifi but that does not work for me since router is far away and downstairs from my TV set. Also very difficult to run a cable around my house.

Both use same IP ranges when connected to the wall. I am frustrated by this.
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Move the Link onto the same router / switch, can it see your PC? If that fails, try resetting the router / switch to defaults. Try to isolate which piece of hardware is causing the issue for the wired connection.
 
Saturn_V said:
no 5.1 support for Steam IHS / Steam Link. Stereo only.

My Steam Link is connected to a AVR/HT rig- and I don't have any audio issues. I did when I was trying to connect via Powerline Ethernet. Straight Ethernet now.
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That's the only reason I won't be buying any of this stuff. No 5.1 = no sale. I thought for sure they'd remedy this by release, what a disappointment. No point in streaming to my theater room if I can't use my 5.1/7.1 surround sound.
 
guitarguy6 said:
Is there a way to stream kodi to the steam link with sound? I added it to steam as a non steam game and can get video but no sound.
Click to expand...

If anyone else runs in to this issue I fixed it by plugging headphones into my soundcard (Avid Fast Track Solo). Once I did that it streamed sound from Kodi, VLC etc to my Steam Link.
 
I really want the Steam Link, but I need it to work wirelessly and it seems to have major issues in that area.
 
No interest in Steam Link. I cannot get a satisfactory experience over a hardwired gigabit connection to my HTPC. I can't imagine there is any sort of magic baked into Link that will make it any better. Going to try the long HDMI cable route.

As for the controller, I picked one up just the other day. Got $100 in Steam cash for X-Mas, and decided that it was safe to try when it's not coming out of the bank. After a few hours, I already hate it. I get the concept of trying to make one controller that does it all, but thus far all I see is a jack-of-all, master-of-none situation going on. In games like Cities Skylines it was painfully obvious that just because it worked, doesn't mean it worked well. I'd never chose to play this game on a couch this way over my PC. Games that I'd play with a controller anyway (Witcher 3, for example) felt equally clunky. After five minutes I was looking for my X1 pad. Tried Fallout 4 just for shits. Obviously KBM is ideal, but I can handle single player FPS with a controller sometimes to get comfy on the couch. Like all the others, hated it. Nothing felt natural. I'd take my X1 pad over it, and still far prefer KBM. In a hail marry, I fired up Mass Effect 2. Maybe a game designed around a controller, with a confusing lack of controller support on PC, is where this controller would shine. I was half right. It was the first thing I tried where I felt like I could actually enjoy the game. It still left me thinking that I'd rather just play this game at my desk.

Thankfully, Valve's returns on hardware appear to be as breezy as games. I have to pay return shipping, but I will get a full refund, including the initial shipping charge. So, ~$5 lost to find out I don't like it. Could have been worse.
 
Viper87227 said:
No interest in Steam Link. I cannot get a satisfactory experience over a hardwired gigabit connection to my HTPC. I can't imagine there is any sort of magic baked into Link that will make it any better. Going to try the long HDMI cable route.

As for the controller, I picked one up just the other day. Got $100 in Steam cash for X-Mas, and decided that it was safe to try when it's not coming out of the bank. After a few hours, I already hate it. I get the concept of trying to make one controller that does it all, but thus far all I see is a jack-of-all, master-of-none situation going on. In games like Cities Skylines it was painfully obvious that just because it worked, doesn't mean it worked well. I'd never chose to play this game on a couch this way over my PC. Games that I'd play with a controller anyway (Witcher 3, for example) felt equally clunky. After five minutes I was looking for my X1 pad. Tried Fallout 4 just for shits. Obviously KBM is ideal, but I can handle single player FPS with a controller sometimes to get comfy on the couch. Like all the others, hated it. Nothing felt natural. I'd take my X1 pad over it, and still far prefer KBM. In a hail marry, I fired up Mass Effect 2. Maybe a game designed around a controller, with a confusing lack of controller support on PC, is where this controller would shine. I was half right. It was the first thing I tried where I felt like I could actually enjoy the game. It still left me thinking that I'd rather just play this game at my desk.

Thankfully, Valve's returns on hardware appear to be as breezy as games. I have to pay return shipping, but I will get a full refund, including the initial shipping charge. So, ~$5 lost to find out I don't like it. Could have been worse.
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What do you consider satisfactory? And from my experience the link does perform better than 2 PCs streaming.
 
My steamlink over hardwire is straight up perfect. Besides stupid game launchers (fuck you LA Noire) the experience has been absolutely flawless.
 
Disposed said:
What do you consider satisfactory? And from my experience the link does perform better than 2 PCs streaming.
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I don't know... I'll tell you when I get there ;). I've messed around with it a lot between my HTPC and desktop... and something just doesn't feel right. It's certainly playable. Framerates are fine. But it's immediately obvious to me the difference playing over streaming versus playing locally. What seems most noticeable is that things get blurry, particularly during camera movement. At least, that's where I notice it. It was very prominent in both FO4 and TW3, as soon as I'd pan the camera side to side, it would look like someone cranked the motion blur up to 11. I think it's just a result of the encoding and that is where it's most noticeable, but it's very distracting.

I don't know if the issue is my expectations, or the technology, or my network. People seem like they are mostly happy, but I can't imagine any hardcore PC gamer seeing what I'm seeing and thinking it's acceptable, which makes me question if my experience is normal. What I was hoping for was something where you really had to strain to try to tell it wasn't rendering native. Like I say, maybe it's my expectation that's off. I've not seen it in action anywhere else to know what the rest of you all are seeing.

Like I said above, I'm going to try a long HDMI cable, and I'm hoping for better results. Even if it's a bit of a pain to get it to play nice alongside two other monitors, I can deal with that to get a crisp, clear game.
 
Viper87227 said:
I don't know... I'll tell you when I get there ;). I've messed around with it a lot between my HTPC and desktop... and something just doesn't feel right. It's certainly playable. Framerates are fine. But it's immediately obvious to me the difference playing over streaming versus playing locally. What seems most noticeable is that things get blurry, particularly during camera movement. At least, that's where I notice it. It was very prominent in both FO4 and TW3, as soon as I'd pan the camera side to side, it would look like someone cranked the motion blur up to 11. I think it's just a result of the encoding and that is where it's most noticeable, but it's very distracting.

I don't know if the issue is my expectations, or the technology, or my network. People seem like they are mostly happy, but I can't imagine any hardcore PC gamer seeing what I'm seeing and thinking it's acceptable, which makes me question if my experience is normal. What I was hoping for was something where you really had to strain to try to tell it wasn't rendering native. Like I say, maybe it's my expectation that's off. I've not seen it in action anywhere else to know what the rest of you all are seeing.

Like I said above, I'm going to try a long HDMI cable, and I'm hoping for better results. Even if it's a bit of a pain to get it to play nice alongside two other monitors, I can deal with that to get a crisp, clear game.
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I get that blurring when I steam over WiFi to my laptop. My link is flawless when wired and does not do that. it also happens because when I leave game settings at 1440p and steam. Don't let the streaming software down scale it's all kinds of wierd when it does. Make sure the resolution is set to the native resolution of what you're streaming to not from.
 
Disposed said:
I get that blurring when I steam over WiFi to my laptop. My link is flawless when wired and does not do that. it also happens because when I leave game settings at 1440p and steam. Don't let the streaming software down scale it's all kinds of wierd when it does. Make sure the resolution is set to the native resolution of what you're streaming to not from.
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I was always sure to drop the resolution to 1080p. I messed with basically every combination of settings possible both on the host and client.

The only possible hangup I can think of is there is two 100ft cat cables between host and client, with a switch in between. It really shouldn't be that though. Not when people are (supposedly) able to get satisfactory results over wifi. Everything is still registering at 1gbps.

I'm moving soon at the distance between my TV and office will be under 50ft. I thought about trying again with streaming with much shorter cable runs, but I still think (hope) that at that distance, HDMI is going to be the winner.
 
Viper87227 said:
I was always sure to drop the resolution to 1080p. I messed with basically every combination of settings possible both on the host and client.

The only possible hangup I can think of is there is two 100ft cat cables between host and client, with a switch in between. It really shouldn't be that though. Not when people are (supposedly) able to get satisfactory results over wifi. Everything is still registering at 1gbps.

I'm moving soon at the distance between my TV and office will be under 50ft. I thought about trying again with streaming with much shorter cable runs, but I still think (hope) that at that distance, HDMI is going to be the winner.
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Its been a while since i was in school but im pretty sure the latency from 2 100ft cables and a switch would be considerable even compared to wifi. Its going to register at 1GBPS no matter what. Whether or not HDMI would be better is a good question really, will your controller or whatever you are using work at that range?

Wifi results are a mixed bag. On my laptop with an old 2ghz wifi chip i run it set for speed and it still gives me shit every now and then. The link did much better over wifi but there's a bug with some links that causes the wifi to disable itself for whatever reason until the device is rebooted.
 
At first I had buyers remorse because it just didn't really work over my wireless n. Upgraded to a power line network and its been flawless since. Have been playing lots of shadows of mordor and south park stick of truth which have given a solid intro to the controller. Have also done some battlefront, but for that I use my mouse/keyboard from the couch.

Has become my #1 way to view my PC on the TV for streaming downloaded videos
 
i bought the steam controller because i wanted a wireless controller (without a cord for the dongle) and the xbone controller was 80 bucks. i am happy with the purchase, but i only use it for a few games (rocket league and broforce for now). well worth the 50 bucks.
 
I wanted to get both this X-mas season, but I just spent the money on actual games.

Maybe I'll just wait for rev2 on both of them?

Lack of Dolby Digital is a minus or even just normal compressed multi-channel audio. I have a SBz with Dolby Digital and DTS encoding, how can the steam link somehow not be able to use that?

Why can't Valve just sell a $5 license to get you Dolby Digital encoding in software for all your games?

Why can't you just use the free AC3 encoding software and use that?
 
They added support for audio settings into the latest beta in preparation for 5.1 support.
 
I have shelved it. I don't think this will work on my wired network which is a bummer.
 
I've only spent a short time with the Steam Link and Controller. I'm using a Debian Jessie host - the Link and Controller were a bit quirky to get setup. The biggest gotcha was adding the extra udev rules file so that Steam could access the controller properly. After that, the controller works awesomely.

The only other gotcha I have so far is a video hang on the Steam logo splash screen when streaming Big Picture Mode on the Link. It responds, passes controller input, and will snap out of it when the screen displays anything but BPM. It's easy enough to launch games from the standard steam client, so I'm not all that broken up about it, but it does kinda break the experience. I haven't figured out if I'm a special snowflake with this issue yet though.

Aside from that one Link issue, I've been having a blast. Played a bit of Borderlands 2, X-Com, and Portal 2. Next up is trying Divinity and Shadow of Mordor.
 
I bought a Steam Link and controller after Christmas and thought I would share my impressions so far. Config:

PC - see signature (3770K @ 4.5GHz, P8Z77-V Pro mobo with Intel gigabit NIC, GTX 970)
Router - Linksys 310N running DD-WRT (old, like 2009, not a high-end router by any means)
Powerline Ethernet- D-LINK DHP-500AV connected to the router then a D-LINK DHP-540 in the other room connected to the TV
TV - Panasonic 50UT50 (plasma 1080p, 16ms input lag according to reviews)
Network performance: I get about 2ms ping from the living room powerline to my router and bandwidth maxes out around 130mbit (16.5mbyte/s)

So far I have only used the Link to play The Witcher 3 which I had just barely started before buying the Link. I've put about 35 hours into the game in the last week (I'm on vacation) and have had an awesome time playing on my 50" TV (which has much better black levels than my old Dell 2407 desktop display). I don't notice any input lag from the controller and am able to parry fast opponents. At some point I'll test CSGO for a laugh but really I only plan on using this for RPG's, platformers and driving games.

Graphics fidelity is hard to tell apart from my desktop. There is maybe some slight banding on dark scenes once in a while but it's very hard to tell. I've tried the Steam Link set at 30mbit/s (max setting) and auto and don't see any difference.

The best thing about this has been that my wife, who never plays games, has enjoyed watching and helping me through Witcher because of the story, voice acting and quality graphics which have drawn her in. It's relaxing to play on the couch for hours at a time versus sitting at my desk.

I'll post more in this thread when I test more games, but so far I am very very happy with this purchase and am very happy powerline has worked so well.
 
B2BigAl said:
That's the only reason I won't be buying any of this stuff. No 5.1 = no sale. I thought for sure they'd remedy this by release, what a disappointment. No point in streaming to my theater room if I can't use my 5.1/7.1 surround sound.
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Just updated today.

5.1 Audio Support for In-Home Streaming
Support for quadraphonic and 5.1 surround audio has been added to the latest Steam Beta Client when streaming from a Windows host. Your Windows host does not need to support 5.1 audio to use this feature; 5.1 audio can be recorded on a machine with 2 speakers and then played back on a client with a 5.1 setup.

To enable 5.1 audio support for In-Home Streaming, opt into the Steam Beta Client on your Windows host. If streaming to another computer running Steam, you will also need to opt that client into the Steam Beta Client. If streaming to a Steam Link, support is already included in the latest version of the Link firmware.

The Windows Steam Client and Steam Link will attempt to automatically detect the client side speaker configuration and enable 5.1 audio recording when appropriate. You can use the In-Home Streaming settings in the Steam Client and Steam Link to see what speaker configuration Steam detected and manually select a different configuration.

FAQ
What 5.1 audio can Steam record?
Steam currently only records 5.1 audio from processes launched through Steam. Other host system audio will be mixed with audio recorded from the game process as stereo audio.

Is 5.1 audio supported when streaming to a Linux or OSX client?
Yes, however you will need to go into the In-Home Streaming settings and select your speaker configuration manually.

Will streaming 5.1 audio from a Linux or OSX host be supported in the future?
We are investigating adding support to stream 5.1 audio from both platforms.

Will 7.1 audio support be added in the future?
We are investigating adding 7.1 audio support to both the Steam Client and Steam Link.
 
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