Steam Link.. Yay?

alxlwson

You Know Where I Live
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Yes or no? JRPG, RTS, other slow games.
Comments? Better ideas for $50?
 
It's definitely great for slow games like you mentioned. I have mine over ethernet, rather than wifi and i cant even tell theyre being streamed. I mainly use mine to play coop games like overcooked.
 
Right. It would mainly be FFXHD and Civ3. Would be using powerline adapter, as my office is upstairs, and den is downstairs.
 
The steamlink would be a great fit for that situation.

It even has native ps4 controller support, or 360 if you have the wireless adapter.
 
The steamlink would be a great fit for that situation.

It even has native ps4 controller support, or 360 if you have the wireless adapter.

I thought you had to use virtualhere to use non Bluetooth xb controllers?
 
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Ah, I have the 360 wireless adapter and it worked without issue. Can't comment on the other controllers.
 
Ah, I have the 360 wireless adapter and it worked without issue. Can't comment on the other controllers.

Interesting. I do have the xbone with adapter that I use currently

How's the video quality? Lag?
 
I would wait and catch it on the 20.00 Sales. They have them on sale all the time for 20.
 
I had a steam link that I sold (it was a gift). It worked decent enough. I ended up just updating the HTPC and use it as a streaming client, the video quality is better and with a cat 6 Ethernet latency is not noticeable. Hindsite I wish I would have kept the Steam link to keep for the living room TV.
 
I had a steam link that I sold (it was a gift). It worked decent enough. I ended up just updating the HTPC and use it as a streaming client, the video quality is better and with a cat 6 Ethernet latency is not noticeable. Hindsite I wish I would have kept the Steam link to keep for the living room TV.

Your wife allows you to hang out in the living room?
 
I have a steam link and I think it best for exactly the game genres you mentioned. I don't notice any input lag when playing those titles even over WiFi connections (I do have very strong signal though)
 
I love mine for single player in the bedroom.
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Works great, multiplayer not so amazing. Video quality and graphics are better than a console IMO and runs smooth. I've played newest Deus Ex, GTA 5, and some older stuff. Use an Ethernet connection if your on the 2nd floor. going about 25' from the office to the living room on wifi not to horrible.
 
Do you check for lag spikes? Its semi ok for streaming movies due to buffer, but for streaming games not so much.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/0/540731690608986828/?ctp=2

it depends on load and wiring i suppose. i had to run an ethernet cable from my office to bedroom because even lego star wars was having issues


So I went and picked it up at Gamestop. What a mess. I bought it for the wife, so it's running from her PC, phenom ii x6, 16GB and nvidia 1060. I'm gonna try streaming from my computer tomorrow and see how it fairs. As you questioned, the powerline is terribad. The wireless served up by ubiquiti was much much better, but mouse lag was still a half second or more, off. I guess I'm gonna build a 50' Ethernet cable tomorrow and see how it rolls. The video quality seemed pretty good though!
 
I played through the entirety of Dark Souls 3 on a Steam Link connected to a wireless network with no issues.
 
So I went and picked it up at Gamestop. What a mess. I bought it for the wife, so it's running from her PC, phenom ii x6, 16GB and nvidia 1060. I'm gonna try streaming from my computer tomorrow and see how it fairs. As you questioned, the powerline is terribad. The wireless served up by ubiquiti was much much better, but mouse lag was still a half second or more, off. I guess I'm gonna build a 50' Ethernet cable tomorrow and see how it rolls. The video quality seemed pretty good though!

I had issues with steams in-home streaming services just going computer to computer if I tried running it at 1080p @ 60fps. I was getting bad input lag and I think it had to do with the hardware decoding, dropping down to 720p@ 60fps fixed it and it almost felt 1:1 control with almost no input lag at all. I was able to play games like The Division and borderlands just fine with it.
 
Encoding is done on the CPU, if I'm not mistaken. The weaker the CPU on the host machine, the worse the lag is going to be. 1080p 60 FPS is fine with my i7-4770.
 
Encoding is done on the CPU, if I'm not mistaken. The weaker the CPU on the host machine, the worse the lag is going to be. 1080p 60 FPS is fine with my i7-4770.
You can also do it on the gpu, but there was some issue where encoding on an amd gpu and decoding on a nvidia gpu caused weird black flickering for me (my main rig was an amd 290 and my old htpc was a gtx 260) so I had to stick to cpu encoding on my i5-2500k on gpu encoding on the htpc and it just couldn't handle 1080p @ 60 frames.

Just for clarity this was all done over wired cat5e not wireless so it wasnt a network issue

I know trying to make my htpc older e8400 try and handle the entire decode while also running my media server caused alot of issues and dropping an old gtx 260 into it to handle the decoding was a huge improvment. The OP should check if they have their gpu set to handle the encoding or if its set to cpu.
 
I got one for christmas.. didn't have a cord to stretch out of the office to the TV.. tried my standard wifi.. choppy and painful.. Was going to upgrade to a gigabit router, haven't gotten around to it, and now the steamlink is back in its box being unused. Over all - meh.
 
I stream games from a vm with a Quadro K2000 being passed through. Works great at 1080p & 720p (wired ethernet). Host CPU is an E5-2690. VM has 4 cores.
 
I enjoy mine. I hardwire my though. I used it to play Axiom Verge, and a couple other Metroidvania titles. It worked for me and I didn't really notice too much lag.
 
I haven't really tried twitch shooters, but NBA2k16 is pretty fast and it keeps up with the action pretty well. I've played XCOM2 on it as well and it was great.

Again, all my experience has been over gig ethernet though.
 
Sounds like I need to go buy some long ass cable and snake it across my floor. Ugh.
 
Basically terrible over anything but ethernet, unless you're playing lightweight indie titles
 
Definitely need to run an Ethernet cord. Need to measure how many long feet it'll be, but i keep forgetting.
 
I put about 200 hours into Witcher 3 over Steam Link/Steam Controller with zero issues:

- Streamed from OC'd 3770k/GTX 970
- Powerline Ethernet (relatively short run, tests out at about 100mbit/s 1ms latency)
- Max quality encoding/streaming settings
- Panasonic plasma 1080p set (low latency)

Steam Link is only supposed to need 30-40mbit and low latency. Powerline is really dependent on the circuits involved and whether the signal has to cross from one to another.
 
I just noticed these were also on sale at Gamestop for $20 so I grabbed one last night. So far I am impressed with the few games I played. My pc is wired and the steam link is hooked up via wifi (5Ghz) and so far I haven't noticed any lag. Mortal Kombat X, GTA 4, and NBA 2k12 all played flawlessly. I'm definitely happy with the purchase. I also noticed Steam is has them on sale for $20 too.
 
I put about 200 hours into Witcher 3 over Steam Link/Steam Controller with zero issues:

- Streamed from OC'd 3770k/GTX 970
- Powerline Ethernet (relatively short run, tests out at about 100mbit/s 1ms latency)
- Max quality encoding/streaming settings
- Panasonic plasma 1080p set (low latency)

Steam Link is only supposed to need 30-40mbit and low latency. Powerline is really dependent on the circuits involved and whether the signal has to cross from one to another.
This reminds me, a good tip for anyone trying the Steam Link:
If your primary gaming monitor is a resolution higher than 1920x1080 and your games run the same, lower the game resolution to 1920x1080 when using the Steam Link. It makes a huge difference in latency.
 
Ordered one of these on Amazon yesterday...been wanting to try out some in-home streaming and for $20, why not?

I think someone answered this before but, does this work with the Xbox One wireless dongle? It doesn't say it's supported but I've heard folks say that it does work?
 
Ordered one of these on Amazon yesterday...been wanting to try out some in-home streaming and for $20, why not?

I think someone answered this before but, does this work with the Xbox One wireless dongle? It doesn't say it's supported but I've heard folks say that it does work?
No, it doesn't without a convoluted workaround. The newer XBONE S controllers support Bluetooth, though, so you can pair one of those with the Steam Link.
 
No, it doesn't without a convoluted workaround. The newer XBONE S controllers support Bluetooth, though, so you can pair one of those with the Steam Link.

That's a shame...I guess I bought my Xbox One controller at the wrong time since the new version supports it but mine does not. I have a wired 360 controller that should work, but I may need to pick up one of the new XB1 ones.
 
I'm not sure about the Steamlink specifically as I don't have one, but the concept is absolutely wonderful. I use a Shield TV, and have since moved my living room PC out of the living room. Wasn't necessary anymore. I have two switches between it and my gaming PC connected by 1Gb fiber though, so that's probably a decent sized factor. (the speed, not the media type) I can play twitchy action games on it no problem. I'm thinking about getting a second one for my bedroom.
 
I'm not sure about the Steamlink specifically as I don't have one, but the concept is absolutely wonderful. I use a Shield TV, and have since moved my living room PC out of the living room. Wasn't necessary anymore. I have two switches between it and my gaming PC connected by 1Gb fiber though, so that's probably a decent sized factor. (the speed, not the media type) I can play twitchy action games on it no problem. I'm thinking about getting a second one for my bedroom.
A Shield TV is definitely the better option if you want to do more than play Steam games in another room. The Steam Link is a very good affordable option if all you want to do is the latter, though. It was recently on sale for $20 and was a no-brainer at that price.
 
A Shield TV is definitely the better option if you want to do more than play Steam games in another room. The Steam Link is a very good affordable option if all you want to do is the latter, though. It was recently on sale for $20 and was a no-brainer at that price.

I definitely agree there. I actually went with the Shield TV out of curiosity more than anything. I HAD to see the games like Doom 3, Borderlands etc. run on a Tegra with Android. :D I'm just weird like that. I actually did a full play through of Doom 3 that way, because once I started playing to try it out, I got sucked in as usual with that game. I'm guessing the streaming experience would be very similar between the two.
 
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