Produx
Core
So I recently also received a Steam Link after getting used a bit more to the Steam Controller.
For who doesn't know what a Steam Link is, take a look at this link
A tiny flat box with some connections is all there is to it.
1x100mbits network connection
3xUSB 2.0 connections
1xHDMI connection &
1xpower supply connection, that's it.
Please keep in mind that before getting a Steam Link I was already using in-house streaming with different hardware before, using the standard and beta clients from Steam itself.
My "host" computer has always been running the Steam (beta) windows client but my satellite stream receiver has been first on Linux and later a full windows client.
At first I was using a small Odroid-U2, running on a hacked Debian linux to have the libraries needed for the linux steam client.
After getting a Steam Controller I couldn't get this to work at all on this little box and decided to temporary use my Alienware m14x-r2 laptop for streaming with Windows and the windows Steam client to have the controller support and for this reason I actually decided to go for a Steam Link: I didn't want to downgrade my laptop to a streaming box only and free it up again for normal use.
The experience before:
On Odroid-U2, streaming was "nice" but the image quality was not that good and quite some artifacting was visible in the codec used on the linux client. It was barely usable for the more beautiful games as it made them look like you actually was looking to a youtuber playing on 480p .... I only used it for the very slow paced casual games that didn't change background screens that much to not be disappointed too much about it.
Switching to the Alienware laptop for streaming with both Steam clients being the beta client on Windows improved the image quality by a lot and games like The Witcher 3 became more viable to play from the sofa.
So finally to the Steam Link:
The box itself is about the size of an external 2.5inch HDD/SSD and can be put away easily behind your TV or blend in on your decoder or whatever box you're using on your TV setup already.
Hooked it up for the first time via Wifi I did have some issues with stuttering in the stream quality and at certain points the quality dropped heavily when for example my tablet started updating it's android apps over wifi. My internal wifi is running at 5ghz but even with that you simply can't guarantee a steady stream. So easy to say that I switched to a cabled network connection quite fast.
Cabled network connection doesn't have this issue and I must say that I'm really impressed by it's quality of picture and stream in general with this setup.
The image is crisp and quite clear when being used in "Beautiful" mode, this is a setting you can switch on the Link itself.
When it comes to lag: I yet have to experience it on the cabled setup but had some input lag when I was using Wifi.
Let's put my setup in perspective:
Host computer: Core i7 4770K@3.5Ghz, 16Gb DDR3 and a GTX770 with 2Gb.
Gigabits cabled network.
Internet connection speed: 60mbits down / 40mbits up (VDSL2).
Steam Link on the cabled network, it only has a 100mbits network connection available but that's all it ever needs.
When streaming at 1080p the bandwidth used peaked at 32mbits/sec, with using a steady 30-31mbits when moving around quickly in games. At 720p I saw this usage on peaks of 27-28mbits with a steady stream of 24-25mbits/sec.
So far I've tried the following input devices on it and they all worked out of the box without setup:
- Steam Controller
- Logitech K900 wireless keyboard + Performance MX on the same wireless receiver
- Logitech G710+
- Wired Xbox 360 controller
- Wireless Xbox 360 controller for windows
- Saitek X52 flight stick, although here you will only have basic joystick functionality and not all the keys. Than again, sitting on your sofa with a flight stick setup is also not really cozy, testing this was just for giggles.
Some issues I've found so far with it:
- UAC, turn this off, seriously, for every time Steam Big Picture mode will be interrupted by UAC or installer prompts, you better prepare to run back to your pc or use a laptop with remote desktop to it, since you will loose control in most cases. The latest beta build tries to catch this off by reverting the Steam Controller to a mouse setup as soon as a windows popup shows up and this works quite well but still, it ruins a bit the experience.
- Make sure games you want to play on your Link have been properly setup. Same reason as before, any windows pop ups still have the chance of making you loose control with the steam controller.
- Watching videos from your Steam account. This launches an application on the Steam Link which is more like in alpha as beta and in my opinion it should be disabled until this is a lot better. I'm no longer touching this "feature" until than. So far 9 out of 10 times this basically made the steam controller non responsive, making me have to reboot the controller or link or both.
But overall, I'm having a great experience with it and am enjoying my more casual and single player games a lot more like this.
I'll see if I can get a video or some photos of the image quality of the stream and show you the setup I'm using.
For now: back to Witcher 3 on Steam Link/Controller ;-)
For who doesn't know what a Steam Link is, take a look at this link
A tiny flat box with some connections is all there is to it.
1x100mbits network connection
3xUSB 2.0 connections
1xHDMI connection &
1xpower supply connection, that's it.
Please keep in mind that before getting a Steam Link I was already using in-house streaming with different hardware before, using the standard and beta clients from Steam itself.
My "host" computer has always been running the Steam (beta) windows client but my satellite stream receiver has been first on Linux and later a full windows client.
At first I was using a small Odroid-U2, running on a hacked Debian linux to have the libraries needed for the linux steam client.
After getting a Steam Controller I couldn't get this to work at all on this little box and decided to temporary use my Alienware m14x-r2 laptop for streaming with Windows and the windows Steam client to have the controller support and for this reason I actually decided to go for a Steam Link: I didn't want to downgrade my laptop to a streaming box only and free it up again for normal use.
The experience before:
On Odroid-U2, streaming was "nice" but the image quality was not that good and quite some artifacting was visible in the codec used on the linux client. It was barely usable for the more beautiful games as it made them look like you actually was looking to a youtuber playing on 480p .... I only used it for the very slow paced casual games that didn't change background screens that much to not be disappointed too much about it.
Switching to the Alienware laptop for streaming with both Steam clients being the beta client on Windows improved the image quality by a lot and games like The Witcher 3 became more viable to play from the sofa.
So finally to the Steam Link:
The box itself is about the size of an external 2.5inch HDD/SSD and can be put away easily behind your TV or blend in on your decoder or whatever box you're using on your TV setup already.
Hooked it up for the first time via Wifi I did have some issues with stuttering in the stream quality and at certain points the quality dropped heavily when for example my tablet started updating it's android apps over wifi. My internal wifi is running at 5ghz but even with that you simply can't guarantee a steady stream. So easy to say that I switched to a cabled network connection quite fast.
Cabled network connection doesn't have this issue and I must say that I'm really impressed by it's quality of picture and stream in general with this setup.
The image is crisp and quite clear when being used in "Beautiful" mode, this is a setting you can switch on the Link itself.
When it comes to lag: I yet have to experience it on the cabled setup but had some input lag when I was using Wifi.
Let's put my setup in perspective:
Host computer: Core i7 4770K@3.5Ghz, 16Gb DDR3 and a GTX770 with 2Gb.
Gigabits cabled network.
Internet connection speed: 60mbits down / 40mbits up (VDSL2).
Steam Link on the cabled network, it only has a 100mbits network connection available but that's all it ever needs.
When streaming at 1080p the bandwidth used peaked at 32mbits/sec, with using a steady 30-31mbits when moving around quickly in games. At 720p I saw this usage on peaks of 27-28mbits with a steady stream of 24-25mbits/sec.
So far I've tried the following input devices on it and they all worked out of the box without setup:
- Steam Controller
- Logitech K900 wireless keyboard + Performance MX on the same wireless receiver
- Logitech G710+
- Wired Xbox 360 controller
- Wireless Xbox 360 controller for windows
- Saitek X52 flight stick, although here you will only have basic joystick functionality and not all the keys. Than again, sitting on your sofa with a flight stick setup is also not really cozy, testing this was just for giggles.
Some issues I've found so far with it:
- UAC, turn this off, seriously, for every time Steam Big Picture mode will be interrupted by UAC or installer prompts, you better prepare to run back to your pc or use a laptop with remote desktop to it, since you will loose control in most cases. The latest beta build tries to catch this off by reverting the Steam Controller to a mouse setup as soon as a windows popup shows up and this works quite well but still, it ruins a bit the experience.
- Make sure games you want to play on your Link have been properly setup. Same reason as before, any windows pop ups still have the chance of making you loose control with the steam controller.
- Watching videos from your Steam account. This launches an application on the Steam Link which is more like in alpha as beta and in my opinion it should be disabled until this is a lot better. I'm no longer touching this "feature" until than. So far 9 out of 10 times this basically made the steam controller non responsive, making me have to reboot the controller or link or both.
But overall, I'm having a great experience with it and am enjoying my more casual and single player games a lot more like this.
I'll see if I can get a video or some photos of the image quality of the stream and show you the setup I'm using.
For now: back to Witcher 3 on Steam Link/Controller ;-)
