How to set up and optimize the steam link for in-home game streaming

Assuming that ethernet and powerline (homeplug) adapters aren’t an option for you, there are several things you can do to improve your wireless Steam Link experience.

One of the largest causes of problems on wireless networks is interference. If your PC is trying to send data to your router while your router is sending that data to your Steam Link, they’ll interfere and you’ll have a really choppy experience.

The strength of the wireless signal is affected by interference from other wireless networks, distance, and walls, floors, metal, and electronic equipment between your wireless router and the Steam Link. Sometimes moving your router to a better location or moving your Steam Link out in front of your TV can help dramatically. Also make sure that your PC and router are in open, well ventilated areas, as their performance will be reduced when they are overheating.

Other applications using the wireless network can interfere with game streaming. If someone is streaming movies or audio, using BitTorrent, or using a Chromecast, try having them stop and see if that improves things.

• Choose the 5 GHz WiFi band over the highly contested 2.4 GHz band. The 5 GHz band has a shorter range, but there is less interference from your neighbors and other wireless devices.
• Choose a WiFi channel on the AP that is not occupied by your neighbors. There are many smart phone apps and laptop programs that allow you to survey the WiFi landscape around you. You lose over 50% of your data rate when there is channel interference with your neighbors.
• Set the AP to use a 5 GHz channel that is near the top end of the band. These channels have the highest allowed FCC transmit power limits from the AP. I.e. pick channels 149 and higher.
• Try to see if you can connect when the AP channel width is set to at 40 MHz, over a 20 MHz width for 11n and 11ac. If 40 MHz works, then try 80 MHz that is enabled with an 11ac capable router. Higher channel bandwidths can provide faster speeds but are more sensitive to distance and other sources of RF noise.

Some wireless routers have bugs in handling the amount of UDP traffic sent in In-Home Streaming. Please make sure your router has the latest firmware updates to resolve any known issues.

The streaming quality directly affects the amount of bandwidth used for streaming, so reducing the visual quality will help.

You can directly limit the resolution and amount of bandwidth used in the advanced streaming settings. If you want to tune things exactly right for your setup, you can start at 3 Mbit/s and slowly increase the bandwidth until you start getting hitches and then drop it back down. You can do this live while your game is running by bringing up the Steam overlay with the guide button or Shift+Tab and going to the streaming settings panel.

I have had terrible wifi performance with the link. After much fiddling, I narrowed the bottleneck down to either the Marvell Wifi chipset in the Steam Link (apparently they aren’t that good) or the Link O/S itself.

Setup:
Netgear D7000 AC1900mbps (600 N + 1300 AC)
ITX PC (asus impact VII w/AC wifi & aerial)

My config went PC ->wifi ->Router ->wifi- >Steam Link

On both N 600 and AC 1300 modes (2.4ghz/5ghz respectively) it performs poorly at 1080p 60fps (beautiful quality), resulting in unplayable games. My laptop with N/AC wifi performs perfectly at these settings, proving that the PC nor router are responsible. They can maintain a 30mbps+ stream without packet loss (even on N mode).

I then wired up the Steam link to the router with the bundled ethernet cable (nothing else, the PC was still wifi-to-router!) and behold, perfect 60fps solid, just like the laptop on wifi!

It does appear the Steam Link’s wifi capabilities are not capable of [email protected] max quality.

However, running at “balanced” 1080p or “beautiful” 720p appears playable – most likely because these are just under the threshold?

Bizarre. Would be interesting to see if anyone else has had this issue.

This is something I have recently noticed. If I have my PC (5ghz/ N) and steam link (5ghz/ AC) connected via wireless, I get an average ping of 20 ms from the steam link, but if I try to send a request ping from a laptop to the PC (both wireless) the average ping is about 1 ms.

I dont unserstand why the wireless performance of the Steam link is so poor. Maybe is a bottleneck problem for using Wireless N to the PC and wireless AC to the Steam Link?

If I use wired connection to the steam link the average ping is ok (1 ms).

By Ariel | Follow | Last Updated December 24, 2021

Summary :

A great many people want to set up Steam Link on PC. Some other people are troubled by Steam Link lag. Don’t worry. This post of MiniTool will tell you how to set up Steam Link and provides some methods to fix Steam Link lag.

Quick Navigation :

• How to Set up Steam Link
• How to Fix Steam Link Lag
• User Comments

How to Set up Steam Link

Steam Link offers you an easy way to stream games from a PC to a TV in the home. It is a cost-effective and optimized streaming receiver that you can connect to a TV. How to set up Steam Link? Here we summarize a quick guide for you.

Step 1. Install Steam on your PC, and then launch it and log in to your account. If you have installed Steam, you can skip this step.

Step 2. Connect your Steam Link to a power source with its included adapter.

Step 3. Connect Steam Link to your TV with an HDMI cable.

Step 4. Plug a Steam controller, a USB keyboard/mouse, a wired/wireless Xbox 360 controller, a wired Xbox One controller, or a Logitech wireless gamepad into the USB port on the Steam Link.

Step 5. Turn on your TV, and then connect your Steam Link to the HDMI input of the TV and follow the on-screen prompts to set up Steam Link. Then connect to the PC that is running Steam.

Step 6. Now, you should be prompted to enter a code shown on TV into Steam that’s running on PC.

How to Fix Steam Link Lag

Many users are troubled by Steam Link audio lag while playing games. How to fix Steam Link lag spikes? Let’s try the following troubleshooting methods.

A lot of people report that Skyrim SE won’t launch in Windows 10. Are you also troubled by this issue? This post summarizes several effective fixes for you.

Fix 1. Use a Wired Network Connection

An unstable network connection is the main reason for Steam Link audio lag. To avoid this situation, we recommend you connect to a wired network using an Ethernet cable, which can help you get good performance for game streaming.

Step 1. Connect your Steam Link to the router with an Ethernet cable.

Step 2. Connect the PC that is running Steam to your router with an Ethernet cable.

Fix 2. Connect to 5GHz Wi-Fi

If you don’t want to use a wired network connection, using 5GHz Wi-Fi can help you fix Steam Link slow network. It provides a faster and more stable internet connection than 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi while using Steam Link. How to connect to 5GHz Wi-Fi? This post walks you through detailed steps.

Fix 3. Adjust the Stream Settings of Your PC

Some users reported that the Steam Link lag spikes issue can be resolved by modifying some Stream settings on Steam. To do so, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Open your Steam client, and then navigate to Steam and select Settings from the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Select the In-Home Streaming option from the left pane and click on Advanced Host Options.

Step 3. Tick all checkboxes for Enable hardware encoding.

Now, you can relaunch Steam and see if the Steam Link audio lag is fixed.

Fix 4. Change the Steam Link Settings

There are 3 options in the setup of Steam Link: Fast, Balanced, and Beautiful. Usually, your devices set the Balanced option as default. To get better performance, you can choose Fast or Beautiful mode. Here you can try this Steam Link lag fix.

Step 1. Open your Steam Link application, and then navigate to the Settings menu.

Step 2. Click on Streaming Setup and select Fast from the listed options.

Many users encounter Steam there have been too many login failures. Are you also troubled by it? Don’t worry. This post summarizes several effective fixes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Ariel is an enthusiastic IT columnist focusing on partition management, data recovery, and Windows issues. She has helped users fix various problems like PS4 corrupted disk, unexpected store exception error, the green screen of death error, etc. If you are searching for methods to optimize your storage device and restore lost data from different storage devices, then Ariel can provide reliable solutions for these issues.

• Several Steam Link input lag issues are often caused by the lack of a newer and faster router.
• Keep this aspect in mind when trying to solve them. Also, make sure to use a router that supports 5 GHz Wi-Fi.
• To get precise results, refer to the below procedure and modify your PC’s streaming options too.
• You may even change Steam Link’s streaming settings to make sure that all Steam Link app latency issues are gone.

• CPU, RAM and Network limiter with hot tab killer
• Integrated with Twitch, Discord, Instagram, Twitter and Messengers directly
• Built-in sound controls and custom music
• Custom color themes by Razer Chroma and force dark pages
• Free VPN and Ad blocker
• Download Opera GX

Available for multiple devices such as TV, smartphone, or tablet, Steam Link is a free application created with the purpose of improving your gaming experience.

Moreover, it supports Bluetooth control. Using it will allow you to try out different types of these devices such as the Steam Controller, and many popular keyboards, mice, and controllers.

Steam Link is widely used by lots of gamers. Does Steam Link have input lag? That’s what certain users have in mind.

Most of them have already experienced slower playing times and discussed on Steam forums how the Steam Link app slow connection issues manifest:

I have played lots of games on my Steam Link, but I have input lag in almost every game, which is very troublesome. I have both my computer and my Steam Link on a wired connection (not wireless). What should I do?

You will always experience some latency or lag when using Steam Link because the games you play are loaded and played from the computer.

We know every user wants to have a great experience and enjoy his favorite games on a bigger screen. You’re no exception to that.

This is the reason why we have verified the Steam Link input lag issue and prepared four quick solutions. Feel free to check them out by reading the next section of this guide.

How to optimize the Steam Link input lag?

1. Connect to a wired network using the Ethernet cable

1. At first, use an Ethernet cable to connect the Steam Link to your router.
2. Connect the gaming PC to your router using an Ethernet cable (make sure to use a newer and faster router).

By connecting the gaming PC to your router, you will ensure a good performance for your game streaming.

The standard Ethernet cable is the best accessory to use for wired connections, especially when you use Steam Link. If you use a very old router, this will cause a bad performance in your Ethernet connection.

2. Connect to a 5 GHz wireless network

Do not hesitate to connect both your gaming PC and Steam Link to a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network. Also, make sure to use a router that supports 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

You can try this solution too as the wireless Internet connection is a proper means to decrease the Steam Link input lag. Consider that the 5 GHz Wi-Fi connection is without a doubt superior to a 2.4 GHz one.

To fully benefit from its advantages, make sure you are not using a router that doesn’t support 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

Your wireless connection may be weaker compared to a wired one, but its strength will depend on two factors: your general setup, and the games you play.

Nonetheless, the duration of your Steam Link input lag should decrease.

Steam Link functions with 802.11n, but it is also compatible with the 802.11ac standard. The latter is the ideal standard if you want to use a reliable wireless Internet connection.

3. Modify your PC’s streaming options

1. Open Steam and click on Settings.
2. Choose In-Home Streaming.
3. Click on Advanced Host Options.
4. Check all Enable hardware encoding boxes.

The boxes from the Enable hardware encoding are set to default. By checking them, you will ensure maximum performance for your device and make Steam Link display latency issues a thing of the past.

If Steam Link is not going full screen, as many users claim these days, just check out this dedicated guide, and will be able to solve the problem.

4. Change Steam Link’s streaming settings

1. Open Steam Link and navigate to the Settings menu.
2. Select Streaming Setup.
3. Select Fast.

Steam Link has a setup composed of three options: Fast, Balanced, and Beautiful. The device has the Balanced option set as default. Choose Fast if you have encountered poor performance.

Select Beautiful if you have good performance and verify if you benefit from an increased picture quality and only a few delay moments.

These simple settings should actually prevent all Steam Link input lag wired issues.

Steam Link is a free application used by many users to try out their favorite games on a bigger screen. If you are one of them, there are chances you may have experienced the Steam Link app lag.

We recommend a few quick solutions in this regard. Connect to a wired or wireless network using a performant router, modify the streaming options from your computer or change the Steam Link settings.

We hope you will enjoy some captivating gaming sessions using the Steam device, and please leave us a comment about the efficiency of our solutions in the comments section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Clearing Steam’s web browser cache and cookies is an ideal solution. For similar fixes, just check out this guide on how to fix Steam games lagging .

Yes, it does. To prevent that, apply the tips described in this quick article dedicated to reducing input lag on Steam Link .

The encoder is set to 25 Mbps for Steam Link. However, this guide on how to solve Steam download issues will show you how simple it is to limit the download bandwidth.

In-home or anywhere using the internet with a supported device

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter

Share All sharing options for: How to beam Steam games to any room of your house

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

What happens if you’re gaming on your desktop Windows PC, but want to continue the game from a different part of the house — or even out of the house? If you’re using Steam, Valve’s PC gaming destination, you can get around the first part of this dilemma by using Steam Link, an in-home game streaming solution that uses your local network. And now, there’s a way around the second as well — with some caveats.

Valve has been perfecting its in-home streaming solution for five years now, so there’s plenty of polish in the setup process. However, the Steam Link Anywhere feature, which is part of the latest Steam Link beta (and which was only announced last month) lets you stream your game from anywhere using an Android device or a Steam Link box with an internet connection. Right now, this is a feature best suited for power users, so don’t be surprised if you can’t get it to work well. In addition, the mobile app is currently only available to Android devices (sorry iOS users).

So, let’s get started on setting up Steam game streaming from one PC to another, or between your PC and your Android phone.

Make sure you’ve got a good router, or wired ethernet

This should maybe go without saying, but your network needs to be robust — if your Wi-Fi is weak, slow, congested, or there’s too much interference, you won’t see great results. With a wired ethernet connection on both ends, Steam streaming can feel practically seamless inside your own home, but it can be completely unplayable with a poor wireless link. Just keep that in mind.

• Desktop client beta setup, part 2.
• Steam Link mobile app beta setup.
• Mobile setup, part 2.
• Mobile setup, part 3.
• Desktop client beta setup, part 3.

Setting up your Steam beta client apps for streaming

• Before you do any streaming (in-home or otherwise), you’ll probably want to download the beta version of the Steam desktop client for the most up-to-date experience. If you want to stream games to your phone, download the Steam link beta client to your Android phone using this Google Play Store link. If you’re streaming to another Windows computer, all you need is to have the Steam beta client installed there as well, with no additional software required.
• Next, update your desktop Steam client to the beta build (it should be dated March 13th or later). You can do this by clicking “Steam” in the upper left corner of the client window. Select Settings > Account and then click the Change button under “Beta participation.”
• Select “Steam Beta Update” from the drop-down menu. Confirming this selection by clicking “OK” and it will prompt a restart of the Steam client. Wait for it to restart before going to the next step.
• If you’re streaming to an Android phone, go to the Steam Link app settings on your phone and select “Other Computer.” A four-digit PIN will appear on your screen that you’ll enter on the desktop to complete the pairing process. If you’re using two PCs, you won’t need to pair them in order to stream in-home; just sign into the same account on the same network.
• Using the desktop Steam client, from the “In-Home Streaming” menu, select “Pair Steam Link,” and then enter the code seen on your phone. Make sure you’re on the same network, and follow the setup wizard until the pairing process is complete.

At this point, you could start streaming, but first I’d recommend that you set a four-digit PIN to secure your connection between any remote apps and your PC. After all, you’re handing full remote control over your computer to another device, so you should practice good security measures. Here’s how to set a PIN for Steam Link:

• On the same “In-Home Streaming” settings page from earlier (within the beta desktop client), select the “Set Security Code” button.
• Next, set a four-digit PIN by entering it into both fields, then click on the “OK” button.

From now on, whenever you attempt to stream in-home or remotely, you’ll be required to enter the PIN.

You’re finally through the beta setup process! As long as you stay logged in to both Steam clients, you should be able to quickly use Steam Link streaming when you’re on your own local network — or over the public internet, from your phone. More on that below.

Valve may have discontinued the hardware, but you can still can use the Steam Link app on your Raspberry Pi system to stream games to your TV or anywhere else.

Remember the Steam Link, the $50 box from Valve that let you stream games from your PC to any TV in your house? The hardware has been discontinued, but Steam Link is still around as an app for iOS, Android, and—perhaps most intriguingly—the Raspberry Pi.

We’ve discussed how to stream games to your phone and tablet with the Steam Link app, and it’s great—you get the mobility of playing anywhere in the house, but your gaming PC does the heavy lifting, sending the video feed to any device on the network. If you want to stream those games to a TV, though, the Raspberry Pi is a perfect, inexpensive solution for doing just that. And if you have a Raspberry Pi running RetroPie, Steam Link is built in as an experimental add-on.

Right Now, Steam Link is only compatible with the Raspberry Pi 3 and above. If you have an Nvidia card in the gaming PC you’re streaming from, though, you can create a very similar experience with Moonlight, an open-source client for Nvidia’s GameStream technology. But for the purposes of this guide, we’ll focus on Steam Link and newer Pi models.

Using Steam Link on the Pi is very similar to its iOS and Android app, with just a tad more setup. Before moving forward, you’ll probably want to check out our guide to getting started with the Raspberry Pi, if you haven’t already—it’ll detail all the hardware you need for this project, as well as the initial setup of Raspbian, the Raspberry Pi’s operating system. Once you’re done with that, you can proceed with the steps below.

Option 1: Install Steam Link on Raspbian

Installing Steam Link is incredibly easy in Raspbian. Open up a terminal window and run the following commands, pressing Enter after each one:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install steamlink

(To learn more about what these do, check out our guide to essential Raspberry Pi terminal commands.)

Next, you’ll need a controller. If you’re using a USB gamepad, just plug it in, and your Pi should recognize the controller when you launch Steam Link. If you’re using a Bluetooth gamepad, like Sony’s DualShock 4, you’ll need to pair it with your Pi by clicking the Bluetooth icon in the upper-right corner and choosing Add New Device.

To launch Steam Link, you can either click the Raspberry menu in the upper-left corner, then head to Games > Steam Link, or run Steam Link right from the terminal with:

Skip to the last section of this guide for more info on setting up the actual Steam Link application.

Raspbian

If Steam Link is the only reason you need a Pi, you may want to add the app to Raspbian’s startup programs so it launches automatically when you boot up. Open a Terminal and run the following command:

sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

Then add a new line to the end of the file with the following text:

Press Ctrl+X, then Y, to save and quit. The next time you boot your Pi, the Steam Link interface should appear right away.

Option 2: Install Steam Link on RetroPie

If you already have a Raspberry Pi acting as a retro gaming machine, you’re in luck: You don’t need a separate Pi to stream Steam games, or even a separate SD card. You can install the Steam Link app right from RetroPie with its own menu entry, so it launches right from EmulationStation like your other games.

Before installing Steam Link in RetroPie, make sure it’s updated to the most recent version with the latest packages available. Then, from EmulationStation’s main window, choose the RetroPie option and head to RetroPie Setup. Select Update and let it run through the script.

Download Steam Link to RetroPie

Once that’s done, return to the RetroPie Setup screen. Scroll down to Manage Packages, and choose Experimental Packages. Then continue scrolling until you find “steamlink,” and hit the install button. Once completed, you should find it in the Ports section of EmulationStation’s main menu, ready to stream games.

If you don’t see “steamlink,” you may be running an old version of RetroPie that must be re-installed from scratch, or you might have a pre-3 Raspberry Pi model that Steam Link doesn’t support.

Configure Steam Link and Start Streaming Games

Using Steam Link on the Raspberry Pi is nearly identical to the iOS and Android experiences. Before you start, open Steam on your gaming PC, log in with your account, and head to Settings > Remote Play. Check the Enable Remote Play box to turn the streaming feature on.

Then, launch Steam Link on your Pi. When you start the app for the first time, it’ll prompt you to select your controller. Next, you’ll see a list of computers on your network currently available for Steam’s Remote Play. Choose a PC from the list and enter your PIN on the gaming PC. You should need to do this only once, after which Steam Link will automatically connect in the future. From there, just click Start Playing to open Steam Big Picture on your host PC.

If you have several PCs at home, you probably had the chance to try Steam In-Home-Streaming (IHS): the solution made by Valve to stream games from Steam from one PC to another. It works surprisingly well, so that you can play your demanding games on a feeble laptop as long as your gaming PC is running somewhere in the house. I’d wage it has been getting better over the years, because 3-4 years ago it seemed like the stream was not remotely as stable or as well defined. Nowadays, you can see the compression artifacts if you look long enough, but it’s mostly seamless and there’s barely any noticeable latency.

The Steam Link started as a hardware device ages ago now, until it was discontinued and replaced by a software version originally for ARM devices (Raspberry Pi and Mobile phones).

Are you aware that Valve has recently packaged Steam Link for Linux as well, as a separate application? It’s virtually the same application that runs on mobile devices (iOS and Android), but this time for Windows and Linux.

Now, is there any reason at all to use Steam Link instead of Steam In-Home-Streaming? Actually, yes.

One of the main differences is that Steam Link connects to the whole Steam client over the network, not just the game that’s currently running. This has several implications:

1) Games that require an update can’t launch from IHS… Steam Link solves this issue.

Yes, this was been something really annoying for a while. If a game requires an update, it was not possible to launch it through IHS. On Steam Link, you can first update the game through the streamed Steam client, and once it’s up to date you can play it as expected.

2) You can remap your controller on the Steam Link client side

I don’t think this is possible in IHS – but on the Steam Link application, you can unilaterally decide to remap buttons on your controller before even connecting to the remote Steam instance.

3) You don’t need a local Steam Client

This is probably the biggest selling point. You don’t even need to have a Steam client installed on the client side to stream games from the remote Steam instance. Now the Steam Link application has everything it needs: obviously saving some space (the Flatpak archive is however not that small either), and without the need of storing your previous Steam credentials. You may be wondering, how do you actually authentify if you don’t have any client? Well the first time you set it up, Steam Link will ask for a pin number that is displayed on your host machine. Once your Steam Client is identified, no need to do it again anymore. Very seamless.

4) Another layer of reliability

In Steam Link, you can actually always ‘escape’ the current session if things go wrong by a long press of the select button on your controller (or a keyboard shortcut) in order to regain control in case the game has frozen on the other end.

5) No need for SSH to shut down your remote machine

If you were using IHS, you probably had to shut down your remote Steam host through SSH (or maybe you left it on the whole time?). That’s another extra step that is not required with Steam Link: you can actually shut down the remote machine through the interface. And it even warns you that the machine will be unavailable once you do so (unless you set up Wake on LAN).

6) Security? Do we have a problem, doc?

This may be the only point where Steam Link is worse than Steam IHS. Steam Link lets you stream the whole desktop of the remote host. You can actually minimize Steam and escape to the desktop and… your whole remote host is vulnerable. Whether that’s desirable is up to you (you could stream Steam Link as a kind of super VNC session!) but if anyone other than you ends up accessing it… well, just saying you should be aware of that risk.

Well, it’s fairly clear than Steam Link is superior in almost every way and that there should be no good reason to use IHS anymore (except security!) at this stage. Interested in trying it out? Grab the Flatpak version through Flathub:

Note there are still some reasons to be wary about Flatpaks, so if you’d prefer a tarball, there is a direct link that is used to prepare the Flatpak version.

Gaming on the PC is fun but it can be tiring spending long hours in front of it. Gaming laptops are a great idea and we highly recommend considering one if you’re someone who needs to travel a lot, and need to carry your work (and play) station along. However, if you’re someone who wants to play PC games in the comfort of your bed or couch, there is a very robust and freely available option present. It’s made by Valve, the folks behind Half-Life, and they now run Steam, the world’s largest online game store and distribution system. Enter, Steam In-Home Streaming, a feature that lets you stream games from one device to another. You can now run games across systems even if all of them don’t have high-end gaming hardware on-board. You can stream from a gaming PC to a basic laptop, or from a gaming laptop to a mobile device, or a gaming laptop to another laptop or any such combination. Here is how you go about setting it up.

How does it work?
You run Steam on your primary gaming PC or laptop. Next, you run the Steam software on it and it stream your display, your games over the home network to the device of your choice. This device could be a very basic Android phone or tablet, an Android OS TVs, another laptop, or a PC. It’s that simple. The device that you play the game on does not need to have a high-end graphics card or processor. Pretty much any device can play most HD videos will do just fine. The PC or laptop from where you usually play and now will stream, needs to be reasonably powerful though and have all the games you want, installed.

What do you need?

If you haven’t got a gaming laptop, you can consider some models here or visit a Reliance Digital store. This should be a good starting point. You also need a decent router to make sure that the stream is stable so you don’t notice any lag or delay. If you’re sitting in the same room as the streamer gaming laptop (or PC) and the router, you could manage to stream this on an 802.11n (300Mbps) router, but we would recommend a faster 802.11ac (750Mbps and above) router for optimum performance. If you have wired connections at home setup, those could be better options too.
A good network makes things a lot simpler. If you have a home setup, where network connectivity isn’t the strongest, you are likely to face stuttering. You might have to tone down the streaming quality settings for good performance. Also consider a better router for this purpose.

Oh, and this setup requires no internet connectivity for streaming, just to login to Steam and authenticate your devices. Steam in-home streaming only works on the same network, so don’t expect to stream games from a different city or location. Also, make sure your Windows screen isn’t logged out or locked. You cannot have others using that device at the same time.

Next, you need to choose a device you want to stream to. Most phones today will do just fine, although if you have a tablet around, the larger screen makes it a lot more fun. A basic or old laptop might work too.

How do you setup Steam In-Home Streaming?

This is the easy bit. First, make sure all devices are connected to your home router. Install Steam on the gaming PC or laptop, create a free account if you haven’t, or login using an existing ID. You need to use this account to login on the other device (the one you will stream to). If it’s an Android device, a phone or tablet, search and download Steam Link (BETA) from the Google Play Store. Pretty much everything will be configured by itself. You might be asked to choose a controller type. When you start the app, it should detect Steam streaming devices on your network and let you stream games from your gaming laptop or PC.

Testing out your Steam In-Home Streaming setup

Go the remote device on which you want to stream games to. If this is your phone or tablet, open the Steam Link (BETA) app and click on Start Playing. You’ll be taken to the Steam Big Picture mode which is a basic interface that lets you choose a game to stream. Try out some games on this. If you’re using a secondary PC or laptop, open Steam and go to the Library. You should see an option to Stream games in place of the Play button. This will let you play those games remotely.

Tweaking your streaming setup further

If you’re facing average performance in the form of stuttering or delay, there are ways to tweak things. Most of the defaults work pretty well in most cases. Some of the settings and tweaks are available on the server end. Go to that device (your gaming PC or laptop), right-click on the Steam icon and click on Settings. Choose Home Streaming and then on Advanced Host Options. Here you can enable features such as ‘Enable Hardware Encoding’ and ‘Prioritize network traffic’ to reduce latency and lag between the two devices. You can also choose presets to prioritize performance over quality. You can also limit the resolution of the screen to try and reduce the load on your gaming PC or laptop. The less processing and less network bandwidth needed, the smoother and faster the game is likely to run.

How do you make the gaming experience more intuitive?

One of the easiest ways to make this streaming gaming performance more fun, is by adding a gaming controller to the mix. If you’re on a phone or a tablet, there are third-party controllers that act as a stand for your device and connect using Bluetooth. They also have a wide range of physical controls so you don’t need to use the touchscreen on your device. This makes playing PC titles on your device way more immersive.

Hopefully, this tutorial is of some help and this solution opens up a lot of possibilities for you. If you prefer just gaming on a laptop, or a gaming console, you can either head down to a Reliance Digital store near you to check out the offerings there, or browse through our product catalogue online where you can even buy a model that suites your needs.

Have you ever thought of playing PC games on a different location? Maybe using the large screen TV in the living room? It will be costly and wasteful to purchase another gaming rig just for this purpose. Instead, you can use Steam In-Home Streaming to stream the games from you primary machine.

What is Steam In-Home Streaming?

It is a built-in feature available for everyone, which allows users to run the game on one computer and stream the content (game audio, video and input) to another computer through their home networks. Ideally, a more powerful, capable machine with a dedicated graphics card will handle the rendering of the game, while a slower machine or laptops on the other end.

Steam In-Home Streaming also supports cross-platform streaming. You can in fact stream a Windows-only game to a Linux or macOS system without any problems.

Basic Requirements

• A host computer with Steam software installed, preferably has a dedicated graphics card
• A client computer with Steam software installed
• A fast home network. It is recommended to use wired (Ethernet) connection to reduce latency, if possible. Wireless connection can still work, but please ensure you are using 802.11n or 802.11ac.

Set-Up Procedures

You will need to connect the two machines to the same local network, such as 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2. After that, login with the same Steam account on both computers.

When you open the settings menu, there is a tab called “In-Home Streaming” in the sidebar. You will have to tick the “Enable streaming” box. You will also see all the connected and available computers in the network.

Click “Stream” to start playing in your game library. It will indicate the name of the host PC on the side.

A pop-up may appear to inform you, that the game will be streamed from another computer in the network. Press “OK” to continue. The game should start within a few seconds.

Overall, using Steam In-Home Streaming is very simple and straightforward. However, to get the best performance and experience, you can tweak some settings to optimize the process.

You can enable hardware encoding to harness the power of your GPU to render the games in a more efficient way. Furthermore, you can adjust the number of CPU threads to encode the stream. If you have a compatible router, you can switch on network traffic prioritization, which should provide more bandwidth for streaming. For the client PC, you can turn on hardware decoding to utilize the GPU.

If you experience any problems, you can visit Steam support page or its community, which should give you some useful advises.

Feel free to leave comments below, if you have any opinion about this website. Share the website around if you enjoy reading it. Subscribe to our Newsletter or follow our Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Support this website simply by shopping in Amazon. It will give us small kickbacks, if you use the above affiliate links to make any purchases, which will help us grow.

Follow MUO

Want to game wherever you are via Steam’s new Remote Play Anywhere feature? Here’s what you need to do.

Remote Play is a family of features that Steam started rolling out in 2019, to make it easier for gamers to play together and stream and cast their playthroughs. Remote Play Anywhere is one of these handy features but, like many of Steam’s features, it’s a little difficult to find and use if you aren’t already familiar with it.

Here’s how to access and use Remote Play Anywhere.

What Is Remote Play Anywhere?

Remote Play Anywhere is a Steam Feature that allows users to stream their Steam games from their desktop to other devices, including connected smart TVs, and even tablets and phones. The feature doesn’t just cast video from the laptop but optimizes the games for the screen and for different controllers and user interfaces.

When streaming Steam games to a television, the primary upshot comes from display quality. Just streaming video from your computer to television is possible without Play Anywhere, but it isn’t pretty or requires tedious settings adjustments to try to get things like aspect ratio right.

When Streaming Steam games to a mobile device, the chief advantage is storing games on Steam and streaming them to your device. This way, the single Steam Link app can take the place of any number of individual game applications taking up space on your device.

How to Access and Use Remote Play Anywhere

To access and use Remote Play Anywhere, you need a Steam account on your primary computer. You’ll also need the free 21.5 MB Steam Link app on any mobile devices that you want to connect to your account.

Download: Steam Link for iOS | Android | Raspberry Pi

Once you have the app downloaded, open Steam Link on your devices. Select an input method, and you’ll get a verification number on the device.

Then log into your Steam account on your computer. Click Steam in the upper left corner and select Settings from the menu. In the column menu on the left side of the new window that opens, select Remote Play. Within this menu, select PAIR STEAM LINK and enter the verification number displayed on the device that you want to pair.

When you finish pairing your devices, select the Start Playing icon on your connected device. You need to turn your computer on and have it running, have Steam installed, and sign in to your account, but your computer doesn’t need to be running Steam for you to access your library.

What Games Can You Play on Remote Play Anywhere?

Valve hasn’t optimized all Steam games to work with Remote Play Anywhere. When you access your library on a connected device, Steam automatically turns on a filter to show you titles optimized for that kind of device.

However, you can turn this filter off to access your whole collection. Can you play Skyrim on your smartphone? Yes. Is it worth it? Probably not, depending on your hardware.

Searching Steam for Titles Compatible With Remote Play Anywhere

To find games that are optimized for Remote Play Anywhere, access Steam on your computer. From the toolbar at the top of the home dashboard, select Browse, and then Remote Play.

Scroll down on this page to find a block of tiles for the different features in the Remote Play Family. Select the tile for GAMES YOU CAN REMOTE PLAY ANYWHERE for whatever device you want to use.

This will bring you to a page where you can browse titles optimized for different devices. Steam optimizes some titles for any size device, but other titles will work on a tablet or TV but not on your phone.

Where Will You Remote Play?

Remote Play Anywhere opens up a lot of possibilities for accessing, managing, and using games you play on various hardware devices.

There are a couple of services that offer this, but when you use Steam’s Remote Play Anywhere with other Steam features like Remote Play Together, it becomes a really expansive social gaming experience.

There are several ways to stream video games from your PC to your TV. Here’s everything you need to know to get started!

Jon Jaehnig is a freelance writer/editor interested in exponential technologies. Jon has a BS in Scientific and Technical Communication with a minor in Journalism from Michigan Technological University.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Join our newsletter for tech tips, reviews, free ebooks, and exclusive deals!

May 21, 2021 · 4 min read

Steam Link offers you an easy way to stream games from a PC to a TV in the home. It is a cost-effective and optimized streaming receiver that you can connect to a TV. How to set up Steam Link? Here we summarize a quick guide for you.

Step 1. Install Steam on your PC, and then launch it and log in to your account. If you have installed Steam, you can skip this step.

Step 2. Connect your Steam Link to a power source with its included adapter.

Step 3. Con n ect Steam Link to your TV with an HDMI cable.

Step 4. Plug a Steam controller, a USB keyboard/mouse, a wired/wireless Xbox 360 controller, a wired Xbox One controller, or a Logitech wireless gamepad into the USB port on the Steam Link.

Step 5. Turn on your TV, and then connect your Steam Link to the HDMI input of the TV and follow the on-screen prompts to set up Steam Link. Then connect to the PC that is running Steam.

Step 6. Now, you should be prompted to enter a code shown on TV into Steam that’s running on PC.

Many users are troubled by Steam Link audio lag while playing games. How to fix Steam Link lag spikes? Let’s try the following troubleshooting methods.

An unstable network connection is the main reason for Steam Link audio lag. To avoid this situation, we recommend you connect to a wired network using an Ethernet cable, which can help you get good performance for game streaming.

Step 1. Connect your Steam Link to the router with an Ethernet cable.

Step 2. Connect the PC that is running Steam to your router with an Ethernet cable.

If you don’t want to use a wired network connection, using 5GHz Wi-Fi can help you fix Steam Link slow network. It provides a faster and more stable internet connection than 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi while using Steam Link. How to connect to 5GHz Wi-Fi? This post walks you through detailed steps.

Some users reported that the Steam Link lag spikes issue can be resolved by modifying some Stream settings on Steam. To do so, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Open your Steam client, and then navigate to Steam and select Settings from the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Select the In-Home Streaming option from the left pane and click on Advanced Host Options.

Step 3. Tick all checkboxes for Enable hardware encoding.

Now, you can relaunch Steam and see if the Steam Link audio lag is fixed.

There are 3 options in the setup of Steam Link: Fast, Balanced, and Beautiful. Usually, your devices set the Balanced option as default. To get better performance, you can choose Fast or Beautiful mode. Here you can try this Steam Link lag fix.

Step 1. Open your Steam Link application, and then navigate to the Settings menu.

Step 2. Click on Streaming Setup and select Fast from the listed options.

Ariel is an enthusiastic IT columnist focusing on partition management, data recovery, and Windows issues. She has helped users fix various problems like PS4 corrupted disk, unexpected store exception error, the green screen of death error, etc. If you are searching for methods to optimize your storage device and restore lost data from different storage devices, then Ariel can provide reliable solutions for these issues.

Last Updated: 30th June, 2020

Accordingly, how do I improve my steam stream link?

1. Make sure that your PC is wired to your router.
2. Move your equipment for a better signal.
3. Remove other sources of interference.
4. Tune your network for best performance.
5. Update your router firmware.
6. Set streaming quality to “Balanced” or “Fast” in streamingsettings.
7. Tune your streaming bandwidth.
8. Upgrade your network hardware.

Additionally, how do I stream on steam? To enable in the Broadcast ability via theSteam Client, simply go to the menu and choose’Steam‘ -> ‘Settings’ -> ‘Broadcasting’. Ensure theSteam client’s broadcasting privacy settings are set to’Anyone can watch my games’. Note: You cannot use the SteamClient to stream an unreleased game.

Just so, how do I optimize steam?

Another little trick to optimize Steam’s downloadspeeds also lies within your Task Manager. First, open Steamand locate the software in your Task Manager. Right-click onSteam Client entry and select Go to details. Next, from yourDetail panel, right-click on SteamService.exe and select Setpriority, then High.

How do I turn off steam streaming?

Exiting the game will end your broadcast. Alternatively,at any time you can press Stop from the Broadcast panel inthe Steam Overlay (shift+tab).

Connect your gaming PC to your TV with ease, thanks to Steam Link and Raspberry Pi.

A Steam Link to the past

Back in 2018, we asked Simon, our Asset Management Assistant Keeper of the Swag, Organiser of the Stuff, Lord Commander of the Things to give Steam Link on Raspberry Pi a try for us, as he likes that sort of thing and was probably going to do it anyway.

Valve’s Steam Link, in case you don’t know, allows users of the gaming distribution platform Steam to stream video games from their PC to a display of their choice via their home network, with no need for cumbersome wires and whatnot.

Originally produced as a stand-alone box in 2018, Valve released this tool as a free download to all Raspberry Pi users, making it accessible via a single line of code. Nice!

The result of Simon’s experiment was positive: he reported that setting up Steam Link was easy, and the final product was a simple and affordable means of playing PC games on his TV, away from his PC in another room.

And now…

Well, it’s 2020 and since many of us are staying home lately, so we figured it would be nice to remind you all that this streaming service is still available.

To set up Steam Link on your Raspberry Pi, simply enter the following into a terminal window:

Marvell’s leading ARMADA 1500 Mini and Avastar 88W8897 SoCs power Valve’s Steam Link device to enable seamless, high-quality Steam gaming experiences on the TV

Santa Clara, California (November 16, 2015) – Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) — a worldwide leader in providing complete silicon solutions from storage to Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment, in-home content delivery and Kinoma® software enabling the “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle”— today announced that Marvell’s ARMADA® 1500 Mini (88DE3005) System-on-Chip (SoC), Avastar® 88W8897 11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip and power management integrated circuits (PMIC) components are at the core of Valve’s Steam Link, a wireless streaming device that is designed to bring the Steam gaming experience to any room in the house. Together with Valve’s industry-leading gaming expertise, Marvell is proud to enable a robust solution, optimized for low latency streaming of high-definition gaming content from the PC to the TV for just $50.

“We are proud of our collaboration with Valve on the Steam Link device,” said Gaurav Shah, Vice President of Marketing of Multimedia Solutions Business Unit at Marvell. “Our industry-leading ARMADA 1500 Mini processor, coupled with our highly-integrated, breakthrough wireless solution is designed to enable best-in-class video latency with reliable performance, making it well-suited for streaming graphics and sound intensive gaming applications.”

Marvell’s ARMADA 1500 Mini platform has met the stringent video requirements of very low latency at 60 frames per second (fps) in H264 format for a seamless gaming experience. The Avastar 88W8897 SoC is a low-power 802.11ac wireless solution that combines MIMO Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, transmit beamforming with built-in support for Wi-Fi Certified Miracast. Supporting one of today’s leading connectivity standards, 802.11ac, the Avastar 88W8897 provides increased wireless communication bandwidth and robustness over the Wi-Fi link, extending wireless capabilities to power bandwidth-hungry and low-latency multimedia applications, such as streaming high-definition video and gaming.

“When considering a partner for our Steam Link device, we were impressed with Marvell’s proven leadership in powering groundbreaking devices,” said Valve’s Sam Lantinga, Senior Software Engineer at Valve. “Our collaboration with Marvell has resulted in an incredibly affordable and powerful solution for streaming more than 6,000 games on Steam to a big screen in your living room or any screen in the home.”

Key Features of Marvell’s complete platform solutioninclude:

ARMADA 1500 Mini (88DE3005)

• An innovative and cost-effective multi-screen solution designed to provide instantaneous and seamless access to YouTube, Netflix, and other cloud based content on devices including Google’s Chromecast and Valve’s Steam Link.
• Optimized to support 1080p content, it has a high security grade that enables multiple DRM solutions like Verimatrix, Widevine and PlayReady.
• Implements sophisticated high quality audio, video, and graphics capabilities
• Plugs straight into any TV HDMI port transforming any screen into a smart and immersive entertainment platform.

Avastar 88W8897

• IEEE 802.11ac compliant
• 2×2 MIMO spatial stream multiplexing with data rates up to MCS9 (866.7 Mbps)
• Bluetooth 4.2 + High Speed (HS) and Low Energy (LE)
• Near field communication (NFC) connectivity technology
• Highly integrated solution with front-end PA, LNA, and Switch
• Low-power and robust performance adopted in variety of multimedia and cloud-based applications including Gaming console, Set-top Boxes, Mobile computing

About Marvell
Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a global leader in providing complete silicon solutions and Kinoma software enabling the “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle.” From storage to Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment and in-home content delivery, Marvell’s diverse product portfolio aligns complete platform designs with industry-leading performance, security, reliability and efficiency. At the core of the world’s most powerful consumer, network and enterprise systems, Marvell empowers partners and their customers to always stand at the forefront of innovation, performance and mass appeal. By providing people around the world with mobility and ease of access to services adding value to their social, private and work lives, Marvell is committed to enhancing the human experience.

As used in this release, the term “Marvell” refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit

Marvell, the M logo, ARMADA, Avastar and Kinoma are registered trademarks of Marvell and/or its affiliates. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

HOW CAN I REDUCE LAG OR IMPROVE STREAMING QUALITY WHEN USING GEFORCE NOW?

GeForce NOW games are running from the cloud, which means they are running on a server in a data center, not directly from your Mac, PC or Shield

Our latest app has a built-in network test that q uickly assesses your network and helps you optimize it for cloud gaming. The network test will automatically run the first time you play a game. You can also access the network test by clicking on your username in the upper right and selecting it from the drop-down menu.

After the test completes, you may get a warning message in red or yellow. If the message is red, you do not meet one of GeForce NOW for Mac or PC’s minimum requirements. If the message is in yellow, you meet minimum, but not the recommended, requirements.

Please use the following steps to help improve your home network, based upon the error message you have received:

You are connected to a 2.4GHz network. 5GHz is recommended

Update to a 5GHz Wi-Fi channel on your router, or purchase a new 5GHz router.

If you are using a Google Wi-Fi 5GHz router, please read this Google Wi-Fi help article .

If 5GHz is not an option in your router or your home network, please be aware the 2.4GHz channel can be negatively affected by other consumer electronics, such as baby monitors or microwaves.

Upgrade your internet service provider download speed. We require 15mbps, and recommend 50mbps.

Limit other network traffic in your home while using GeForce NOW, such as video streaming, downloading larg e files, Twitch broadcastin g or uploading files or photos . These can reduce your total available bandwidth.

Move closer to your Wi-Fi router, especially if you are using a 5GHz channel.

You may experience stutter or high latency

Try rebooting your router. Like other electronic components, routers sometimes need to be reset.

Switch to a wired Ethernet connection. If your PC or Mac doesn’t have an Ethernet port, use one of our recommended Ethernet dongles .

Update to a 5GHz Wi-Fi channel on your router, or purchase a new 5GHz router.

Move closer to your Wi-Fi router, especially if you are using a 5GHz channel. If you are far away, network packets may need to be resent multiple times, which results in stutter.

Use a Wi-Fi analyzer to find a clean channel. There are free ones available on the Android or iTunes app stores or for PC and Mac.

If your router automatically selects a Wi-Fi channel you should check it using the Wi-Fi analyzer if that channel is free and does not have interference.

If your router supports QoS, try turning it off. We have found that QoS has a negative impact on gaming performance on GeForce NOW with some routers, such as the Netgear Nighthawk X6.

Try rebooting your router. Like other electronic components, routers sometimes need to be reset.

Limit other network traffic in your home while using GeForce NOW, such as video streaming, downloading large files or uploading files. More network traffic in your home can cause stutter.

Turn off any Virtual Private Networks (VPN) you are using. VPNs can cause many problems including higher latency, more stutters, or you will connect to the wrong GeForce NOW data center.

Use a USB wired or wireless gaming mouse, such as those from Razer or Logitech. These products will provide reduced latency, higher sensitivity and a tactile scroll wheel.

Turn off any network firewalls. Some Firewalls can affect performance or even prevent you from connecting to our data centers.

Yesterday, Steam released its In-Home Streaming feature to everyone. The feature allows you to install games on one PC and stream them via your home network to any other machine. Here’s how to get it set up (and fix some of the quirkier problems).

Step 1: Set Up Your Streaming Server and Client

To use the In-Home Streaming feature, here’s what you’ll need:

• A host PC running Windows. Currently, streaming can only be done from a Windows PC. For the moment, this is probably for the best as more games are compatible with Windows than any other OS.
• A client computer. Any Windows, OS X, and Linux PC running Steam can receive stream a game from your host machine.
• Beta client enrollment. Both machines need to have the Steam Beta client installed. If you do not already have the beta enabled, you can activate it in Steam by opening Settings. Click “Change” under “Beta participation” and choosing “Steam beta update” from the drop down. You’ll need to restart Steam afterwards. Do this for both the host and client computer.
• A sufficiently fast home network. It should go without saying that the two computers need to be networked together. An ethernet connection is recommended, but if you’re using a wireless network, Steam recommends using either Wireless N or Wireless AC hardware.

Filtrete Smart Air Purifier

Covers 150 sq. ft.
Filter dust, allergens, pollen, pet dander, and viruses all day, every day with this smart purifier. The HEPA filter takes care of 99.97% of air particles to keep your oxygen as clean as possible.

Once you’ve got both computers connected to the network and running the beta client, here’s how to get the In-Home Streaming set up:

1. Log in to both computers from the same Steam account.
2. Open your Library on the client computer to view games.
3. Click the “Stream” button on individual game pages.

When connected to a network with another Steam-enabled host computer attached, games installed on any of the host machines will appear in the client Library. The normal “Play/Install” button will be replaced with a “Stream” button. You can, however, click the dropdown arrow next to the button to install the game locally if you’d prefer.

Assuming you don’t have any technical hurdles to overcome, the In-Home Streaming is relatively straightforward. In fact, if you’re already enrolled in the beta on both machines, you may not even notice that your computers can now stream between them. However, there are still a few oddities that can be cleaned up.

Step 2: Tweak Your Settings for Maximum Performance

While Steam does a pretty great job of making things effortless, there are still a few settings that are worth tweaking (or at least keeping in mind).

On the host machine: In the Settings menu (Steam > Settings), select In-Home Streaming on the left-hand side of the window. Under “Host options” click “Advanced Host Options.” Here, you’ll be able to enable hardware encoding (which may be on by default) and “Prioritize network traffic”. The latter’s availability may depend on your network hardware, but if you’ve got a relatively recent router, enabling this option can help make your game streams a little less choppy.

On the client machine: Here’s where things get fun. In the same In-Home Streaming section of Settings, you have a simple radio button under “Client options” that allow you to choose between Fast, Balanced, or Beautiful. They’re pretty self-explanatory and don’t require a lot of technical tweaking.

However, click the Advanced Client Options button and you can get some more fine-grained control. Your first option is “Limit bandwidth to”. This is set to Automatic by default. The manual options range from 3Mbit/s to 30Mbit/s, or Unlimited. If you have either a Wireless N or Wireless AC router, you can probably go as high as you need to without disrupting other network traffic. If you find your game is streaming at a slow rate, try manually turning up the bandwidth limit.

Alternatively, if your game is lagging and you don’t think bandwidth is the problem (say, you’re on a Wireless AC connection with no other users), you can try limiting the game resolution. In the second drop down box, you can choose 1080p, 720p, or 480p as a hard limit for your host machine to stream. Obviously a lower resolution won’t look as good, but you can get a higher frame rate, which can mean the difference between victory and defeat in many games.

You can also select “Display performance information” in the client options dialog. This will add a small indicator in the lower left corner of your screen with the current streaming resolution and framerate.

In-Home Streaming has been in beta for several months and so far it seems like it’s paid off. The feature works relatively painlessly right out of the box with little setup. If you want to tweak your options, though, you still have a few buttons and knobs to fiddle with.

Source: Android Central

The Steam Link app is a dream concept for anyone who’s ever thought how neat it would be to play PC games on your phone. In an age of gamer phones and the Nintendo Switch offering outstanding options for gaming on the go, whatever clear distinction there was between “gaming” and “mobile gaming” is disappearing fast.

Valve’s contribution with the Steam Link app lets you stream your favorite Steam games from your PC to your mobile phone over a Wi-Fi connection. It’s been out of beta for quite some time, but with new competition emerging from Google Stadia and Microsoft’s Project xCloud, it’s worth revisiting Steam Link to see how it holds up in 2020.

Game streaming is getting competitive in 2020

Source: Android Central

Given all the hype and attention being heaped onto Google Stadia and Project xCloud, it can be easy to forget that Steam Link is still very much a thing in 2020. It’s been out of beta since August 2019 and works just fine as a means of playing games from your Steam library on your phone or on the NVIDIA Shield TV (or another inferior Android TV streaming box).

Steam Link is dead simple to set up and a blast to play when your wireless connection is solid.

Setting up the connection is dead simple, as the app walks you through the steps each time you load it up. You’re required to pair your phone to your PC using a unique code generated on Steam on your PC and control things with a Bluetooth controller. Once the connection is made your PC will start displaying the Steam Big Picture menu on your phone or TV. Given that you must use a Bluetooth controller to play, you’re only going to have a good time playing games from your Steam library that offer good controller support. Steam will warn you if a game is not optimized for controllers, and it’s best to heed the warning because, in my experience, it’s just not worth the effort to make it work with a controller.

But for Steam games that do play nice with controllers, you’re in for a treat. Whether you’re streaming to your phone or your living room TV, Steam Link is a great way to play PC games around your home. The Steam Link app simply mirrors your PC display, so it’s not directly comparable to Stadia or NVIDIA’s GeForce Now services. But it’s still a convenient (and free) way to enjoy the games you already own on your phone or in the comfort of your living room.

What controllers can you use with Steam Link?

As you’d expect, Valve recommends using its own Steam controller, but unless you already have one of those laying around you’re more than fine to use any other Bluetooth controller you own that can pair to your phone or Android TV console. We’ve got roundups of the best game controllers for the NVIDIA Shield and the best overall controllers for Android so you’re sure to find either an option that you either already own or one that fits in your gaming budget.

If you’re thinking of using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it’s not going to work the way you think. There’s noticable input lag when using a mouse and it makes for a very frustrating experience. This is just part of the reality of a wireless setup that involves both screen sharing over a Wi-Fi network and a Bluetooth connection. Even with the Bluetooth controllers there’s still some input lag, but it’s not nearly as bad as with a keyboard and mouse.

Streaming to your phone is cool, but Steam Link really shines on Android TV

Source: Android Central

Valve’s impact on gaming is well-documented. Since launching Steam back in 2003, it’s been the de facto destination for PC gamers eager to discover and download new games. The Steam community has become a great place for developers to get direct feedback from gamers and helped Valve become one of the gaming industry’s most prominent game publishers.

After dabbling in the hardware market with the Steam Link console and controller, it makes more sense for Valve to build its streaming technology into the Steam Link app. At its core, Steam Link has always been about mirroring Steam’s Big Picture mode from your PC to another screen in your home and the focus on Android gives gamers the flexiblity to stream their games to a phone, tablet, or Android TV — and while playing games on your phone is surely a nice novelty, the Steam Link app really shines on living room TV.

The Steam Link app works perfectly on an Android TV box like the NVIDIA Shield TV. With the Shield TV already a prime choice for gaming, adding PC streaming from Steam just makes it that much more capable. When set up properly (Valve recommends connecting to a 5Ghz Wi-Fi network and keeping your phone close to your router, or connecting your PC and Android TV hardwired to your router via Ethernet for best results) it performs really well, but it just works that much better Android TV

Stream your Steam

Steam Link

A great way to play PC games anywhere in your home.

Steam Link is a free service that lets you stream your Steam library from your computer to your phone, tablet, or Android TV streaming box.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Delivery! It’s Postknight 2 for Android

Postknight 2 is a casual RPG adventure game that puts you in the shoes of a trainee Postknight who must rise through the ranks to become the greatest of them all.

Advising Olympians to leave electronics at home isn’t such a bad idea

Governments have the responsibility of looking out for Olympians who don’t spend their free time focusing on things like privacy rights in foreign countries.

The Pixel At a Glance widget just got a few long-awaited features

After teasing some new functions for the At a Glance widget last year, Google is finally rolling out more features on Pixels.

Pair the best Samsung Galaxy phone with the best game controllers

Are you ready to have some fun with your new Samsung Galaxy phone and get some serious gaming done? Before you can, you’ll likely want to get an awesome controller to pair up and make the most out of the experience.

Frame Rate Test — Parsec Streaming Versus Steam-In-Home-Streaming + VPN For Cloud Gaming

For many experimental projects in cloud gaming, Steam-in-home-streaming + VPN was the original hack that demonstrated the opportunity and potential for cloud gaming today. Larry Gadea wrote this post that got significant traction on Hackernews and elsewhere and helped create a community of enthusiasts on Reddit for cloud gaming. It was our original inspiration for building Parsec. One of our early goals has been to outperform this hack and to make it substantially easier to play games on any device from anywhere. With Parsec, you can stream your games from a cloud gaming PC, from your personal gaming PC, or connect to a friend for multi-player co-playing over the WAN. As these tests show, Parsec streaming over the internet is much more reliable in hitting 60 FPS versus the Steam-in-home-streaming + VPN set up.

To check out LAN performance, check out this article.

Benchmarking Performance

Our goal with Parsec is to make the lowest latency game streaming technology, prioritizing smooth 60 FPS over everything else. At times, this can result in hiccups in video quality due to internet bandwidth or Wifi, but we want you to be able to play your games anywhere with the highest quality settings possible. If you experience video quality issues, you can also try some of these settings to improve your quality.

We tested Parsec streaming from an AWS GPU server against Steam-in-home-streaming + Hamachi from an AWS GPU server. We were only measuring frame rate performance in this test, we tested this set up under various simulated internet connections to demonstrate the value of our networking protocol.

Why We Tested Against Steam + VPN

The only way to use Steam’s in-home-streaming tool over the WAN is to hack the system to make it think you’re streaming over a local network via a VPN. We will also publish a test of Parsec versus Steam-in-home-streaming in a local area network for benchmarking purposes as well.

THE RESULTS

Under all scenarios tested, Parsec is significantly more likely to maintain 60 FPS versus Steam + VPN set up. These graphs were produced with data from FRAPS. These graphs are used to explain the likelihood of hitting a specific time between frames. A perfect 60 FPS stream will have 100% of its frames land at 16.67 milliseconds. The graphs are density plots produced in R. The area under a density plot is 100%. The concentration of the area of the graph around 16.67 milliseconds explains how likely it is that the streaming solution will result in 60 FPS.

Under Normal Internet Conditions

We simulated poor network performance with Clumsy to produce the next two graphs.

With 3% Packet Loss On The Internet Connection

With 50% Of Packets Out Of Order On The Internet Connection

Postscript — More Details About The Test + Open Sourcing Our Data And Methods

We created this repo to give you insight into the functions and data used to generate the graphs we used in our blog post describing the performance of Parsec versus Steam-in-home-streaming + Hamachi while connecting to a cloud server hosted on AWS. The AWS server was running Windows Server 2016 on a g2.2xlarge.

The g2.2xlarge features (copied directly from AWS):

• High Frequency Intel Xeon E5–2670 (Sandy Bridge) Processors
• High-performance NVIDIA GPUs, each with 1,536 CUDA cores and 4GB of video memory. They use the K520 GRID cards based on the Kepler Architecture. They are old, blame Amazon.

The data was produced using FRAPS connecting to the AWS instance with a Windows 10 client with a GTX 1070 and Intel 6700k. This machine definitely wouldn’t need to use a cloud server to play games ;). The client has a 1Gbps fiber internet connection and is connected via an ethernet cable.

The tests were done playing GRID, Just Cause 3, and Tomb Raider 2013. All games were run in Ultra Low to prevent conflating issues with the GPU and issues with the streaming tools. For GRID, we tested while completing the same track of a race for 1 minute under each scenario. On Tomb Raider 2013, we used the benchmark feature. The AWS K520 card really had a hard time keeping up with Just Cause 3, but the data is included. There are some graphs with the data excluded available in the github repo.

RAZER CORTEX: GAME BOOSTER

Enjoy higher framerates and faster load times by tuning your PC with our suite of gaming optimization tools.

RAZER CORTEX: BOOSTER PRIME

Automatically streamline your PC’s performance and visuals for supported games, thanks to an advanced AI with a machine-learning algorithm that calculates the best settings based on your preferences.

RAZER CORTEX: SYSTEM BOOSTER

Take your PC optimization one step further with a one-stop solution that automatically detect and delete junk files to free up space.

RAZER CORTEX: DEALS

Get more bang for your buck with a price comparison engine that scans top digital PC game stores to compile the best prices, as you join frequent giveaways for a chance to score new games and Razer gear.

RAZER CORTEX: PAID TO PLAY

Explore our fan-favorite rewards program that lets you earn Razer Silver while gaming on your PC—loyalty points you can use to redeem a variety of exciting rewards such as Razer gear, games, and more.

RAZER CORTEX GAMES

Don’t just enhance your gaming on PC—bring it to your phone as well. Make your mobile gaming experience even more rewarding and personalized with our dedicated Android app.

Available on Google Play

RAZER CORTEX: XBOX GAME BAR

Bring up Razer Cortex seamlessly as an in-game overlay for an added level of convenience on your Windows 10 PC with this Xbox Game Bar widget.

Your phone, tablet or laptop—any device can be a gaming screen.

By David Nield | Published Jun 23, 2021 9:00 PM

Alongside music and movie streaming, we’re now seeing more and more ways to stream games. But this isn’t limited to playing titles stored in the cloud, because you can also stream games from one room to the other.

If you’ve got a gaming PC rig in your bedroom, you can use the power and library of titles in that setup to play on other computers and set-top boxes, like the big TV screen in the living room, for example.

There are several platforms out there to help you do this, but these are our favorites so you can choose the best one for your hardware and software setup.

Steam Link

Steam Link is perfect for anyone gaming on Steam—it’s a free add-on that builds on the platform and transfers that experience to different devices around your home. You can even use Steam Link over the internet from remote locations, though there will be some lag depending on the speed of your connection.

With Steam already managing the gaming library on your main PC, install Steam Link on any Android, iOS, Windows, or macOS device you want to game with. The installation process is similar no matter what platform you’re using, and connection doesn’t involve much more than signing into your Steam account.

But before the action starts, the Steam Link app will check for two things—a strong Wi-Fi connection, and that you’ve set up a gaming controller with your secondary device. Most controllers (including the latest PS5 and Xbox Series X/S accessories) work with most computers and mobile devices, and you can easily connect them over Bluetooth. Once that’s done, the app will scan your network for computers running Steam.

Steam Link will provide you with a PIN, and connecting your computer to your secondary device is as simple as entering that number on your main gaming machine. Then, you’ll be up and running, and you’ll be able to browse through games, and launch and control them through Steam Link.

Keep in mind that on the main computer where Steam is actually running, the game will open up and play on screen—you’re simply mirroring that over to your secondary device.

GameStream

GameStream by Nvidia is another great option, but you’ll need a Windows PC with a recent GeForce GTX or GeForce RTX graphics card in it, and an Nvidia Shield TV streaming box.

To set this up, open the Nvidia GeForce Experience software on your PC, head to the Settings panel (via the cog icon, top right), and select Shield. Make sure the GameStream toggle switch is on. On the Shield TV, open the Nvidia Games app and then select My library and GameStream to find the gaming PC on your network and pair with it. For best results, you’ll also need to connect a gaming controller. To do this, choose Settings from the Shield TV home screen, then Remotes & Accessories and Add Accessory.

GameStream is designed to work through Steam, and you’ll see the gaming service as an option when the Shield TV and your gaming computer are connected. You can also add games through the Shield panel of Settings in the GeForce Experience software running on your PC, but if it’s not running through Steam, you might run into a few bugs.

To use GameStream with a device other than the Nvidia Shield TV, such as a laptop, you can try Moonlight. This open-source client for the GameStream protocol has app versions for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and other platforms. As soon as the app launches, it will run a scan for compatible PCs on your local network and display a PIN code you’ll have to enter on your main computer to finish up the connection.

Other apps

There are other apps that will take the games you’re running on one computer and stream them to another device for you.

Install Remotr on your main Windows gaming computer to stream titles to Android and iOS devices, as well as to other Windows machines (macOS support is coming soon). It’s free to use, though you will need to register an email address to get it up and running.

Install Remotr both on your computer and your other device. Once you open the app on your mobile device, it should detect the gaming machine automatically over your local Wi-Fi network. You can connect a controller to get a more conventional experience but, unlike other services, you won’t actually need one—Remotr will set you up with on-screen touch controls on your mobile device.

Then there’s Rainway, which—surprise, surprise—works in the same way as all the other platforms we’ve mentioned. You’ll need to install the software on the PC where your games are, as well as the corresponding companion app for your other computers and mobile devices. In this case, it’ll even work in a web browser. Like Remotr, Rainway is free to use, and you only need to register your email address to get an account.

Open up the Rainway app on the device that you’re connecting from, and you’ll see a code to enter on your main PC. This gives you access to all your games, with various settings available for stream quality and window behavior (whether or not you want to play in full screen mode). As with the other tools, you’re essentially just mirroring the screen of the main computer to your secondary device over Wi-Fi.

David Nield is a tech journalist from the UK who has been writing about gadgets and apps since way before the iPhone and Twitter were invented. When he’s not busy doing that, he usually takes breaks from all things tech with long walks in the countryside.

How to connect pc to lg c1. , YouTube or Netflix) . Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (32-bit) I am trying to HDMI connect to a LG OLED TV (OLED55B7V ) from my PC (HP Pavilion 17-e049wm Notebook) but witout any luck. I am checking each time that it is correctly typed in but it won’t work. Now, there comes the screen similar to the one which arrived just after when you bought and unboxed your device first time from the sales box. Connect equipped cables to the monitor. Its time to connect the phone now to your PC to reflect it ro your TV. Click here to sign up for Peacock. Updated. The SCART is a plug connection that transmits analog video and audio signals simultaneously. As of December 2021, the Stadia service However, as LG uses WebOS to run its software, you can’t get Kodi on LG Smart TV models with a direct download. Once you have plugged in everything, turn on the receiver or soundbar. Another option would be to set the default audio on the laptop to the standard sound card instead of HDMI and connect the Sony set to the laptop. I can share youtube videos by it’s own built-in button (shown below), but not the browser, videos from other sources or … go to the home dashboard (just press and hold either the home or input key (buttons above the scroll wheel), Then on the top right corner is 3 dots next to your account profile icon, click that and choose edit, and from there you can choose to edit inputs, and then you can change HDMI port to “PC” for the port which your PC is connected to by clicking on the icon of the HDMI input. After this is complete wait 1-2 minutes for the router to power back up, and then try casting the application again. When initially pairing with the projector, you may be prompted to confirm a series of numbers or a passcode. Launch the app store and search for “Peacock” on your LG Smart TV. The back of the TV, on the other hand, is dressed in white this year. Experience the Amazing Power of an LG 65 Inch TV. Select Devices, then select Bluetooth. 1 compatible graphics card. in my LG work button D-Pad, Select and Back button. now it dont come…plz solve Amazon. If the connection fails after you have completed the steps above (‘How to Connect LG Smart TV to Internet Wired’), try turning off all devices to restart the connection. Select Netflix from the Home screen. According to LG, the OLED R uses similar panel technology (albeit rollable) to the excellent LG C1 flat panel OLED TV, along with the same fourth-generation Alpha 9 image processor driving the If your TV and computer both have a matching video port, you can simply connect both devices by using the proper cable type. 1 Cable (