5th November 2017, 6:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 5th November 2017, 10:33 PM by A Black Falcon.)
I got a Steam Link recently. This hardware device streams a computer monitor screen to your television, allowing you to play PC games remotely. It's made by Valve and named for Steam, but actually does stream anything on that monitor, not only Steam, so you can use it for non-Steam Big Picture Mode stuff if you attach a mouse and keyboard to the thing. It's a pretty good idea, if lag doesn't break it, and I've been interested in the concept but only for the right price. Well, this offer was for $1, plus about $8 shipping, but there was a catch -- it was a bundle with a game, ICEY, which cost $7.69 itself; that is an okay price for that game, but not as low as it's been. ICEY looks decent (it's a sidescrolling action/platformer) so I decided to keep it anyway, though, so I have that too now. The total bundle was a bit over $15, which is quite reasonable. Now you can get the Steam Link alone on sale for $15 on Amazon, so Valve seems to want to clear their warehouses of these for some reason... moving over to more built-in apps (TVs with the capability included out of the box and such), instead of an external device, probably is what I've seen for a good guess for why?
Anyway though I tried the thing out today and it works pretty well, most of the time anyway; it does vary from game to game. I have it connected by wired internet to my router, which connects to the PC via another wire. I only have one ethernet cable long enough to reach from the router to the TV, so my 360 now doesn't have wired internet. Ah well... either I'll have to see how well the 360 handles wireless, or get another long ethernet cord. I'll probably get a cord eventually, wired really is better... though my other devices (PS3, Wii U, 3DS, tablet) use wireless and do decently with it, wired is faster and more reliable. It's apparently especially important to sue the Steam Link with wired internet, though, for lag reasons, so I will do so. But as for the Steam Link, as I said it seems to run fairly well. Games definitely don't run as smoothly as they do just on the computer, surely in part because of having to duplicate the monitor image (maybe I should try 720p streaming instead of 1080...), but it works and controls are responsive. Between the distance and extra rendering there is more lag playing games on the TV than there would be on the computer, and faster-paced and higher-end 3d titles do seem to run worse, but even those games are playable so long as they work on a gamepad, I think... though people will vary on this depending on their tolerance and system power, for sure. In some games I didn't notice much of a difference between PC and Steam Link though, so it works great if your system can handle it. Being able to play computer games on my television, while the computer is still in another room, is great and I think I'll use this thing a good amount; it's kind of like having a new console, only it's my computer! Sure, there is more lag and slowdown in games, and worse image quality too (because while my TV is HD and largeish, it's pretty old), but still it's pretty great.
So I have this now, and I've been using it with my Hori EX2 Turbo pad, my favorite xinput gamepad. It works great with that in games, but for things like text input it's miserably bad, and it cannot act like a mouse. So, I need a mouse and keyboard solution for the TV. I generally prefer wired things of course, but I'd need what, a long USB cable, and maybe a hub too? Mouse and keyboard cords are not long after all, and the Steam Link is over 10 feet from the chairs. And that would mean even more wires going across the room, too... I could do that and might eventually, but as much as I dislike them maybe a wireless thing is a better answer. I don't own any wireless mice or keyboards though, so I'm not sure what to get... hmm. Do I just get some portable thing with a keyboard and trackpad for starters?
(One option is to get the Steam Controller, and if it goes on sale I am somewhat interested, but I'm not interested enough to pay full price for that thing.)
So yeah, overall the Steam Link is pretty cool. Beyond the above section on lag and slowdown it has some other limitations too, though. First, there is no power button on the thing so you need a compatible controller to do that with. It seems most reliable with a Steam Controller; with the 360 pad it can work, but also can have issues. That's annoying. Worse, though, even if I had a mouse and keyboard for the living room they wouldn't be nearly as convenient to use as ones at the computer are the Steam Link really is only good for games that can entirely be played on a gamepad, most obviously. Additionally, there is going to be lag because of the distance between your computer and TV. In some cases this lag can be crippling, though thankfully it isn't for me. Additionally, I also have worse image quality on the TV than you'd get on a computer monitor, and sitting a lot farther from the screen makes small text unreadable in cases because PC games assume you will be close to the screen. For games where none of those things are an issue however the Steam Link is a good idea executed fairly well, and I at least have a lot of PC games that would be awesome to play on my TV too. Well, now I can, and the thing that allows it is (or has been) available for pretty cheap. Cool stuff.
Anyway though I tried the thing out today and it works pretty well, most of the time anyway; it does vary from game to game. I have it connected by wired internet to my router, which connects to the PC via another wire. I only have one ethernet cable long enough to reach from the router to the TV, so my 360 now doesn't have wired internet. Ah well... either I'll have to see how well the 360 handles wireless, or get another long ethernet cord. I'll probably get a cord eventually, wired really is better... though my other devices (PS3, Wii U, 3DS, tablet) use wireless and do decently with it, wired is faster and more reliable. It's apparently especially important to sue the Steam Link with wired internet, though, for lag reasons, so I will do so. But as for the Steam Link, as I said it seems to run fairly well. Games definitely don't run as smoothly as they do just on the computer, surely in part because of having to duplicate the monitor image (maybe I should try 720p streaming instead of 1080...), but it works and controls are responsive. Between the distance and extra rendering there is more lag playing games on the TV than there would be on the computer, and faster-paced and higher-end 3d titles do seem to run worse, but even those games are playable so long as they work on a gamepad, I think... though people will vary on this depending on their tolerance and system power, for sure. In some games I didn't notice much of a difference between PC and Steam Link though, so it works great if your system can handle it. Being able to play computer games on my television, while the computer is still in another room, is great and I think I'll use this thing a good amount; it's kind of like having a new console, only it's my computer! Sure, there is more lag and slowdown in games, and worse image quality too (because while my TV is HD and largeish, it's pretty old), but still it's pretty great.
So I have this now, and I've been using it with my Hori EX2 Turbo pad, my favorite xinput gamepad. It works great with that in games, but for things like text input it's miserably bad, and it cannot act like a mouse. So, I need a mouse and keyboard solution for the TV. I generally prefer wired things of course, but I'd need what, a long USB cable, and maybe a hub too? Mouse and keyboard cords are not long after all, and the Steam Link is over 10 feet from the chairs. And that would mean even more wires going across the room, too... I could do that and might eventually, but as much as I dislike them maybe a wireless thing is a better answer. I don't own any wireless mice or keyboards though, so I'm not sure what to get... hmm. Do I just get some portable thing with a keyboard and trackpad for starters?
(One option is to get the Steam Controller, and if it goes on sale I am somewhat interested, but I'm not interested enough to pay full price for that thing.)
So yeah, overall the Steam Link is pretty cool. Beyond the above section on lag and slowdown it has some other limitations too, though. First, there is no power button on the thing so you need a compatible controller to do that with. It seems most reliable with a Steam Controller; with the 360 pad it can work, but also can have issues. That's annoying. Worse, though, even if I had a mouse and keyboard for the living room they wouldn't be nearly as convenient to use as ones at the computer are the Steam Link really is only good for games that can entirely be played on a gamepad, most obviously. Additionally, there is going to be lag because of the distance between your computer and TV. In some cases this lag can be crippling, though thankfully it isn't for me. Additionally, I also have worse image quality on the TV than you'd get on a computer monitor, and sitting a lot farther from the screen makes small text unreadable in cases because PC games assume you will be close to the screen. For games where none of those things are an issue however the Steam Link is a good idea executed fairly well, and I at least have a lot of PC games that would be awesome to play on my TV too. Well, now I can, and the thing that allows it is (or has been) available for pretty cheap. Cool stuff.