# I <3 My New Steam Link and So Can You!



## mistersprinkles

I got a Steam Link off somebody for $20 day before yesterday. What a steal. They're usually $59 here in Canada. He had opened the box but he hadn't hooked the Steam Link up yet. The cables were unused and the Steam Link still had the plastic on it.

This thing is A M A Z I N G. The quality of the streaming far out-strips what you can get streaming steam to another PC, and it doesn't just stream games. It streams everything.

Want to play a Uplay or Origin game? No problem. Want to watch Netflix? Kodi? No problem. Why buy an HTPC when you can get a Steam Link second hand off some dude for $20?

I've been playing games on it and watching streaming media and the quality is SO good I literally can't tell I'm streaming. It looks just as fantastic as it does on the gaming PC in the other room.

I can't recommend these things enough. Steam is REALLY stupid for marketing it just as a steam streaming box. REALLY stupid. You can stream the entire Windows experience. So worth it. It's a cute little device too.

The box includes the Steam Link unit, a long ethernet cable, a long HDMI cable, AC plug, adapters for Australia/UK/Europe wall plugs. The unit has 1 Ethernet, 1 HDMI, 3 USB. It recognized my Logitech K400 immediately. Setup is idiot proof. Turn it on, plug in an ethernet cable (or wifi... which Valve do not recommend), select the computer on your network you want to stream from and you're in business.

Coolest thing ever. Everyone should own one.


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## Geoff

So this Steam box connects to your network and TV, and I assume you install an application on your computer that lets you stream it to the Steam box?  How do you control what you want to stream?  I haven't looked at it before but it sounds cool.


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## beers

Geoff said:


> I assume you install an application on your computer that lets you stream it to the Steam box?


If your main PC has Steam running it will show as a streamable device on the same broadcast domain, kind of similar to how you can use Steam streaming between two PCs with Steam installed.


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## mistersprinkles

Geoff said:


> So this Steam box connect to your network and TV, and I assume you install an application on your computer that lets you stream it to the Steam box?  How do you control what you want to stream?  I haven't looked at it before but it sounds cool.



All you need to have installed on your main PC is steam. As long as steam is running on that PC the Steam link unit will automatically detect it. You control the PC from the Steam link. It's exactly the same experience as sitting directly in front of the PC. You see your desktop and you can run any program you want.


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## Geoff

mistersprinkles said:


> All you need to have installed on your main PC is steam. As long as steam is running on that PC the Steam link unit will automatically detect it. You control the PC from the Steam link. It's exactly the same experience as sitting directly in front of the PC. You see your desktop and you can run any program you want.


Interesting, so how do you interact with the client computer?  Can you hook up a keyboard/mouse to the Steam Link, or does it come with it's own remote that acts as a mouse?


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## lucasbytegenius

Geoff said:


> Interesting, so how do you interact with the client computer?  Can you hook up a keyboard/mouse to the Steam Link, or does it come with it's own remote that acts as a mouse?


You can hook up a mouse and keyboard, or use a Steam controller (which is the best way to go imo). Here's a full list of supported controllers: http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_compatible_controllers_with_Steam_Link

I also picked up a Link for $20, really good buy. I was using a PC with SteamOS on it for streaming games to my living room TV, but I really like how I can turn on the Steam Link remotely with the Steam controller.


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## voyagerfan99

lucasbytegenius said:


> You can hook up a mouse and keyboard


This is what I was wondering. Since I keep my desktop in the basement for use with my Vive I don't get to play any traditional PC games that I want to. So maybe I'll look into getting a Steam box.


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## mistersprinkles

Geoff said:


> Interesting, so how do you interact with the client computer?  Can you hook up a keyboard/mouse to the Steam Link, or does it come with it's own remote that acts as a mouse?



Keybo, mouse, steam controller, xbox controller, anything you want


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## JLuchinski

That thing looks awesome, does the specs of your pc have to be decent?


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## mistersprinkles

JLuchinski said:


> That thing looks awesome, does the specs of your pc have to be decent?



Decent enough to run the game and encode the stream to send to the Steam Link.


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## JLuchinski

Oh I guess I'm sol then lol


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## beers

Aw snap, saw them Steam Links on Amazon for $20, should be here Saturday


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## mistersprinkles

You won't regret it. Run it wired and set stream quality to max.


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## voyagerfan99

beers said:


> Aw snap, saw them Steam Links on Amazon for $20, should be here Saturday


Me too.


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## mistersprinkles

Congrats to both of you!


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## Geoff




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## mistersprinkles

It's like $20 here in Canada too. Can't buy directly off steam though. Valve seems to want you to buy it from Amazon. Totally worth $20.

If I hadn't ordered that large pizza with all those toppings tonight before noticing that low price I would have purchased a second steam link for the bedroom...


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## voyagerfan99

My Steam Link arrived today. I'm quite impressed with how well it works. I got it all connected and enabled streaming from my desktop. Started testing it by playing Arkham Origins. No video lag and only very minor input lag.

I'l be testing it with GRID and Need for Speed later by pairing my PS3 controller with it.


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## mistersprinkles

Congratulations! To stream your desktop, click the power button in steam big picture and select minimize big picture. You can use chrome, uplay, origin, etc this way. If you want to play games with a controller which are not steam games, add them to steam as a non steam game first. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas one and all!


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## voyagerfan99

The only issues I encountered the sound. It worked fine on my desktop, but my HTPC had the on board disabled in the BIOS since I use the HDMI on the video card. Didn't get any sound, even with the receiver on. Had to turn on the on board audio in the BIOS and then it worked.


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## beers

Interesting. 

The streaming was pretty cool, although game support for the ps4 controller was a bit off, at least in rocket league.  Stable enough experience to play ranked though. 

Might have to finagle with it more, although kind of disappointed the wireless Xbox one receiver didn't work out of the box


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## voyagerfan99

I got my PS3 controller connected to it pretty easily.


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## C4C

voyagerfan99 said:


> I got my PS3 controller connected to it pretty easily.


I've though about picking up a 3rd party PS3 controller. Only $13.32 on Walmart.com.. Worth it to buy an actual DualShock for like $10 more?


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## mistersprinkles

I have always found official controllers to feel better in the hand vs 3rd party. Case in point is the Steelseries "XBOX" controller my buddy got for Christmas. It sucks.


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## Geoff

I got mine delivered yesterday too, got it setup and running over wireless and from a few minutes with it I didn't notice any lag.  I need to figure out my controller situation, I have an Xbox 360 wireless controller but whenever I turn it on it pairs with my Xbox, so I'm not sure how to configure it with the Steam link just yet.  I may end up getting a wireless keyboard/mouse instead though.


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## voyagerfan99

Geoff said:


> I got mine delivered yesterday too, got it setup and running over wireless and from a few minutes with it I didn't notice any lag.  I need to figure out my controller situation, I have an Xbox 360 wireless controller but whenever I turn it on it pairs with my Xbox, so I'm not sure how to configure it with the Steam link just yet.  I may end up getting a wireless keyboard/mouse instead though.


This may be of use 

http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_compatible_controllers_with_Steam_Link


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## Geoff

voyagerfan99 said:


> This may be of use
> 
> http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_compatible_controllers_with_Steam_Link


Damn, looks like I need an adapter


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## mistersprinkles

I can't believe this thread made like 5 people buy Steam Links...


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## JLuchinski

Does this thing support 5.1 sound? I got an android box for Christmas running Kodi, I set it to 5.1 under settings but it still is only 2.0. I would rather have this thing if it can stream my pc games and run kodi.



mistersprinkles said:


> I can't believe this thread made like 5 people buy Steam Links...


You should of put an affiliate link, but I think that's against the forum rules.


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## mistersprinkles

JLuchinski said:


> Does this thing support 5.1 sound? I got an android box for Christmas running Kodi, I set it to 5.1 under settings but it still is only 2.0. I would rather have this thing if it can stream my pc games and run kodi.



I have no idea.

Also, it's worth mentioning that I get this weird sort of squeal out of my soundbar on my livingroom TV which is connected via optical to the TV itself when I play certain high frequency sounds from the steam link be they youtube, a game, etc. This does not happen with TV antenna or bluray sources with this soundbar... so something is screwy. I have not been able to iron out the problem.


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## voyagerfan99

I have a Samsung soundbar connected through optical to my Samsung TV. I have not experienced this issue.


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## mistersprinkles

Ok I figured it out. I had my gaming PC's audio output set to 44100Hz 16 bit. Apparently the steam link, she no like. I set it to 48000Hz and now my audio artifacting is not present. Nice.

Have any of you people who bought a Steam Link recently had any luck getting controllers to work on the steam link for non steam games? I'm trying to stream watch dogs 2 (which I have on Uplay. I got it for free when I bought my GPU) but my controller acts like a mouse in that game and will not function to control the dude in the game for walking/driving etc. I can't play. Very frustrating.


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