What would work to stream games to downstairs TV

[steelo]

Hi everyone,

 

A few months back, I considered buying a steam link to be able to stream my PC games to our TV downstairs. I attempted creating one with a raspberry pi zero using 'Parsec', but it seemed extremely under powered and couldn't maintain a steady frame rate. I don’t want to spend more than maybe $30-40 on a streaming system, but I’d like something that is small, relatively low power and will allow me to use a wireless game controller, keyboard and mouse with it. I know I can probably buy an old PC, but I'm really looking for something that can be hidden out of sight behind the TV. I'm considering buying a raspberry pi 3 or 4 but have a bad feeling the results will be the same...

 

Is this possible?

[flibberdipper]

If you can find a cheap new-old-stock Steam Link or maybe just a used one that could very well be an option. I've got one and with both the host PC and the Link wired the input lag at 30Mbps is really quite decent.

[steelo]

1 minute ago, flibberdipper said:

If you can find a cheap new-old-stock Steam Link or maybe just a used one that could very well be an option. I've got one and with both the host PC and the Link wired the input lag at 30Mbps is really quite decent.

I checked ebay yesterday and they seem to be outrageously priced right now =(

 

[flibberdipper]

1 minute ago, steelo said:

I checked ebay yesterday and they seem to be outrageously priced right now =(

 

Nice. I suppose another option would be taking a spare PC down there. I've also done in-home streaming to my Latitude E4310 (specs in sig, basically a Q6600 for CPU performance and who knows what for iGPU, it can barely do San Andreas) and that was a really good experience as well. I can't fully remember how much of a pain it was to get non-Steam games to work so that would be all up to you in that case.

[steelo]

2 minutes ago, flibberdipper said:

Nice. I suppose another option would be taking a spare PC down there. I've also done in-home streaming to my Latitude E4310 (specs in sig, basically a Q6600 for CPU performance and who knows what for iGPU, it can barely do San Andreas) and that was a really good experience as well. I can't fully remember how much of a pain it was to get non-Steam games to work so that would be all up to you in that case.

Yeah, if I remember correctly the steam links were selling for $50 used on ebay...

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a spare PC and I'm really wanting something that is low-profile. Supposedly, a raspberry pi 3 will work, but I've found them to be very finicky when it comes to network/streaming performance.

[Majinhoju]

How new or old is your TV?  I think some modern Samsung Smart TVs will let you download the Steamlink app on the TV itself.

[steelo]

Just now, Majinhoju said:

How new or old is your TV?  I think some modern Samsung Smart TVs will let you download the Steamlink app on the TV itself.

It's about 2-3 years old...it's a 55" TCL

[flibberdipper]

3 minutes ago, steelo said:

Yeah, if I remember correctly the steam links were selling for $50 used on ebay...

 

Unfortunately, I don't have a spare PC and I'm really wanting something that is low-profile.

Guess you might as well try the Pi 4. Slap a heatsink on it and I'd have to imagine it'd be fine since it's more powerful than the Link/Zero by a good margin.

[steelo]

11 minutes ago, flibberdipper said:

Guess you might as well try the Pi 4. Slap a heatsink on it and I'd have to imagine it'd be fine since it's more powerful than the Link/Zero by a good margin.

I believe the 1 gb model is priced the same as the Pi 3, so I may try it. I just worry because in my experience with pi zero's/pi 3, the network performance is really finicky.

 

Thanks

[flibberdipper]

1 minute ago, steelo said:

I believe the 1 gb model is priced the same as the Pi 3, so I may try it. I just worry because in my experience with pi zero's/pi 3, the network performance is really finicky.

 

Thanks

Worst case scenario if the 4 doesn't quite do what you need, you could see if the retailer you bought it from will accept a return since it wasn't what you thought you needed.

[Lipe123]

$30-$40 seems like a really low budget for your project.

 

Personally i bought a Kangaroo pc long ago and used it for a while to do what you want. You could also looks for those intel compute sticks to do it with.

Maybe you can get a cheap used one of those on ebay like this?

[steelo]

1 hour ago, Lipe123 said:

$30-$40 seems like a really low budget for your project.

 

Personally i bought a Kangaroo pc long ago and used it for a while to do what you want. You could also looks for those intel compute sticks to do it with.

Maybe you can get a cheap used one of those on ebay like this?

That may work, I wonder how it compares to, say a rpi4 in terms of processing power.

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, steelo said:

It's about 2-3 years old...it's a 55" TCL

Can't you stream directly to it?  Anything with a wifi connection is streamable.  I do it to my LG TV or thru the Roku.

[steelo]

3 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

Can't you stream directly to it?  Anything with a wifi connection is streamable.  I do it to my LG TV or thru the Roku.

The problem is that I want the ability to use a game controller/keyboard/mouse with the streaming device.

[Lipe123]

45 minutes ago, steelo said:

That may work, I wonder how it compares to, say a rpi4 in terms of processing power.

I'm pretty sure those centrinos are more powerful than a pi4. It does run windows 10 completely after all, you can install steam on it and use the steam casting thingy or whatever its called to play games on your desktop's library from the little computer connected to your TV.

[steelo]

19 minutes ago, Lipe123 said:

I'm pretty sure those centrinos are more powerful than a pi4. It does run windows 10 completely after all, you can install steam on it and use the steam casting thingy or whatever its called to play games on your desktop's library from the little computer connected to your TV.

I actually had a tablet with the same Atom processor and was somehow able to run Starcraft 2 and Civ 5 with Win 8...not well, but it ran. LOL

[LostElric]

If you have an apple tv you can also stream to that as well. Not sure how well it will work but you could try the steam link mobile app (android/iOS) and cast or screen mirror to your TV.

[steelo]

3 minutes ago, LostElric said:

If you have an apple tv you can also stream to that as well. Not sure how well it will work but you could try the steam link mobile app (android/iOS) and cast or screen mirror to your TV.

That actually may work! I wasn't aware of an android steam app. I have connected a keyboard and mouse to my phone via BT and amazingly it worked pretty well. I have a S8 which I'm pretty sure is a bit more powerful than a rpi 3 or 4....Anyways, I'll try this when I get home. Thanks!

[LostElric]

Let me know how it goes. Also the app you'll be looking for is called Steam Link, there is a separate steam app for friends chat, buying stuff, and authentication.