android tv What Android TV "stick/box" works well with Steam Link?

[Weak1ings]

I've been looking online for some device that can do these things:

• Stream platform like Disney+, Netflix, Amazon...
• Has USB ports
• Has an Ethernet Jack
• Stream using the Steam Link App at 1080p 60 fps, say 30-70 Mbit/s

The obvious choice is the Nvidia Shield TV 4K but at $200 there has to be something cheaper available, and that's what I'm trying to find! I'm considering buying a device like this: https://www.amazon.com/4K-Ultra-HD-Android-Box/dp/B07NGKQB88/ref=sr_1_1?tag=at88-20&dchild=1&keywords=Ematic Jetstream&qid=1600753482&sr=8-1&geniuslink=true

My biggest concern with this is whether the hardware is enough to run steam link smoothly. There seems to be practically no information or comparison among various devices and hardware schemes aside from the odd Reddit post saying "Nvidia shield works best."

 

Does anyone know about this subject and how has your experience using Steam link on a dedicated Android TV stick/box been?

 

[tikker]

Samsung TVs have their own Steam Link app. Personally I've used that and it worked fine. I'm now using the Nvidia Shield Pro (2019), which is the best thing I've ever bought when it comes to this and media consumption.

[Weak1ings]

I have been testing the device I mentioned and here are my thoughts on it:

 

The  Ematic 4K Ultra HD is actually rather nice and can do steam link at speeds of up to 80-100 Mbit/s,giving me a good image and the rest of the device seems pretty nice but it is my first android tv box so any comparison is futile beyond stating that it is fast and good enough but the last security patch was done in 2019, leading me to suspect it won't be further updated which is unfortunate.

 

I've noticed that steam link likes to crash on the device in situations where its "not being used" so if you switched to another app or something, expect to have to close and restart the app but once you have started streaming it can sustain good quality for your entire session. So for my case this means full 1080p 60 FPS video with decent input latency but its still a little worse.

 

Something Weird:

Image above is captured at different points in different games, mainly to show input latency, Case 1 is GTA 5 and Case 2 is Grid 2. Both had very smooth performance without artifacting and GRID tended to go up to between 80 and 100 Mbps, greater than GTA which was smooth until it hit the 95 mbps mark at which point it produced a spike.

 

I've noticed that as the bitrate goes up, the input latency also increases, even at 60 FPS with minimal frame loss. The image looks good but you lose out on response times.

 

Is this common to all steam streaming and present on other devices like laptops and Nvidia's shield?

 

Host PC:

CPU: i7 4790K

RAM: 32GB 1866

GPU: RX 480 8GB using software encoder (You must disable AMD's hardware encoder in steam options or streaming will fail in 98% of all cases.)

SSD: NVME 2TB Intel 660p

[tikker]

10 hours ago, milkerfish said:

keep in mine the app is US only because...reasons...

Is it? I'm in the EU and could use the app just fine, but it's been one or two years since I've last used it as I now own an LG C9.

[Weak1ings]

After more testing of the cheaper device, I've noticed that while display response time fluctuates, it tends to settle down to the 20 & 25 ms range, which is acceptable if I used the 50Mbps limit. Pretty happy with the device and I'd regard it as having better quality than my Samsung TV, albeit it has no ethernet port at all!