Low input delay method of playing games on desktop from couch

[tmanster]

First time posting so lmk if this isn't the right spot. Here's the situation I want to play games on my couch instead of sitting upright at my desk the problem is I like playing fast paced shooters so a little delay can make it not fun for me. When I started looking into options my friend suggested I just buy a laptop that I can use on the couch but I live in a small apartment and my gaming pc/desk is right next to my couch so I don't want to spend a couple thousand on a gaming laptop when my desktop is literally six feet away from the couch already. So that got me wondering what I could do with the hardware I already have. I have been doing some research and I will detail what I have thought of/tried and I am curious if anyone here has tried some of these and can suggest a best option or a better idea all together. To keep it simple basically the two things most important things at the moment are keeping the latency or input delay down to a reasonable level similar to my experience when playing at my desk (1440p monitor w 144hz refresh) and spending as little as possible since I already own too many devices for my liking.

 

Okay here goes first I thought to try game streaming I have a MacBook Pro, an iPad and a surface book laptop already so I thought I could use those. I tried steam link to my iPad but found the delay was too large. I also tried parsec to my laptop but same issue. Maybe there is a way to optimize this? My desktop is connected via ethernet but the iPad and laptop were connected via wifi maybe hard lining them would make it workable. Most info I could find suggested there was still delay even after connecting both devices via ethernet.

 

Next I figured if connecting via the network was still to delayed I could just buy a gaming monitor and put it on a cheap portable stand in front of the couch and connect it via hdmi to the pc directly then buy a wireless keyboard (happen to have a wireless mouse already) and just connect those directly to the pc as well. The problem here is I have to buy a monitor, stand and keyboard which seems expensive.

 

This second option got me thinking though, I already have two laptops which both have screens and keyboards why can't I just somehow use a laptop screen as a display and its keyboard as an input to my pc (this would eliminate the need for a stand as well). This has led me down a rabbit hole that doesn't have a clear answer. I know most laptops don't support hdmi input (only outputting) and as far as I know there isn't a nice way to output laptop keyboard signals but it feels like there should be. Has anyone here accomplished something like this? The only solution I have seen for using the laptop as a monitor is by using an hdmi capture card and playing back through something like OBS. Will this work without causing too much extra input delay or would this be just as bad as game streaming? Any ideas on outputting the keyboard signals? 

 

Maybe I am overthinking all this and there is a simple solution already out there. Anyone have thoughts and/or experiences on stuff like this?

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, tmanster said:

desktop is literally six feet away

6 foot USB extension cable. Cheap, should be no perceptible increase in input lag. 

[thevictor390]

Unfortunately virtually no laptop has screen INPUT, so the only way to do this with your existing hardware is some kind of streaming. You've basically discussed all of your options.