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My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

blog.matthewbrunelle.com

71–80 of 220 posts

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#71
post #49

These setups suck for following reasons: 1. Can't wake up your PC with controller. Workarounds with custom scripts and WoL are ridiculous. They also don't solve having to log in afterwards and starting a game. 2. Because of missing HDMI-CEC, you have to switch to PC output manually on TV 3. Same issue in opposite side. PC stupidly uses TV output even if TV is off. If you want to use the PC without TV, you gotta disab…

You're not wrong but those aren't insurmountable. Of course the Steam Box is a better experience, but I built a remote starter for my PC and a dumb little Go program to switch the displays and disable some devices.

End result is I tap maybe two shortcuts on my phone and the computer is on and switched to the TV.

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#72
My gaming PC motherboard recently sh*t the bed. It was over 10 years old and I’ve beaten that thing up quite a bit. It’s Zen 1, so new MOBO basically means like 70% new PC. Before the price was announced I figured I’d look into a Steam Machine because I also want a well-supported Linux box for coding. I already have a PS5 Pro - which turned out to actually be a decent investment because the price has been increased multiple times since I bought it. When I saw the price of the Steam Machine I just *sigh*’d. Reviews are saying the Steam Machine barely stacks up against a base PS5. Excuse me, WHAT!?

Was considering just getting a MacBook Neo to tide me over until I can build a proper PC and they just jacked up the prices. I’ll probably still end up getting one but I just gotta wait a bit longer.

I’m currently surviving on a 2012 iMac my mother in law asked me to get the files off of for her and she gave me the computer itself. Installed Ubuntu on it and it’s…fine…but it doesn’t even have an SSD so it can be rough at times.

It’s ridiculous. I’m a software engineer, and I can’t even afford mid-level technology anymore (not American so I don’t have the ridiculous salary like some).

Thankfully my M1 Max Mac Studio from a few years ago is still going strong and my employer pays for that anyway. It’s also for work only. Though I suspect not gonna happy when either 1) I need an upgrade for local LLM developement for the AI projects coming down the pipe or 2) he sees the API bill because he can’t be arsed to make an upfront investment.

Something has to give.

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#73
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what settings are you using? Game streaming from my PC to my steamdeck over ethernet for me feels like absolute shit. The quality gets destroyed every time i rotate the camera even on 1080p

With Steam Link I just press the "enhanced 1080p" or "4K" preset then tweak whatever else. The latest update allows up to 250mbps bitrate I think.

I'll give it another go maybe there is some routing issue thats messing things up

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#74
post #49

These setups suck for following reasons: 1. Can't wake up your PC with controller. Workarounds with custom scripts and WoL are ridiculous. They also don't solve having to log in afterwards and starting a game. 2. Because of missing HDMI-CEC, you have to switch to PC output manually on TV 3. Same issue in opposite side. PC stupidly uses TV output even if TV is off. If you want to use the PC without TV, you gotta disab…

You're not wrong but those aren't insurmountable. Of course the Steam Box is a better experience, but I built a remote starter for my PC and a dumb little Go program to switch the displays and disable some devices. End result is I tap maybe two shortcuts on my phone and the computer is on and switched to the TV.

Do you have a script which bypasses login screen and switches input on TV too? I don't think so. Anyways my problem is that it takes a programmer to solve this even partially.

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#75
I have my LLM/gaming PC tucked in a rack in my basement:

- 100ft DisplayPort + USB cables going to my home office's monitor - 100ft HDMI cable going to the TV on the wall in my home office - 30ft HDMI + USB cables going to my receiver in the upstairs gaming/tv room

Works great. I can control/game from any of the three screens, and I also have Moonlight to sometimes control the PC remotely either in the house (bedroom) or externally via Tailscale.

I have an old Steam Link lying around, but I never have a use for it anymore, so while I can understand that there is an audience for Steam Machine, if you are capable, and have a dedicated gaming machine, a couple of long active/fiber HDMI+USB cables is all you really need.

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#76
post #39

If you already have Ethernet at both ends I cannot recommend enough game streaming. With the right setup it is almost identical to having my computer plugged in physically, and I am very sensitive to input latency. I can get 4K HDR 120Hz running over gigabit Ethernet without visually sacrificing too much on bitrate, but you can squeeze more bitrate at lower fps or 1440p (obviously) if that is your preference. You can…

Steam Remote Play sadly breaks down if anything involving Admin comes up. Task manager, admin prompt, etc. Sunshine / moonlight can work but you need to run them as admin. Sunshine / moonshine also have problems with the full DualSense features, you need to be wired, have VirtualHere set up, and even then it might not all work with all clients. So yes both can work, but both have downsides that can be alleviated with…

re: wired dualsense features, try https://github.com/awalol/DS5Dongle

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#77

I have my LLM/gaming PC tucked in a rack in my basement: - 100ft DisplayPort + USB cables going to my home office's monitor - 100ft HDMI cable going to the TV on the wall in my home office - 30ft HDMI + USB cables going to my receiver in the upstairs gaming/tv room Works great. I can control/game from any of the three screens, and I also have Moonlight to sometimes control the PC remotely either in the house (bedroom…

hello mr tech tips

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#79
post #39

If you already have Ethernet at both ends I cannot recommend enough game streaming. With the right setup it is almost identical to having my computer plugged in physically, and I am very sensitive to input latency. I can get 4K HDR 120Hz running over gigabit Ethernet without visually sacrificing too much on bitrate, but you can squeeze more bitrate at lower fps or 1440p (obviously) if that is your preference. You can…

> can get 4K HDR 120Hz running over gigabit Ethernet without visually sacrificing too much on bitrate,

While I agree game streaming can work well, in practice on a modern game the frame rate will vary if you try to get 4k hdr 120k and I don't believe a game stream can use variable refresh rate. In practice what do you do if playing a modern AAA game? Do you set the frame rate to a locked 60?

I used to do game streaming but ended up buying a 50 foot HDMI cable and USB and ethernet to link two rooms. One advantage of this is I don't need to worry about what frame rate to set the stream at and my Xbox adapter (or any adapter really) can be used natively on USB without worrying about controller compatibility over Ethernet.

Re: My Steam Machine is a 50ft HDMI cable

#80
post #39

If you already have Ethernet at both ends I cannot recommend enough game streaming. With the right setup it is almost identical to having my computer plugged in physically, and I am very sensitive to input latency. I can get 4K HDR 120Hz running over gigabit Ethernet without visually sacrificing too much on bitrate, but you can squeeze more bitrate at lower fps or 1440p (obviously) if that is your preference. You can…

Steam Remote Play sadly breaks down if anything involving Admin comes up. Task manager, admin prompt, etc. Sunshine / moonlight can work but you need to run them as admin. Sunshine / moonshine also have problems with the full DualSense features, you need to be wired, have VirtualHere set up, and even then it might not all work with all clients. So yes both can work, but both have downsides that can be alleviated with…

Dualsense's main advantage is the built in trackpad and gyroscope but if you want to play wirelessly you are probably better off switching to the Steam Controller at this point which also has a trackpad and gyroscope. Or if using Windows standard Xbox controller if you don't need a trackpad or gyroscope, as Xbox controllers have first class support.
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