AMD E-350 SteamOS "streambox" tested

[m4L4rkeY]

Hi testers,

Just giving feedback on my little project. Recently put my old htpc (AMD E-350 APU) to work as a streaming client. The SteamOS installation went flawlessly, and this on a 60gb ssd as well! Here are some specs:
Host: i5 2400, gtx560ti, 4gb ram
Client: E-350 APU, 4 gb ram, 60gb ssd
Network: linksys ea2700 with cat6 cabling (gigabit setup)

First of all, I was really impressed at how well everything went. Everything is already automated- from the installation of the OS, to the detection of other machines running steam. Unfortunately, the E-350 doesn't have the muscle to either run the OS or stream effectively. It works, no doubt about that, but the Big Picture menu crawls, and I constantly get the 'slow decode' notification.

Games like Mortal Kombat and skyrim work, but is limited to 20 fps on the lowest resolution. Might work later on, but not working now. I'll update as the beta develops!

EDIT: forgot to add, Logitech f710 controller works perfectly. XMBC launches, video and audio working, but VERY slow. Also, the controller doesn't work in XBMC (works great if launced from Big Picture mode in windows).

[UnkendTech]

try Linux Mint 16 MATE it worked out really well for me on a low powered laptop

[Kwambus]

What resolution are you targetting on the client and host? Also, have you checked the AMD binary drivers are in fact loaded on SteamOS or is it using generic ones?

[UnkendTech]

most of the time i picked the lowest resolution i can but some games was running @ 720P but i also found out disabling the in-game community and setting the friends list to off line mode on both helps too and i found some games like full screen window mode

[m4L4rkeY]

Originally posted by Kwambus:

What resolution are you targetting on the client and host? Also, have you checked the AMD binary drivers are in fact loaded on SteamOS or is it using generic ones?

Resolution was limited to 1280x720, and frames to 30. I'm probably running generic drivers, as I'm working with a stock installation. How do I install AMD's drivers? I'd like to give it another go

[skit]

I have a similar setup but don't have the streaming capabilites yet (haven't been invited to the beat). I think you're just missing the official amd drivers on the machine. Although it is not a powerful apu it should be more than enough for streaming!

[UnkendTech]

Originally posted by skit:

I have a similar setup but don't have the streaming capabilites yet (haven't been invited to the beat). I think you're just missing the official amd drivers on the machine. Although it is not a powerful apu it should be more than enough for streaming!

The Hardware Decoding is CPU only ATM for in-home Streaming far as i know

[Hasney]

I found any Linux distro to give me worse results on an AMD APU than Windows does. I think the bottleneck here is more with AMDs software rather than Steam Streamin itself.

[HeikkiH]

@Doc Holliday. Hardware decoding is not CPU only. For example Nvidia GPU based VDPAU decoding is supported under Linux.

[XÆЯO_Vince]

m4L4rkeY, did you opt into the alchemist beta repository and update all the packages on the system? Make sure you've updated everything first. Have you tried booting SteamOS straight into GNOME and using the "Desktop Mode" Steam client in GNOME rather than Big Picture Mode?

After doing all the updates from "alchemist beta" and restarting your PC into GNOME, what does this terminal command output on your system?:

glxinfo | egrep -i 'vendor|direct'

[UnkendTech]

Originally posted by Xaero:

m4L4rkeY, did you opt into the alchemist beta repository and update all the packages on the system? Make sure you've updated everything first. Have you tried booting SteamOS straight into GNOME and using the "Desktop Mode" Steam client in GNOME rather than Big Picture Mode?

After doing all the updates from "alchemist beta" and restarting your PC into GNOME, what does this terminal command output on your system?:

glxinfo | egrep -i 'vendor|direct'

Alchemist was updated like 2 days ago to the beta updates

[m4L4rkeY]

Originally posted by Xaero:

m4L4rkeY, did you opt into the alchemist beta repository and update all the packages on the system? Make sure you've updated everything first. Have you tried booting SteamOS straight into GNOME and using the "Desktop Mode" Steam client in GNOME rather than Big Picture Mode?

After doing all the updates from "alchemist beta" and restarting your PC into GNOME, what does this terminal command output on your system?:

glxinfo | egrep -i 'vendor|direct'

Thanks Xaero. I downloaded the steamOS installation files yesterday, so I was hoping the AMD binaries (the reported new Catalyst) were included. I'll test your instructions soon and give you feedback.

[Armagedon]

Just to help somebody to understand:

Encode stream at the moment - just software

Decode - software / hardware - you have that option on in home settings, but just for the decoding client, sure.

[adamb]

I'm streaming to an e-450 running windows 7 and I get constant "slow decode" messages. I turned everything down in settings (trying Max Payne 3) without any improvement. I've lost control of the TV for the minute (so I'm reading through the forums waiting for the wife to go to bed :D) but I'm going to check my CPU usage next to make sure it is using hardware for the decode. It should be. I can decode h264 blu rays easily enough, so something is wrong if it can't even decode an 800x600 (like living in the 90s again!) stream.

[BLASTEROID]

Any update on this? Wondering if performance has gotten any better. My current HTPC uses AMD e-350. It's always been plagued with hardware acceleration support problems from a Silverlight perspective.. but yeah, in general h264 has not been much of a problem. Really excited about homestream, but not so much so if I need to upgrade my HTPC!

[powerarmour]

On Linux/SteamOS currently, the only hardware decoding that is supported by the client is VDPAU.