Q: Using the deck as desktop second monitor?

[Astra]

To keep it simple, is anyone informed on how to use the deck as a second monitor through the use of USB-C and if im(possible) could you give some info on why or how?

I'd like people to not follow the trend of asking why I'd want this or suggest alternatives like wireless projecting and such.

My use case is simple. I got a desktop and I got a deck and I'd like to use my deck to watch some streams/media through my desktop PC without being restricted by wireless delay. (the internet is bad here, I don't wanna hear about people who have no lag through their 1000Mbit connections.

Thank you very much in advance if you are taking the time to answer. :)

[Man's Best Friend]

It's typically not possible to do something like that. It requires a special combination of hardware and configuration of the USB controller itself in order for a device to be able to present itself as either a host or a device. It's extremely unlikely Valve would have done this on the Deck as it's not a particularly common thing to do for things other than phones. And even then, it's usually for one device to pretend to be a storage device of some sort. The only time I've ever heard of being able to use a computer as a display was a very limited set of iMacs, and even that was over Thunderbolt, and required manual actuation of the function on the "display" computer.

This is mostly a "don't get your hopes up" type of post. It might be something that's doable, I'm just telling you that everything I know about USB says that it's extremely unlikely.

[retrogunner]

A: Here's whatcha do ... same thing I do for my Raspberry Pi's.

Find a USB HDMI Capture adapter that fit your use-case. I've some <$10 ones having just USB2 for my RPi's:
1. Why spend extra money on a monitor that takes real estate and I'd have to lug around
2. It's cheap and for an RPi, so I don't care about the quality
3. It's a USB adapter/dongle so I toss them in my gear bag in my backpack.

You'll likely want to get nicer USB 3.x one for a higher input throughput.

99% of these devices are a usb video device class (uvc) device. They present the HDMI input device as though it were a 1080P webcam (audio & video). All OSes (Android/Linux/Mac/Windows) support UVC natively without vendor drivers.

On the Steam Deck in Desktop mode, you can open up anything like Cheese, VLC, etc. , select the Cam, then full screen it. If you don't want to leave Game Mode, you'll likely need to make a game entry in the Steam Client to make launching it easier.

BTW, if you choose to install a Flatpak, either Decky Plugin manager OR Crankshaft has a plugin that will have all Flatpaks available in Game Mode.

Hope this helps. Cheers, retro.

[Astra]

Originally posted by HTTP Error 418: I'm a teapot:

It's typically not possible to do something like that. It requires a special combination of hardware and configuration of the USB controller itself in order for a device to be able to present itself as either a host or a device. It's extremely unlikely Valve would have done this on the Deck as it's not a particularly common thing to do for things other than phones. And even then, it's usually for one device to pretend to be a storage device of some sort. The only time I've ever heard of being able to use a computer as a display was a very limited set of iMacs, and even that was over Thunderbolt, and required manual actuation of the function on the "display" computer.

This is mostly a "don't get your hopes up" type of post. It might be something that's doable, I'm just telling you that everything I know about USB says that it's extremely unlikely.

This is the best kind of pot I could expect. As I said, I wasn't expecting to hear something the would give me the solution (even though it would have been better haha)...I just wanted an honest, straight to the point answer given the nature of the "problem".

The reply is sad, but what I expected.

Thank you both.

[bean]

Originally posted by retrogunner:

A: Here's whatcha do :
Hope this helps. Cheers, retro.

is this theory or you got it running on a deck?
sounds legit

[xep]

Can you not get a USB-C dock and connect your SD to your pc using a wired network?

[Der Falschparker]

It would be possible if you get stuff like superdisplay to run on the SD... AFAIK the best alternatives are not even close to it. If your tower is a linux machine, there might be stuff like weylus as an option. If you find a way, let me know.

[Darzai]

I have a dock for the SD. My desktop has two monitors. I use a KVM switch to switch the 2nd monitor between desktop and SD dock. (Can use this for my laptop as well).

But I only do this because of desk space. Otherwise I would have bought a 3rd monitor just for SD/laptop.

[Spooky]

Wifi speed is what limits your use of wireless displays, not your internet, but I do not know, it is a mute point really. I think that what you are asking would be better done with an ethernet cable if your deck is just going to be in a dock next to your PC anyway.

Then you just have to find a network streaming way that allows you to expand your desktop to another screen instead of simply mirroring it... that might be more tricky I guess. windows 10+ has miracast that should allow you to do it but as far as I can see looking around a little steam OS doesn't support it.

I am at a hard push on what else to recommend since it was not designed to have any form of hardware video input. There must be non microsoft ways to add another network display that is not mirrored I would assume ?, or you can always try dual booting the deck hehe :) Good luck.

Edit: That is assuming that you don't want to have a mirrored display. Honestly with decent enough local wifi then input lag shouldn't be that awful, it rarely has anything to do with your internet connection in the slightest. If you are talking about streaming films / tv shows etc directly from your pc then there are always ways.

[watan]

I don't know if it's possible to do that but what I currently have set up is just having the steam deck in desktop mode and then using an audio wire to connect it to my pc. If you go into control panel (assuming this is windows) and select hardware and sound > sound > recording. select properties on which device it would be (this could be line in or microphone depending on which slot you put it in) and go into the listen tab and tick "listen to this device". And that should make the audio from the steam deck go into your pc. This does mean that you have to control what is playing on the deck separately to your computer but I find it good enough for watching streams and guides.
There is this video that I used for my switch but I didn't have the crackling issue with the steam deck so I didn't need to buy the noise isolator. https://youtu.be/glNMrGNhdm4
I hope that helps.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Man's Best Friend:

It's typically not possible to do something like that. It requires a special combination of hardware and configuration of the USB controller itself in order for a device to be able to present itself as either a host or a device. It's extremely unlikely Valve would have done this on the Deck as it's not a particularly common thing to do for things other than phones. And even then, it's usually for one device to pretend to be a storage device of some sort. The only time I've ever heard of being able to use a computer as a display was a very limited set of iMacs, and even that was over Thunderbolt, and required manual actuation of the function on the "display" computer.

This is mostly a "don't get your hopes up" type of post. It might be something that's doable, I'm just telling you that everything I know about USB says that it's extremely unlikely.

Pretty much this. This used to be a feature on both DisplayPort and Thunderbolt iMacs via Target Display Mode which was a feature built into those iMac firmwares. It was essentially an extension of the Target Disk Mode feature which would present a Mac like an external disk over Firewire.

@OP you can however accomplish what you are wanting over the network via a virtual KVM software such as Synergy[symless.com]

This allows you to connect multiple PCs and control them from a single mouse & keyboard. I've used this since the original version which was Windows only and was also just a very simple basic KVM. Now Synergy is substantially more robust and is very seamless and works across Windows, Linux, and macOS. You can copy/paste across a "shared clipboard" from one PC to another.

Easily worth the $30 for the basic personal use license.

Unfortunately, however, they don't currently support Wayland and it is only available for X11 systems. They do have a Flatpak installer and they are planning on supporting Wayland, as well as adding a specific dedicated Arch package, in the future so this will become a viable option that should be a very simple setup once they've added Wayland support.

[Spooky]

emm.. there are other ways.. like just replacing touter with android.. hehe. and using powerline wifi conectors, or .. whatever... just... honestly I cannot teach people this, emmm... there are a million videos of how to do it that I try to explain hehehehe. but honestly, I do not know... people like me, system admins for the planet... emm.. hahhahaha... not something I can teach in a few sentances :)

[Mert]

Originally posted by Spooky:

emm.. there are other ways.. like just replacing touter with android.. hehe. and using powerline wifi conectors, or .. whatever... just... honestly I cannot teach people this, emmm... there are a million videos of how to do it that I try to explain hehehehe. but honestly, I do not know... people like me, system admins for the planet... emm.. hahhahaha... not something I can teach in a few sentances :)

I understand speaking, but why are you WRITING with a speech impediment as well???