[Guide] How I set up Steam Link Android to play PC games on my TV

[Loldude the 6th]

Hey fellas, I've finally done it and I would like to share my experience with you guys, so new users might have a smoother setup of Steam Link experience in this sort of a small guide. There's lots of information about Steam Link and all of its features and settings but I believe most of us just want to set it up quickly and get their gaming going, if so - this is the place for your!

Firstly, I used the following:
- A Ryzen 2600 PC equipped with a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, running Windows 10 Pro 64x.
- Xiaomi Mi Box S (MiBox4) - a rather modern Android streamer, connected to my 2.4Ghz WiFi (80Mbps down 5Mbps up - up to 100Mbps connection).
- Xbox One Wireless (Bluetooth) controller
- Samsung 7 Series (ue58ru7100) UHD TV


Note: You don't even need to connect your TV to your WiFi if you have a compatible streamer like I do. If you don't own a streamer you can still set up Steam Link if your Smart TV supports its app, although performance may take a hit (I know Samsung Smart TV OS does NOT run Steam Link well, I think a decent Android Smart TV will have about the same performance as my streamer).

Setup:
1. Make sure your PC and WiFi network are running on their best side, for WiFi I would use Wifi Scanner to make sure your WiFi channel does not overlap with your neighbors' WiFi, and maybe experiment with 5 Ghz if you have that option. I use 2.4 Ghz and it works fine! On the PC, make sure you have updated all of your drivers (especially Network adapter / Graphics adapter), and be sure you're running the latest version of steam. The more free room these both have the better your experience will be, for example, you won't have a good time using Steam Link while downloading something on your network - Steam Link relies on your PC to perform well on the encode / send part and your network to be available enough to move the data to your TV. So use common sense here.

2. Make sure at least One of :your TV, streamer OR PC support a connection to your Controller. I personally connected my Xbox One Controller to the Mi Box S via Bluetooth and it works great! I did notice I cannot connect to the TV since Bluetooth is not supported there and to connect it to my PC I would need a small USB Bluetooth stick, again, because my PC does not support Bluetooth by default.

3. Now all is left is to do is to install the Steam Link app on your TV/Streamer, and set it up with some settings, shown in the images below. You'll also need to apply settings on your Steam client on your PC, again, refer to the images below.

4. After you set the correct settings, you need to pair the Steam Link app to your PC. Your PC will show on your Steam Link app on your TV, click on it and a 4 digit number will show. Go to your Steam client on your PC and enter those 4 digits. After this you're completely ready to use Steam Link.

(Optional) 5. Adding non-steam Games: Before Starting the Stream via the Steam Link app, go to your PC and add chose "Add a game" and then "Add a non-Steam game..." on the bottom left corner of your Steam client. You can then browse for your game executable or use the list of programs showing to add a game. Note: Sometimes you want to add a Launcher, rather a game executable. I needed to add Rockstar Social Club to be able to play GTAV on the link, for example. If you'll try to add GTAV.exe it Won't work.

6. (IMPORTANT!) In my experience, launching a game on my PC and then streaming it using Steam Link yields horrible performance. Always, ALWAYS - use the Steam Link APP to start your games, even if they're non-Steam. I figured there's 2 modes for Steam Link - Game mode and Desktop mode. If you launch a game on your PC and not through the Steam Link app, Steam will think you're still fiddling in your desktop and some Controller features (like the left analog stick) will NOT work + your right analog stick might have a VERY high sensitivity (because it's emulating a mouse, rather than a stick). This also causes major performance issues, lagging constantly and a very bad experience overall.

A small compatibility tip: Steam Link allows for many Controller configurations. You can select those and adjust them to your liking via the Game or the non-Steam game shortcut on the Steam Link app. That allows for game which cannot configure a controller, to, well, pre-configure the controller so every button is mapped correctly and the sticks are working well.

That's it! If you've come here and had no troubles on the way you are ready to play PC games on your TV! It's that easy! Now you can tweak settings around to your liking, browse the forums here for even more information and trouble-specific guides in case you get any.

My settings (Steam Link App, Steam client):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15Fz8Wx_r0Ms-K9l9lbXSvzhCLdyLdAh1/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IJBKx2_nrS4w4snPKQJaNBuCmL1VClbl/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IJ5vGH4DQcQvj6bRcuar5c_BzUxnGzfv/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I8jmo6r2KTR1OB_ooD-Hfu1TZIbtG4qs/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I7KPWqNXe_kCKj6nzgh2Uj1yXQOHsU-q/view?usp=sharing

looking at it now, I noticed I didn't change my bandwidth limit to 15Mbps on the steam client. Whoops. Anyhow, THIS SETUP IS FOR 2.4 Ghz WiFi with 80 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up network. If you have a faster connection, you might want to increase the bandwidth limit on both sides.

Issues that I ran into:

Resolved: I had a lag spike in the network every 10 seconds or so, switching to using the Steam Link app on the Streamer rather than on the Samsung Smart TV seemed to reduce the lag spike. Furthermore, my streamer came with an Ethernet WiFi dongle from my cable provider. I disabled the WiFi option on the streamer, and the issue has been resolved.

Resolved: Games I play were very stuttering and the framerate would not be consistent. Resolved by launching the games via the Steam Link app, rather from the PC itself.

Resolved: I could not turn off my PC monitor and keep the stream running to my TV. Resolved by launching the games via the Steam Link app, rather from the PC itself ( I was probably at "Desktop mode" even though I launched the game, I did not launch it from the Steam Link app).

Resolved: On multiple games I could not use my left analog stick on my Xbox One Controller.
Resolved by launching the games via the Steam Link app, rather from the PC itself (again, being in Desktop mode made the left analog stick a D pad rather than an analog stick).

Resolved: the stream looked pixelated or blurry. Resolved by stopping background downloads I had on my local network and lowering the bandwidth limit to 15Mbps on the Steam client and the Steam Link app.

Resolved: My Xbox One Controller drifted the camera when I didn't touch the right analog stick. Resolved by resetting the controller, and using its default calibration.

Resolved: I couldn't control my desktop using Steam Link. Resolved by going to the desktop via the Steam Link app (by minimizing Big Picture), and making sure the controller configuration is set up as intended to emulate a mouse. I also decreased the mouse sensitivity to suite me.

Resolved: Somehow I managed to get my Xbox One Controller to not be responsive to the Streamer/ Steam Link app. Resolved by unpairing via the streamer and pairing again.

Not Resolved: The Steam Link app crashes whenever I toggle the Xbox One Controller's microphone. I think it happened too, prior to the Controller pairing, something in setting up a microphone is all bugged and causes the app to crash.

[_I_]

you are using an android client
https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/4/

[kynzera :>]

Have you experiencied any input lag with mi box? Im planning to buy one to use with my 5ghz wireless router

[Loldude the 6th]

Първоначално публикувано от kynZ :>:

Have you experiencied any input lag with mi box? Im planning to buy one to use with my 5ghz wireless router

Actually the experience is smoother with the mi box and this specific TV.

[_I_]

android boxes often have better arm than smart tvs
and tvs run custom modded android os that is more demanding than vanilla android (watching inputs, ir, tuner and controlling inputs, and video profiles and image smoothing/blurring etc...)

the newer android mi boxes are pretty strong compared to mobile phones